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Opinion: Improving housing affordability without exposing homebuyers to more risk

Housing Wire

While mortgage rates will likely fall this year, conversations about how to increase accessibility to homeownership are still top of mind — and should be top of mind — across the real estate industry. Accounting for geography, differences in title and settlement costs across groups of borrowers were not “economically meaningful.”

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Opinion: Title and settlement fees aren’t a barrier to homeownership

Housing Wire

The borrower’s largest life-of-loan costs are the property taxes and recording fees paid at closing plus the accumulated cost of annual property taxes paid over the life of the loan. The choices are complex and the “mortgage math” can be hard to comprehend. So, what’s peace of mind worth?

Insurance 423
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Mortgage rates inch closer to 7%

Housing Wire

Mortgage rates rose slightly this week ahead of the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee ‘s rate hike. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which focuses on conventional and conforming loans with a 20% down payment, shows the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.81% as of July 27, up from last week ’s 6.78%.

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Reasons To Get An Appraisal

Padove Appraisal Service

Financing: If you are financing your purchase or refinancing your existing mortgage, your lender may require an appraisal to ensure that the property’s value is sufficient to secure the loan. Investment analysis: Real estate investors may use appraisals to evaluate the potential return on investment for a property.

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Is time the enemy of equity for chronically distressed homeowners?

Housing Wire

That’s because the unpaid loan balance continues to grow for delinquent mortgages due to unpaid interest, property taxes and insurance. When the mortgage balance is increasing at a faster pace than home prices, more time in foreclosure only digs a deeper home equity hole for distressed homeowners. Of more than 8.7

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How to price homes properly in a volatile housing market

Housing Wire

High-volume home sellers are in a bit of a pickle in today’s market thanks to rapidly rising mortgage rates last year. We’re just trying to move inventory quickly,” said Lee Kearney, a Tampa, Florida-based real estate investor who has an inventory of between 15 and 20 homes for sale at any given time. “If

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The share of owner-occupants buying foreclosures has doubled — here’s why

Housing Wire

That policy required a 30-day “first look” auction during which only qualified nonprofits, government entities and owner-occupant buyers could bid on foreclosed properties with loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). of all properties available for the first-look auctions during the quarter.