Mara Lee, Fathom Realty

12/24/2020

If you more concerned with your overall wealth, it may be better to keep the mortgage and reinvest the discretionary income to earn a higher yield than your mortgage rate.

The benefits of making additional principal contributions on your mortgage are to save interest, build equity and shorten the term of the mortgage.

12/23/2020

Even though it may be possible to have a seller pay part or possibly, all of the buyer's closing costs, talk to your real estate professional about the practicality of it based on competition in the market you are in.

Ideally, each party will pay their own closing costs associated to the purchase and the sale of a home, but they can be negotiable based on lender requirements and market conditions.

12/22/2020

It has been a long-held belief and value that is attainable.

There are emotional, physical and financial reasons Americans want to buy their own home.

12/21/2020

Median gross rent increased by 72% since the 1960s, more than twice the growth seen by adjusted incomes.

Housing prices rose 4X faster than income since 1960.

12/18/2020

This is an optimum time for owners who are considering selling.

Mortgage demand from homebuyers is still 24% higher than a year earlier even though it has slowed in the past four weeks of October.

12/17/2020

An investment in your home can put you on the road to financial security.

Borrowed funds cause leverage that produce impressive rates of return on a home and contribute to it being a good investment for owners.

12/16/2020

Mortgage rates would have to increase before assumptions of FHA and VA mortgages will be a viable alternative to new financing.

Mortgage assumptions have not been a practical matter for the last 30 years because mortgage rates have been on a steady decline.

12/15/2020

It is probably more prudent to hold off until after you have signed the papers on your new home.

12/14/2020

If the rates are different as well as the points being charged, we have an online calculator to show which is the more expensive choice.

A point is 1% of the amount being borrowed and is used to reduce the interest rate on a mortgage.

12/11/2020

The risk to a borrower is for the rates to go up before you can close which makes the payments go up.

A rate lock is a lender's commitment to hold a rate for a stated period of time.

12/10/2020

This is close to the lowest share recorded since this report started in 1981.

Only 8% of recent home sales were for sale by owner this year.

12/09/2020

If where you work doesn't matter, it might as well be somewhere you'd like to be.