Mortgage

April 22, 2021Average monthly housing costs across the 50 largest U.S. cities are $1,268, or about 14% higher than median monthly housing costs nationally ($1,112). Additionally, residents spend an average of 23.88% of their annual pre-tax income on housing costs in those cities, while the average American spends 20.31%. Though large cities are often more expensive when it… read more…

April 14, 2021The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that renewable energy can increase power grid reliability, improve air quality and create more jobs. Additionally, renewable energy can lower fuel and electricity costs, reducing the total cost of homeownership. As Congress prepares to debate President Joe Biden’s sweeping $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, which focuses on building greener and… read more…

April 13, 2021Many Americans see housing as a more preferable investment when compared to the stock market, according to recent survey data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Of respondents surveyed in 2020 and 2021, more than 90% would buy a house as a primary residence over investing in the stock market and more than… read more…

April 7, 2021Safety is one of the top concerns for many families when picking a place to live. Besides the more recent public health concern of coronavirus infection rates, many Americans have usually looked for low crime and other low-risk factors in order to determine whether a new neighborhood is safe for them. While the definition of… read more…

March 30, 2021Young professionals have long looked to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and other bustling cities as places of opportunity. But in the last few years, migration patterns have shifted to show that a smaller share of Americans are moving to these cities. And after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, another study also reveals that… read more…

March 18, 2021The U.S. Census Bureau says that multigenerational households are more common among recent immigrants who live with relatives and families residing in areas that have housing shortages or high real estate costs. Other economic factors like mounting student debt and lack of employment can also drive people to move in with family in order to… read more…

March 10, 2021A National Association of Realtors report shows that single females accounted for 18% of home purchases in 2019 (whereas single males made up only 9% of purchases in the same year). Within two age groups – 54-63 years old and 73-93 years old – single women represented a higher percentage of total home buyers (25%). In this study,… read more…

March 2, 2021While the coronavirus pandemic has impacted millions of Americans with businesses shuttering and companies laying off employees, the secondary home market is seeing an unexpected surge. Remote workers are temporarily relocating from larger cities to less dense, more comfortable spaces. The real estate brokerage firm Redfin reported that the demand for second homes jumped 100% in… read more…

February 24, 2021Assembling enough money for a down payment is typically the largest hurdle to clear when securing a mortgage. The median home price in the U.S. is up 14% year-over-year, according to a November 2020 Redfin report, and as the housing market gets more expensive, so too will the deposit that you have to front for… read more…

February 4, 2021Housing costs eat up more of the average American’s salary each month than any other single expense, reaching about one third of average expenditures in 2019, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while homeownership is coded into the DNA of the American Dream, buying a home isn’t easy for many. Car payments,… read more…

January 29, 2021As 2020 mortgage rates in the U.S. reached historic lows, housing sales increased throughout the year. Freddie Mac data shows that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate, excluding fees and points, fell to less than 3% in July 2020 for the first time ever. Amid those plunging mortgage rates, in November 2020, new and existing home… read more…

January 26, 2021Deciding to leave the home you own might be difficult given the precious memories you’ve made within its walls. But the process of selling it can be downright taxing, especially when the real estate market is unpredictable. Your asking price, mortgage rates and other factors will determine how hard this process will be. Location, however, is… read more…

January 20, 2021Living by the beach can be expensive. Mortgage payments, property taxes and space can make your dream home unattainable. But if you know where to look, you can find a shore home without breaking the bank. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that the U.S. has over 95,000 miles of shoreline, which includes all… read more…

January 14, 2021The homeownership rate in America peaked at a little more than 69% in 2004 before falling to 63.7% in 2016, according to U.S. Census data. Despite the fact that it has rebounded to a little more than 65% in 2019 overall, only 36.4% of Americans younger than 35 own their homes. It may be easier… read more…

December 11, 2020Manufacturing has a special place in the American story, but for the past few decades, this sector has been largely on the decline, impacting many workers and affecting decisions around things like budgeting and where they call home. Since 1997, more than 91,000 manufacturing plants have closed and almost 5 million manufacturing jobs have been… read more…

December 8, 2020People choose where to live based on many factors – availability of jobs, location of family, and the weather all come into play for most folks. Something some Americans may not remember to take into consideration, though, is the livability of a city. While this can be hard to quantify, SmartAsset has tried to do… read more…

November 19, 2020Some 67% of consumers in the U.S. carried at least one type of non-mortgage debt as of June 2020, according to Experian. As Americans contend with those financial burdens on top of housing costs, it behooves them to find housing options that are affordable relative to their salary. With this in mind, SmartAsset crunched the… read more…

November 17, 2020Over the past 30 years, employment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs has grown by almost 80%, according to a recent figure from Pew Research Center. However, there is still significant disparity in representation across gender lines and particularly racial ones: though Blacks and Hispanics combined accounted for more than a quarter (27%) of… read more…

November 13, 2020Affordability issues generally affect renters more than homeowners. More than 40% of renters pay more than a third of their household income on rent compared to just 24% of homeowners on their mortgage, according to a February 2020 survey by Freddie Mac. But depending on where they live, renters can lower the burden of their… read more…

November 2, 2020How easily veterans adjust to their lives after service depends on many factors, not the least of which is their ability to maintain adequate finances to cover their home payments and daily needs. There’s good news for vets on that front, though: While about 37,000 veterans still experienced homelessness in January 2019, the homelessness rate… read more…

October 22, 2020The middle class may be feeling the squeeze, but the upper-middle class certainly isn’t. The former cohort has shrunk from 61% of households in 1971 to just 52% now, according to the Pew Research Center. The upper-middle class, by contrast, has seen an uptick to 12% of households compared to just 10% almost 40 years… read more…

October 22, 2020Halloween typically scares up a major boost in U.S. consumer spending, to the tune of $8.78 billion in 2019, according to the National Retail Federation. Though this year’s celebration will be scaled down in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the trade group still projects that Americans will shell out $8.05 billion on things like candy,… read more…

October 14, 2020Getting a low interest rate on mortgage can make buying a home or refinancing an existing loan affordable. You could wait for mortgage rates to drop before applying for a loan but buying mortgage points is another option. Also referred… read more…

October 14, 2020Real estate investors often consider the after-repair value, or ARV, of a piece of real estate when deciding whether a deal is worth pursuing. The ARV is an estimate of what the property will be worth after all the needed… read more…

October 13, 2020Though definitions vary, economists and researchers generally characterize the middle class as households that earn approximately two-thirds to two times the median national income. Slightly more than half (52%) of American households are middle-class, according to the Pew Research Center, a decline from 61% in 1971. But the middle-class squeeze — featuring lowered living standards,… read more…