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Mortgage

Do Student Loans Affect your Ability to Buy a Home

Do Student Loans Affect your Ability to Buy a Home?

Buying a home is a major investment that requires strong financials. If you have a large amount of student loan debt, you may find it challenging to purchase a home for many reasons. From saving for a down payment, to qualifying for a loan, to affording monthly mortgage payments, student loan debt can play a significant role in your ability to buy a home. Debt-to-Income Ratio One factor that plays a...

Feeling Left Out? How to Save For Your First Home

Feeling Left Out? How to Save For Your First Home

When the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates in 2020, the real estate market became flooded with new buyers looking to take advantage of low rates to lock in a mortgage. While interest rates have increased since that time, a large number of buyers still enter the market on a daily basis. If you're feeling left out and believe that buying a home is right for you, your main goal should be to increase your...

Rising Mortgage Rates May Affect Asking Prices

Rising Mortgage Rates May Affect Asking Prices

If you've been paying any amount of attention to the real estate market, you may have noticed that mortgage rates have been steadily increasing throughout most of 2022. In fact, the average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage is over 5% as of early August. When the Federal Reserve first lowered national interest rates at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, buyers essentially flooded the market. Now...

30 or 15-Year Mortgage? Those aren’t your only choices

30 or 15-Year Mortgage? Those aren’t your only choices

If you're brand new to the wonderful world of home loans, you might be a bit overwhelmed by how many different types of financing options are really out there. Both primary loan types (fixed-rate and adjustable-rate) have many variations, so how do you know which one is best for you? Let’s start with Fixed-Rate Mortgages. The most popular loan in today's marketplace is the 30-year fixed. This is a...

What is PMI? Private Mortgage Insurance Explained

What is PMI? Private Mortgage Insurance Explained

Anyone looking to buy a home faces a major obstacle, coming up with that hefty down payment. The standard advice is to have a least 20% of the purchase price saved up, and for good reason. Sure, there are mortgage options that allow you to make a down payment of less than 20%. But that will mean having to take out PMI, private mortgage insurance. As you’ll soon see, this is something you’d be better to...

Reasons Why the End of Forbearance Will Not Lead to a Wave of Foreclosures

Reasons Why the End of Forbearance Will Not Lead to a Wave of Foreclosures

With forbearance plans about to come to an end, many are concerned the housing market will experience a wave of foreclosures like what happened after the housing bubble 15 years ago. Here are four reasons why that won’t happen. 1. There are fewer homeowners in trouble this time After the last housing crash, about 9.3 million households lost their home to a foreclosure, short sale, or because they...

10-Year Treasury Yield

Why the 10-Year Treasury Yield Matters

The 10-year yield is used as a proxy for mortgage rates. It's also seen as a sign of investor sentiment about the economy. Treasury bond yields (or rates) are tracked by investors for many reasons. The yields are paid by the U.S. government as interest for borrowing money via selling the bond. But what does this mean and how do you find yield information? Treasury Bills are loans to the federal...

Why Lenders Use Gross Monthly Income vs. Take-Home Pay

Why Lenders Use Gross Monthly Income vs. Take – Home Pay

It might seem strange that mortgage companies use gross monthly income when determining affordability instead of 'take-home' pay. After all, it's the take-home pay that consumers use for their monthly expenses and bills - including the mortgage. But there are a few good reasons why lenders use the gross amount. First, it's universal. Lenders A, B, and C all use gross monthly income to calculate...

New Fee Is About to Make Refinancing Your Mortgage a Lot More Expensive

New Fee Will Make Refinancing Your Mortgage More Expensive

Refinancing a mortgage is about to get more expensive — potentially reshaping the math for millions of borrowers looking for savings amid a historic boom for home loans. On Wednesday night, mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, informed lenders that, starting in about two weeks, they will be adding a 0.5% fee when buying refinance mortgages. Known as an Adverse Market Refinance Fee, the...

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