The most important specific easing will be an expansion of the maximum debt-to-income ratio (DTI) from 45 percent to 50 percentKey Takeaways To get 50 percent DTI you must have very high credit scores and cash reserves after closing.On July 29, Fannie Mae will activate an update to “Desktop Underwriter,” the software that analyzes borrower applications and grants approval — “DU” in shorthand spoken with reverence or disgust throughout t
Key Takeaways Video helps real estate agents build trust, create recognition and convert clients.Today’s world is digital. Consumers are inundated with digital devices, filled with social media, email campaigns and digital marketplaces. There is no breaking free from the World Wide Web — it’s part of even our most simple daily routines.When it comes to the web, though, there is one format of media that seems to break through the most. Accor
Home builders are ramping up the pace of new-home construction in response to an ongoing shortage of homes for sale across the country.Housing starts nationwide jumped 8.3 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.22 million units, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Single-family production zoomed to its second highest rate of this year, increasing 6.3 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 849,0
Poverty is increasingly striking the nation’s suburbs and exurbs (farther out suburbs on the edges of metros). High-poverty neighborhoods have risen 76 percent in the suburbs and 123 percent in the exurbs from 2000 to 2015, according to an analysis from Apartment List, which culled data from a recent report out of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. A high-poverty neighborhood is an area with a poverty rate that is 20 pe
Housing affordability is the talk of the town in the current real estate climate. Home prices surpassed their peak at the end of the last housing boom. Since 2012, prices have increased, on average, 6 percent per year. However, per capita incomes have risen only 2.4 percent, on average, per year, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Insight report for July.In areas like Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties, the median-income household is
Spending on repairs and home improvement continues to grow at a stable rate as homeowners feel more confident about starting projects as their home values increase.That said, an annual increase in remodeling expenditures may soften somewhat in the coming months, but will likely remain at or above 6 percent through the second quarter of 2018, according to the latest Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity from Harvard University’s Joint Ce
Modular housing has been praised for its potential to help communities more quickly add inventories of homes. Portions of the home are built in a factory and then assembled on site to help speed up delivery times.A U.K.-based company called Ten Fold Engineering says it’s developed a series of modular housing structures that can be unfolded in less than 10 minutes without the need for builders, cranes, or foundations. The unit gets delivered
Get more online attention for your business by creating videoKey Takeaways Real estate professionals can gain traction on YouTube by creating video consistently, adding multiple calls to action and syndicating their efforts.Many real estate agents are seeing tremendous value gained by implementing video in their business. Much of that “video following” revolves around having an active YouTube channel, which makes sense as this medium of
About 4.5 million U.S. homes are at high or extreme risk of wildfires, according to the 2017 FireLine State Risk Report released by Verisk Insurance Solutions.The state most at risk: More than 2 million households in California are at high or extreme risk of wildfire, according to the report. Texas ranks second with 715,300 homes at risk.“Wildfires have scorched nearly 3.5 million acres so far in 2017,” says Arindam Samanta, director of p
Threats of rising mortgage rates may have spooked borrowers last week and prompted them to quickly lock in rates. Total mortgage application volume for refinancings and home purchases jumped 6.3 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.Even though mortgage rates remained steady during the week, refinance volume, which had been dropping in recent weeks, surged 13 percent last week.The 30
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