Student loan debt is creating a barrier to homeownership. About 45 million people in the U.S. have student debt, with the average borrower owing more than $30,000, according to Student Loan Hero, a resource for managing education debt. Nearly one-fifth of borrowers owe $100,000 or more, according to data from the National Association of REALTORS®.Paying for student loan debt is taking up a sizable portion of people’s incomes. It also threatens
After mostly stagnant activity levels in recent weeks, mortgage rates are back on the move. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to its highest level since January 2014 this week, also seeing its largest weekly increase since February of this year, Freddie Mac reports.Average mortgage rates were higher across the board too, posting weekly increases to not only the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage but also to 15-year and 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate m
Eco-friendly homes are growing in demand, but buyers don’t always have to expect to pay a premium. Realtor.com® researched the 200 biggest metros in the U.S. to find the market availability of green homes with eco-friendly features, such as solar panels, smart thermostats, bamboo floors, and more. Researchers also sought to determine how much more or less these homes cost prospective buyers.“Although Southern and Western states still lead t
Single-family rental prices are growing, with the biggest jumps in lower-end brackets. Low-end rental prices—properties with rent prices less than 75 percent of the regional median—were up 3.8 percent compared to high-end price gains of 2.4 percent, according to January year-over-year data released by CoreLogic on Tuesday.Low-end rental home inventory is fueling the bulk of single-family rent price growth lately, according to the analysis. Ye
Homebuying dreams can become real for shoppers in unmarried but committed relationships. According to Jessica Lautz, the National Association of REALTORS®’s director of survey research and communication, a report from NAR found that the highest share of first-time buyers who are unmarried couples was in 2017—the highest on record since 1981. Of course, there are significant risks when buying a home with an unmarried partner. But there are
The spring homebuying season has gotten off to a slow start, at least based on the number of borrowers taking out home mortgages. However, that may be changing: Mortgage applications rose 4.9 percent last week compared to the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. Both refinance and purchase applications posted increases, even as mortgage rates remained largely in a holding pattern.Applications to refinance rose 4 per
Housing affordability has fallen in the last year and fewer households are able to afford the inventory of homes for sale based on their incomes, according to joint research released Wednesday by the National Association of REALTORS® and realtor.com®.The REALTORS® Affordability Distribution Curve and Score examines affordability conditions at different income levels for all active inventory on the market. A score of one or higher suggests a ma
Even though the costs of homeownership are on the rise as home prices and mortgage rates increase, more consumers say it’s a good time to buy a home. AJ Smith, vice president of financial education with personal finance website SmartAsset, offers three tips for helping buyers determine whether now is the right time for them to purchase. ‘Right now’ is not always the right time: Prospective buyers may feel pressure to buy a home before i
Fear of missing out—or FOMO, as millennials have coined it—has become a powerful motivator for young buyers to pursue homeownership, according to a new Bank of America survey. In particular, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, where users often post about their lives as homeowners, are big influencers on prospective buyers, the survey of 2,000 U.S. adults finds. “I think it’s motivating them to think about homeownershi
The three major credit reporting agencies are implementing policy changes for credit scoring that could lift the scores of some consumers. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion will now exclude exclude all tax lien data from credit reports, which could raise some credit scores as much as 30 points, CNBC reports.The agencies began this process last summer, removing nearly 100 percent of data on civil judgments and 50 percent of data on tax liens from
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