Archive for May 2019
NEWS: Mortgage refinances surge 8%, as rates fall to the lowest level since January 2018
Diana Olick May 22, 2019 Homeowners are taking advantage of lower interest rates, rushing to refinance their mortgages before rates potentially turn higher again. Total mortgage application volume increased 2.4% last week from the previous week and was up 15% from a year earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Refinances drove…
Read MoreNEWS: ‘I went the extra $5,000’: Despite a cooling housing market, buyers bust their budgets
Paul Davidson, USA Today May 22, 2019 A nationwide housing shortage has eased somewhat. Home price gains have moderated. And bidding wars are no longer commonplace. Yet buyers are still blowing through their budgets by ever-higher amounts to lasso their dream homes, according to a recent survey by Owners.com, a real estate brokerage. The finding shows that even…
Read MoreNEWS: Vacant Homes Fetch Less Money and Take Longer to Sell
Mike Sorohan May 21, 2019 The financial crisis taught mortgage lenders, servicers and policymakers that vacant homes pose major problems-from maintenance, blight, lower neighborhood property values and crime. Now, with the crisis largely behind, a different kind of issue faces vacant properties, said Redfin, Seattle. A recent Redfin analysis found nationwide, vacant homes sell for…
Read MoreNEWS: Spring Home Sales ‘Back on Pace’ as Price Increases Moderate
MBA NewsLink Staff May 20, 2019 RE/MAX, Denver, said April home sales finished just 1% below from a year ago as selling times shortened and tight inventory held steady. The April National Housing Report also noted April’s median home price of $255,000 in the report’s 54 markets represented just a 3.6% increase, the smallest year-over-year April…
Read MoreNEWS: More Starter/Trade-Up Homes For Sale—But There’s a Catch
Mike Sorohan May 15, 2019 First, the good news: for the first time in more than two years, the number of U.S. homes available for sale did not decline year-over-year in the first quarter; the bad news: it’s not really helping first-time home buyers, said Trulia, San Francisco. The Trulia quarterly analysis found homes available…
Read MoreNEWS: MBA: April New Home Purchase Applications Up 3% from March, 16% from Year Ago
MBA NewsLink Staff May 16, 2019 The Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Applications Survey reported mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 15.6 percent in April from a year ago and by 3 percent from March. The changes do not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns. By product type, conventional loans composed 70.7 percent of…
Read MoreNEWS: Home inventory was flat in Q1 as listings lingered on market
Kathleen Howley May 10, 2019 The U.S. inventory of homes for sale was flat in the first quarter, compared with a year earlier, the first time since 2016 there wasn’t a decline, according to a Trulia report. Inventory increased in 50 of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, up from just 19 areas one year ago.…
Read MoreNEWS: Today’s New Buyers Want Smaller Houses, Closer In
Lew Sichelman May 10, 2019 In something of a throwback to the 1920s, a new minimalist trend, in which less is more, may soon be taking hold in new-home design. At the same time, some builders will be heading deeper into urban and close-in suburban spots where location will be the primary amenity. These two…
Read MoreMid-Island Mortgage’s 60th Anniversary!
May 13, 2019 Today is Mid-Island Mortgage’s 60th anniversary! No mortgage banker has been in business longer in New York, and we are also pleased to be able to serve clients across 19 states, putting six decades of experience and success to work.
Read MoreNEWS: Key Housing Markets Still Seeing Bidding Wars
MBA NewsLink Staff May 10, 2018 Redfin, Seattle, despite a noticeable nationwide decline in bidding wars for homes in April, pockets of the country, particularly on the West Coast, remain hot this spring. Redfin reported just 15 percent of offers written by Redfin agents on behalf of their home-buying customers in April faced a bidding war,…
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