Call your mortgage servicer if you've been hit, agency saysKey Takeaways Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA are offering housing relief to Hurricane Harvey disaster victims, including a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures.Hurricane Harvey has caused thousands in and around the Houston area to flee from the rising waters engulfing their homes and killed at least 14 people to date.In this time of crisis, federal mortgage agencies Fannie Mae, Freddie
It's one month before the NFIP is set to expire and a few days before new weather-related claims rules start in TexasKey Takeaways The federal flood insurance program is set to expire at the end of September; if it does, homeowners with federally insured loans in high-risk flood areas will be affected first. Houston homeowners should get their insurance claims filed before Friday, if possible.Harvey’s timing couldn’t be more interesting from
This is the seventh consecutive month of record-breaking peaksJune’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows that home prices are continuing to ascend — impacting affordability and the overall robustness of the housing market.June 2017’s national index comes in at 192.60, a 5.8 percent year-over-year increase from June 2016 and a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent month-over-month increase.“The trend of increasing home prices is contin
The number of mortgage applications for home purchases continues to underwhelm, despite rates being at their lowest levels since November. Mortgage applications for purchasing a home dropped 3 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis.The annual gain in purchase applications remains positive (4 percent higher than a year ago), but they're narrowing as the supply of homes for sale falls and makes it tougher for buyers to find and afford a
Proximity to highly regarded colleges comes at a price, according to a new study released by HomeUnion, an online residential real estate investment management firm.Students living within a two-mile radius of the University of California, Los Angeles, and Stanford University face the highest rents in the nation, according to the analysis. Median rents near Stanford were $6,066 per month; UCLA topped $5,158.HomeUnion researchers also compared the
A homeowner has filed a class action lawsuit against mortgage giant Wells Fargo, accusing the lender of charging thousands of customers extra fees to extend their interest rate lock-ins after borrowers’ mortgage applications were delayed.The lawsuit was a filed by a homeowner in San Francisco federal court on Monday. The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo employees blamed homeowners for processing delays on the applications and then forced them t
Realtor.com® warns of a few phrases homeowners should never say to the contractor, including:1. “I’m not in a hurry.”Don’t put too much pressure on the contractor. This phrase implies the contractor and crew can take as much time as they’d like with the home project, Victoria Shtainer, a residential expert at Compass New York, told realtor.com®. Time is often money and convenience.2. “We had no idea this would be so expensive.
You can get much more bang for your buck in some locales than others.While salaries may be highest in San Jose and San Francisco, for example, the cost of living is highest there too. But when salaries are adjusted for cost of living, the smaller metros tend to be where residents see their paychecks stretch the furthest.The Indeed Blog recently analyzed salary data between August 2016 and July 2017 as well as local cost of living data to find whe
Home prices continue to rise and more homeowners are tapping into their home equity, making home equity lines of credit and cash-out mortgage refinances popular again.Home equity line originations jumped 8 percent to nearly $46 billion in the second quarter. That is the highest level since 2008, according to data from Equifax, a credit reporting firm. Cash-out mortgage refinances reached $15 billion, a 6 percent increase from a year ago, accor
Fannie Mae is changing the requirement that borrowers pay a higher down payment to qualify for an adjustable-rate mortgage, announcing that it is bringing this type of financing more in line with that of fixed-rate mortgages.Now, borrowers can make as little as a 5 percent down payment on a one-unit primary property using an ARM. Also among the changes is that borrowers need less equity in order to refinance into an ARM; they now need just 5 perc
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