According to a new report from MarketWatch, the Federal Reserve may consider keeping interest rates low next year.
The reasoning behind the move is due to a lack of inflation.
“Why would the Federal Reserve raise interest rates in order to slow economic growth if inflation in fact was moving lower?” Bill Gross told CNBC, vaguely, on Monday.
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In a new report by the Washington Post, it has been found that many millennials could afford to buy a home right now – just not in the cities where they currently live.
Many young people tend to gravitate toward certain cities, like San Francisco, New York and Austin. The bad news, though, is that those are among the 10 least affordable cities in the United States.
If they want to buy, millennials should look instead at Akron, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Rochester, N.Y.; Birmingham, Ala.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Detroit; Little Rock, Ark.; Gary, Ind.; Cleveland, Ohio; and Kansas City.
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The Federal Reserve unveiled a proposal on Tuesday that would require several of the nation’s largest banks to set aside even more capital than they already have.
According to CNN Money, the new requirement is called “capital surcharges,” and the amount each bank must put aside will be determined by a set of criteria defined by the Fed.
The eight banks that would be affected by the new regulations are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street.
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Although the government has once again been pushing for home ownership as the best way for individuals to build wealth, financial experts are quick to caution against it.
“It would perhaps be smarter, if wealth accumulation is your goal, to rent and put money in the stock market, which has historically shown much higher returns than the housing market,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller revealed at a Standard and Poor’s conference last week.
For one thing, home ownerships comes with a whole hosts of additional costs – like property taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. – that doesn’t exist in the stock market.
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The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) announced on Friday that federal limits on conforming loans will remain mostly unchanged from 2014 to 2015.
In high-cost areas like San Francisco and New York, the loan limits – or the maximum amount the federal government will buy and guarantee from private lenders – will remain at $625,000, while that number will stay at $417,000 in other parts of the country.
According to MarketWatch reporter Daniel Goldstein, “the limits are calculated based on a certain percentage of the median home price in a particular area.”
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As the job market continues to improve and first-time homebuyers make their way back into the house hunt, 2015 is expected to see a significant improvement in home sales nationwide.
Taking several data points into consideration, including population growth, affordability and employment, Realtor.com has targeted the 10 most promising housing markets for next year and beyond.
Making the list are Atlanta; Dallas; Des Moines, Iowa; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C.
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According to a new report by CNBC, there has been a recent surge in the number of the houses listed for sale in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Northern Virginia.
Unfortunately, however, the increase in listings has not translated into an increase in sales, leaving a surplus of unsold homes in the area.
“We only had a 1.64 month supply of homes in January 2014. This led to a lot of multiple contract situations which drove up prices, and by the time many spring sellers put their homes on the market it appears that the prices weren’t able to hold, which led to higher days on market and increased inventory,” Edward Berenbaum, a Realtor in Alexandria, Virginia, told CNBC.
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A new survey conducted by the Demand Institute has revealed that many Americans are spending too much of their income on housing.
According to the findings, which polled 10,000 U.S. households, nearly 40 million Americans are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing, property taxes and other home-related expenses.
Particularly hard hit have been the renters, as 49% of those polled reported feeling “cost burdened” by their rent payments.
“Home ownership has become more affordable but many renters have still been unable to transition into homeowners,” Jeremy Burbank, vice president at The Demand Institute, told CNN.
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Sarah Jessica Parker and husband Matthew Broderick have lowered the asking price on their New York City mansion from $22 million to $19.95 million after failing to attract a buyer for the second time.
The couple purchased the 6800-square-foot property in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood for $18.995 million in 2011 and first listed it for sale in 2012 for $24.995 million.
According to the listing on Zillow, the historic home features five bedrooms, eight bathrooms and seven fireplaces.
Image via Zillow.com
The Federal Housing Administration has sent its borrowing fees soaring over the last five years in an attempt to rebuild its dwindling cash cushion.
But now that the agency has finally gotten its cash reserves back into the black, many financial experts are urging the FHA to bring those fees back down.
“It’s time for FHA to do as deep an analysis as possible on this issue,” Julia Gordon, CAP’s director of housing finance and policy, told The Washington Post. “We’re very concerned that people are being unnecessarily shut out. It’s important for taxpayers to be protected. But at the same time, the people being shut out are also taxpayers.”
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