When beginning the home buying process, it may be a smart idea to check out one of the many mortgage calculators on the Web.
These free calculators take home price, down payment, interest rate, taxes and more into consideration and help you figure out just how much home you can really afford.
A quick internet search for “mortgage calculator” will link you to several solid options.
Image via flickr/401(K) 2013
As the final week of summer came to a close, the volume of mortgage applications remained essentially unchanged from the week before.
On Aug. 29, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Market Composite Index revealed an increased of only .2 percent from the week prior when seasonally adjusted.
Unadjusted, the number was down 1 percent.
Image via flickr/401(k) 2012
The folks at Zillow had a little fun recently and determined how much it would cost the stars of “Full House” and “Friends” to inhabit their iconic TV homes in a real-life market.
Zillow determined that the Tanners’ home on “Full House” would go for about $2.9 million on today’s market and that – with a 30-year fixed mortgage, 20 percent down and a 4.1 percent interest rate – their monthly payment on the home would be a staggering $14,000.
Monica and Rachel’s apartment on “Friends,” meanwhile, would likely rent for $5,100 per month in New York City’s West Village neighborhood.
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Ivana Trump, ex-wife of real estate mogul Donald Trump, revealed that she recently sold her 5-bedroom, 7.5-bathroom Palm Beach mansion for a $12 million profit.
Ivana purchased the home in 1994 for $4.4 million and sold it 20 years later for $16.6 million.
She had originally listed the home for $18.9 million but reduced the price when buyers showed no interest.
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New York and San Francisco have long been infamous for their excessive housing prices. Now, Los Angeles can be added to that list.
Compounding the problem in L.A. is the continuing conversion of once-impoverished areas into new, more affluent neighborhoods. The individuals and families who used to live in those sections of the city have been forced out into even worse dwellings like converted garages, because that’s simply all they can afford.
“They’re bottom earners living in a high-priced housing market,” said USC professor Dowell Myers. “The L.A. market’s messed up on so many fronts.”
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One Steamboat Place, a luxury development in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, is offering up a new type of vacation property ownership that is similar to a timeshare.
Unlike timeshares, however, this new type of fractional ownership exclusively targets high-end properties. Plus, ownership is split by fewer people, meaning that each owner gets to spend a larger fraction of the year in the home.
Fractional ownership can be sold and can also be left in a will or a trust.
Image via onesteamboatplace.com
Although the new FICO credit model, FICO 9, has been met with much optimism, it is unlikely that it will be used any time in the immediate future.
The new model could boost individuals’ scores by as many as 25 points by essentially ignoring paid collections and paying little attention to paid and unpaid medical debt.
While realtors love the idea of this more borrower-friendly model, lenders have been a bit more reserved in the wake of the recent mortgage crisis.
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The Mortgage Bakers Association announced this week that Wells Fargo leads the pack of commercial and multi-family mortgage servicers in the United States.
Wells Fargo had lent out $446.8 billion as of June 30, 2014.
PNC Real Estate/Midland Loan Service was next in line with $378.2 billion.
Image via flickr/Mike Mozart
The number of homeowners facing foreclosure in July was down from the month before and also saw a 34.4 percent decrease from July 2013.
According to CoreLogic, there were approximately 640,000 homes in foreclosure in July 2014 and 967,000 in July 2013.
Some experts believe that that number may drop as low as 500,000 by the end of this year.
Image via flickr/Jeff Turner
Mortgage News Daily is reporting that pending home sales are at the highest level they’ve been since August 2013.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the Pending Home Sales Index for July 2014 was measured at 105.9, which is up 3.3 percent from the month before.
This is the third straight month the index has been over 100.
Image via flickr/Tom Caswell