No one loves carrying debt, but if you have to do it, a mortgage is usually one of the cheapest ways to go about it.
Especially now with interest rates at historical lows, plus the fact that any interest incurred is tax-deductible, no other loans come close.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “If you have other debt, you probably could lower your borrowing costs by paying off those loans and instead carrying a larger mortgage.”
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Online house hunting sites Zillow and Trulia may be pairing up, which would create one giant listing site of homes for sale and could potentially make real estate brokers irrelevant. News of the rumors sent stocks for both sites soaring on Friday, while brokers have begun to fear for the state of their jobs in the changing market.
Neither site has commented on the rumors.
Images via Wikimedia Commons/Jmabel and Wikimedia Commons/Awilkinson4
To ensure the best rate and the best home buying experience, it is important to shop around for the right lender.
The best approach is to find several options and provide all of them with the same pertinent financial information. Once they’ve all provided you with quotes, you can compare to see who has the best rates for you. Then, call or meet with them to decide which one you feel most comfortable with.
Image via flickr/401(K) 2012
When taking out a loan like a mortgage, your potential lender wants to know how much you currently owe versus how much you make.
To increase your chances of securing the best rate possible, it is wise to pay off as much debt as possible beforehand. Having less debt on your hands makes you a more desirable candidate.
Image via flickr/Alan Cleaver
For the less than the cost of some New York City apartments, you can buy your very own town in Wyoming.
Aladdin, Wyoming, a 30-acre hamlet located 80 miles northwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, is on the market for $1.5 million.
Aladdin features a post office and a general store, and it is home to 15 residents.
Image via Wikimedia/openclipart.org – Caleb Moore
As soon as U.S. troops began steadily returning from their service in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number of FHA loans taken out began to soar.
Following a decade of combat, “everybody is just ready,” said Air Force Staff Sgt. Claude Hunter.
VA loans accounted for 8.1 percent of all mortgages in the first quarter of 2014, which has seen the U.S. housing market slowly begin to recover.
Image via flickr/Kim Hill
A former Westchester County corrections officer was convicted on Monday on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements to financial institutions.
The officer, Jacques Kelly, will spend 15 months in federal prison and has been given until Sept. 30 to begin his sentence.
Kelly and his co-conspirators collected about $56,000 by buying several multi-family homes and providing their lenders with inflated purchase prices. They made no down payments, and because the purchase prices were less than what they told their lenders, they collected large sums of money at each closing.
All of the mortgages went into default and have cost the lenders about $7 million.
Image via flickr/ Connor Tarter
Two Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts are predicting that rising housing prices will level off in mid-2016 and begin to drop shortly thereafter.
This has not been the popular forecast among many experts, but Chris Flanagan and Gregory Fitter say that recent data has validated their theories.
Image via flickr/401(K) 2012
It’s not wise to purchase a home unless you can plan to stay there for at least a few years.
With the various expenses incurred in each home-buying transaction, you may end up losing money, even if the value of your home increases. If the market drops, the loss is even worse.
If you can’t commit to staying for several years, renting is the best choice for you.
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The Associated Press is reporting that average mortgage rates dropped this week from 4.15 to 4.13 percent for 30-year loans, and from 3.24 to 3.23 percent for 15-year loans.
These rates are even lower than they were at this time last year, and down about four tenths of a percentage point from the beginning of the year.
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