Clare Trapasso has a piece on Realtor.com indexing the best cities for young home-buyers. Austin, TX, Charleston, SC, Denver, CO, Minneapolis, MN, Ogden, UT, Portland, OR, Raleigh, NC, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA, and Washington, DC, complete the top ten. You can read the article, here.
Chicago’s TV station, WGN, shared an article today on the states where homeowners carry the most mortgage debt. An analysis of data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York calculated mortgage debt per capita around the country, then ranked States from lowest to highest. You can see the results, here.
The Motley Fool has compiled 5 mortgage rules with which to be familiar. As the largest investment most of us are likely to make, there is little room for error. Check out the article when you have a moment, here.
The Observer has an extensive article today lambasting real estate investment titled The Lies, Cover-Ups, and Half-Truths About Investing in Real Estate. If you’re interested in an opinion piece about the myriad ways that real estate can be a poor investment—and it’s worth a read—then you can read it here.
Realtor.com has an article polling homeowners on—what they feel—were mistakes made during the mortgage process. Among the regrets are, not moving quickly enough when making a decision, not making extra payments, and not paying closer attention to rate fluctuation. You can read the entire piece, here.
With as much as a 7 percent annual appreciation rate, house hacking—a live-in real estate investment strategy—is gaining in popularity across the country. Living in a multi-unit building, while renting out the unused spaces, allows for owner-occupied loans not available to most investment properties. Once some capital has been created, one can simply acquire and develop other properties in the same manner. CNBC has an article, here.
National Mortgage News has a piece today on Seniors having a hard time finding affordable housing. The Bipartisan Policy Center has assembled a task force to initiate a dialogue with the federal government, and inspire positive change to tackle the problem, going forward. The lower-income aging population is rising rapidly, and the task force has some intriguing propositions, here.
Housing starts grew 6.6% in April, coming out of a lackluster first quarter. Economists expect the trend to continue, modestly, throughout the remainder of the year. An impressive amount of growth in the Midwest helped April’s numbers increase dramatically. Here’s a full breakdown.
The Wall Street Journal has a piece today comparing luxury summer-home markets from coast to coast. There’s good information on vacation-home buying, in general, but the article’s featured areas are among the toniest in the country. Read more, here.
NerdWallet has a piece today interviewing members of their Ask An Advisor network about the efficacy of a 15-year mortgage. They discuss advantages—paid off sooner, lower interest than a 30-year loan, and the total cost is generally less than a 30-year loan—and disadvantages—larger payments, and decreased cash flow, among others. Read more, here.
