Starting the lending process is the first step to owning a home. Did you know you can buy a home with NO MONEY DOWN? Did you know that starting the lending process is FREE?
I enlist the help of an experienced lender to explain the basics of lending and common misconceptions about the home buying process.
Send me an email, text or give me a call and I will be happy to answer all of your real estate questions and recommend some of my most trusted lenders to get you on the path to homeownership.
Owning vs. Renting??? It’s a tough decision, especially if you’re a first time homebuyer. There’s no doubt that homeownership comes with strong emotional benefits. Homes are a place to feel secure, build a future and raise a family. Not to mention, the immense personal satisfaction that comes with homeownership.
Beyond the emotional benefits, there are strong financial reasons to buy a home.
A home generally builds equity over time through the combination of mortgage payments and appreciation.
A portion of your mortgage interest and real estate taxes are tax-deductible.
You may leverage your money – even though your down payment may be 20% of the home’s purchase price, you receive the full value of any appreciation.
In many markets, including ours, the cost of ownership can be less than renting.
You may strengthen your credit with your ongoing and timely mortgage payments.
You may pass on your home to your children.
And, as a homeowner, you are free to renovate, remodel, repair and repaint your property – you’re never dependent on a landlord to get the job done right.
A Cost Analysis
Western Title & Escrow in Eugene recently released a short graphic that compares the costs of renting to buying over a given amount of time.
Photo courtesy of Western Title & Escrow, Eugene, OR
If you buy a $250,000 home with 10% down and an annual interest rate of 3.75%, in 2 years 6 months you will break even. Meaning you will have paid as much in rent as you would have to own the house. After that time, the benefit of ownership exceeds the benefit of renting through the financial gains made from tax deductions and by building equity through increased principal and appreciation.
If you are renting, NOW is the time to consider BUYING. I know the process can be a little scary for first-time buyers, but I’m happy to help you get started. I remember the first house I bought and at the time I didn’t think I would even qualify for a loan based on my income. I was wrong. It’s easier than you think and there are so many great loan options available now. Not to mention, mortgage rates are extremely low. The timing is perfect!
Give me a call, an email or drop me a message on social and I will be happy to recommend some of my favorite and most trusted lenders. Together we will walk you through the process. You have nothing to lose and EVERYTHING to GAIN!
For the first time since at
least World War II, mortgage rates and the unemployment rate are below
4-percent. As a result, some economists are predicting home prices will
increase at a faster pace over the next 12 months than they have in 2019.
Corelogic says home prices
will likely increase by 5.8% through August 2020. That’s a faster pace than the
3.8% seen in August of this year.
First-time homebuyers, Generation
Z homebuyers and single female homebuyers are taking full advantage of this
fifty-year low…
46-percent of all loans Freddie
Mac has purchased this year came from first-time homebuyers, while there has
been a 200% and 500% increase in Gen Z and single female homebuyers,
respectively.
* Labor Costs Likely to Push Home Prices Higher. In an article in CoreLogic’s Insights blog, Nothaft quotes National Association of Home Builder (NAHB) figures that say about 60 percent of a new home’s sales price reflects the construction costs of the home. The major components of building costs are those associated with purchasing and preparing a lot, acquiring permits and inspections, hiring labor and buying materials. There was a significant price run-up in the two major components of framing, lumber and steel. Labor costs are another matter. Much has been written about the shortage of construction labor. Many workers left the trades during the Great Recession and the industry has had trouble luring young people and especially young women into the field. Vacancies as a percent of construction job are now at the highest level in 18 years and compensation has risen accordingly. It is up 3 percent this year, about double the rate of inflation. Worker retention is an issue as well. Nothaft says rising land and labor costs will probably offset any savings builders might realize from lower lumber prices and overall costs for a new home will continue to rise.
* Mortgage Rates Drop Again – And First-Time Homebuyers Take Full Advantage. Mortgage rates dropped again, and according to Freddie Mac, the downward spiral has first-time buyers gaining ground. In fact, of all the loans Freddie Mac has purchased in 2019, 46% came from first-time homebuyers – a two-decade high for the company. According to representatives at online mortgage provider Better.com, the lender has seen a “huge uptick” in first-time homebuyers as well. There’s also been a 200% increase in Generation Z homebuyers (born 1997-2012) and a 500% increase in single female homebuyers aged 30-40. As Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, reported yesterday, “The fifty-year low in the unemployment rate, combined with low mortgage rates, has led to increased homebuyer demand this year. Much of this strength is coming from entry-level buyers.”
* Where Have All the Affordable Homes Gone? Housing affordability has been a growing concern in the housing ecosystem, but why is it such a problem? While home prices have been steadily rising for many years, Nothaft observed, “We find that lower-priced homes have appreciated much, much more than higher-priced homes.” Since May 2018, prices of homes more than 25% above the median have risen 3%, while homes in the lowest tier, those more than 25% below the median, have risen almost 5.5%. As demand rises on affordable homes, the supply has become increasingly constrained. Nothaft noted, “New construction, while picking up gradually over the last few years, is still well below what it was prior to the housing boom.” The current inventory for homes is tightest in the lowest price tiers, particularly in those between 50 and 100 percent of the median home price. On the affordable housing shortage, Nothaft concluded, “I don’t see that changing any time soon unless we find ways to reduce the cost of producing or delivering lower-priced homes into the marketplace and reducing some of the regulatory costs.” In the meantime, with demand rising on an increasingly scarce product, we can expect prices to continue rising on affordable homes for the foreseeable future.
Mortgage Rates May Tumble to Record 3.3% by 2019’s End. Fixed mortgage rates could fall to 3.3% by the end of the year as the nation’s economy slows, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. That would put the rate just a smidge below the 3.31% seen in November of 2012 – the lowest average for a 30-year fixed mortgage in Freddie Mac data going back to 1971. “But lower rates may not help with affordability because home prices are re-accelerating higher, easily above the latest wage growth. Housing inventory has recently stopped rising, putting upward pressure on home prices of moderately priced homes,” Yun said. “But there is still a time to get the economy into a higher gear with increased home building of affordable homes and lessening trade tensions.”
* A Smaller Share of Prospective Buyers is Actively Looking For a Home. A national poll in the second quarter of 2019 revealed that 12% of adults are thinking about buying a home in the next 12 months. Of that group, 41% are already actively engaged in the process of finding a home to purchase, which is a smaller share than a year earlier, when 50% of prospective buyers were engaged in the search process. This finding suggests that the lower mortgage rate environment of 2019 has not had the expected effect of nudging more people to start looking for a home to buy. Across generations, about 40% of Millennials, Gen X’ers, and Boomer buyers have moved beyond just planning and begun the home search, compared to only 21% of Senior buyers. Geographically, prospective buyers in the Northeast are the most likely to be actively looking for a home (47%), followed by those in the West (43%), and those in the Midwest and South (both 39%). How long are buyers who are actively engaged in the search process hunting for a home? In the second quarter of 2019, 45% had been at it for less than 3 months while the other 55% had been trying to find the right home for 3 months or longer. Those shares were essentially unchanged from a year earlier, when they stood at 46% and 54%, respectively.
* Residential Construction Spending Drops Further Off 2018 Pace. Construction spending inched up by 0.1 percent in July, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.289 trillion compared to $1.288 trillion in June. The July figure is 2.7 percent lower than the rate of spending in July 2018. On an unadjusted basis, spending for the month was $119.214 billion and for the year-to-date (YTD) stands at $733.782 billion, down 2.1 percent from the $749.888 billion spent during the first seven months of 2018. Private sector spending on residential spending was at an annual rate of $506.743 billion compared to $503.515 billion in June, an increase of 0.6 percent but down 6.6 percent from the prior July. Single family construction was at a rate of $268.138 billion a 1.4 percent month-over-month gain but a decrease of 8.5 percent on an annual basis. For the YTD, total residential spending has totaled $289.891 billion, $150.219 billion of it on single-family houses. During the same period in 2018 the respective totals were $316.929 billion and $164.529 billion. These represent declines of 8.5 and 8.7 percent.
