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Majority Says Owning A Home Is Best Long Term Investment
Among respondents to Trulia's biannual American Dream survey, 57 percent said owning a home is the best long-term investment they could make, placing it ahead of their 401K and other retirement accounts. The survey, which polled 2,207 adults over the age of 18 on...
Survey Tracks Attitudes Toward Economy, Housing
Fannie Mae's September National Housing Survey polled 1,002 Americans to assess their attitudes toward homeownership, renting a home, mortgage rates, the economy, and their household finances. The September survey found Americans continue to link their personal...
Homeownership Rate Dips But Remains Historically High
The homeownership rate in America has steadily gone up since 1940, eventually reaching a peak of near 70 percent at the height of the housing boom. But according to data from the Census Bureau, the homeownership rate fell to 65.1 percent last year, down 1.1 percent...
Americans Say They Want To Buy A Home, And Soon
The Hanley Wood Housing 360 Survey polled 3,005 homeowners and renters across the country and asked them 70 questions on homeownership, renting, remodeling, financing, homebuying, and other economic concerns. The survey found Americans still value homeownership and...
Mortgage Rates At Lowest Level Since The 1940s
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Applications Survey, the average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances fell to 4.18 percent last week from 4.24 percent the week before. The 30-year rate for jumbo...
Refinance Boom Saves Homeowners Billions
More than 10 million homeowners have refinanced their mortgages through Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, or the Federal Housing Administration and Veterans Affairs since 2009. The cumulative savings in monthly mortgage payments for those 10 million borrowers equals $25...
Delinquency Rates Improve Over Last Year
According to a report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the number of borrowers making their mortgage payments on time has improved from last year. Data from the second quarter of this year shows 88.0 percent of U.S. mortgages were current, up from...
Baby Boomers May Be Key To Housing Recovery
Though first-time buyers are typically the driving factor behind a healthy housing market, industry experts increasingly see baby boomers as key to the housing recovery. Affordability is at all-time highs and, because homeowners of middle age or older have generally...
Pending Home Sales Up From Last Year, Down From July
The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales Index dipped 1.2 percent in August but remained 7.7 percent above the previous year's levels. Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said the decline reflects an uneven market and, based on improving fundamentals,...
Mortgage Application Demand Surges As Rates Fall
According to The Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Applications Survey, the Market Composite Index, which measures total mortgage loan demand, increased 9.3 percent last week from the week before. The Refinance Index was up 11.2 percent and the Purchase Index...