by LLT | Feb 2, 2017 | LLT, News
The news and research about women and money can be dreary. Women earn less than their male counterparts, pay harsher workplace penalties for pursuing parenthood, struggle more with debt, and save less for retirement.
But there’s one area of personal finance where single women are outpacing men in the U.S., and it’s a significant one: home ownership.
Nearly a century since the publication of A Room of One’s Own—Virginia Woolf’s essay on women’s urgent need for a private physical space in which to flourish—and a legacy of laws that restricted women in owning property or considered them to be property, single women account for 17 percent of homebuyers in the U.S., compared with 7 percent of single men. The data, from last year, are from the National Association of Realtors.
Continue reading.
by LLT | Feb 1, 2017 | LLT, News
If a real estate buy is in your near future, rising interest rates are bad news. Or so you thought. Rising interest rates are not necessarily evil, however.
This post explains how an increase in rates won’t necessarily thwart your home-buying ambitions, and how it might even help.
1) Rising interest rates signal economic improvement
The Fed raises short-term interest rates when inflation is a concern. Inflation is not normally an issue when the economy is uncertain or in poor condition.
An improving economy means more consumer activity. In fact, two-thirds of the US economy is based on consumer spending. More spending equals more jobs, higher wages, and competition for employees.
2) Investments pay off
Right now, stock market investors are earning excellent returns. The Dow Jones Industrial Average set records this week, topping 20,000 on January 25, 2017.
If your down payment funds are invested in stocks or mutual funds, you could hit your savings goal sooner.
You could also find yourself earning more as competition for employees heats up.
Reasons 3 – 5
by LLT | Jan 31, 2017 | LLT, News
How tough is it to get approved for a mortgage? How low can your FICO credit score go before your lender shows you the door? And how much monthly debt can you be shouldering — credit cards, student loans, auto payments — but still walk away with the mortgage you’re seeking?
You might be surprised. New data from technology company Ellie Mae, whose loan application and management software is widely used in the mortgage field, reveals that even if you’ve got what seems to be a deal-killing low FICO score or you’re carrying a mountain of debt, you still might have a shot at qualifying for a mortgage to buy the house you want.
Continue reading.
by LLT | Jan 30, 2017 | LLT, News
Purchases of new U.S. homes fell in December to a 10-month low, suggesting the post-election jump in mortgage rates pushed out potential buyers.
Single-family house sales dropped 10.4 percent, the most in almost two years, to a 536,000 annualized pace, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey was for 588,000.
The figures indicate that the increase in mortgage rates curbed momentum in the housing market after steady job gains and historically low borrowing costs helped push full-year sales to the highest since 2007. Stricter lending standards also remain a hurdle for buyers this year.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage reached 4.32 percent at the end of December, the highest since April 2014, according to Freddie Mac figures. That was up from 3.54 percent just before the Nov. 8 election. It was 4.09 percent in the week ended Jan. 19.
Continue reading.
by LLT | Jan 27, 2017 | LLT, News
It’s been a busy first week in office for President Donald Trump, with executive orders on immigration, energy, trade, health care, and more being handed down daily.
But executive orders are just the preamble to the big initiatives that Trump and the Republican majority in Congress are expected to push for shortly.
Chief among those is the “dismantling” of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
During the presidential transition, Trump’s transition team stated that dismantling Dodd-Frank would be one of the president’s main priorities.
And on Thursday, the American public got a reminder that the president and his party plan to keep that promise.
Speaking before the Congressional Republican Retreat, Vice President Mike Pence said that dismantling Dodd-Frank and its “overbearing mandates” remains a top priority for the Trump administration, a statement that was greeted by applause from the collected Republicans.
After Trump and Pence spoke to the GOP retreat, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, issued a statement saying that he intends to continue pushing for the replacement of Dodd-Frank with a new financial reform package.
Continue reading.
by LLT | Jan 26, 2017 | LLT, News
First-time home-buyers are finally ready to jump into the market. They’ve met tougher mortgage qualifying standards in recent years, they’ve saved up for down payments, they’ve done their homework and know what they can afford.
But can they actually find a home?
The biggest problem facing first-time home-buyers these days is the low inventory of homes for sale in the starter home price range.
“That’s a real problem,” says Nela Richardson, chief economist for Redfin, a national real estate brokerage. “Just because you got financing doesn’t mean you get a home. It’s a hard market.”
According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of homes for sale nationwide at the end of November 2016 was 9.3 percent lower than it was a year earlier, and the year-over-year totals have been dropping for the last 18 months. At the current rate of home sales, the inventory is only enough to last four months – short of the six-month inventory for a balanced market of home-buyers and available homes.
Continue reading.
The news and research about women and money can be dreary. Women earn less than their male counterparts, pay harsher workplace penalties for pursuing parenthood, struggle more with debt, and save less for retirement.
Recent Comments