Hints and tips:
Related Special Reports
...Including mortgage payments, mortgage insurance and property taxes, he pays $3,500 per month more today than what he spent on rent at the family’s last home....
...Even the inventory of new homes dipped a bit in 2023, as high mortgage rates put a damper on Americans’ desire to finance anything....
...As mortgage rates hover around 6 per cent, nearly 70 per cent of Manhattan homes purchased in the final quarter of 2023 were bought without a mortgage, according to Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of...
...A servicing company placed the loan on watch for possible default — although the Trumps have remained current on their payments....
...And every lender’s got an online servicing portal. Nationwide’s got a mortgage manager. Everything you need to know, that’s on there. So it’s great to know when your term is coming up....
...Americans are also extremely fond of their fixed-rate certainty. “It’s just so nice,” said one American, a fellow FT columnist, of his home loan....
...Economists estimate that the changes could cut the $100bn Americans pay annually in real estate fees by as much as 30 per cent....
...Net mortgage lending rose €12bn last month, the biggest monthly increase for more than a year, largely driven by a jump in French home loans....
...“Getting a mortgage for 3 per cent, rather than the 7-8 per cent rates in the US, made it seem a good investment right now....
...Basically, I defined what was wrong with mortgage markets. These “modified mortgages” entailed you buying the home, borrowing the money and paying 1 per cent on the mortgage for three years....
...The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 7.07 per cent during the week ending December 8, from 7.17 per cent the previous week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said today....
...That is because the flow of new home loans to back new MBS issuance has all but dried up as American homeowners blanch at mortgage rates approaching 8 per cent — the highest level in at least two decades...
...It was a “horrific” time to get a mortgage, she says, referring to the succession of interest rate rises between late 2021 and 2023. “But an inheritance helped, and I think it was a good time to buy.”...
...Most Fed officials support reducing the central bank’s mortgage-backed securities holdings to zero, to avoid distorting the mortgage market....
...What is more, many Asian, Latin American and central European countries have superior debt servicing ratios to developed markets. We wrongly think the lot are basket cases. Far from it....
...Since 1975, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act has required banks to report mortgage lending by race and ethnicity, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently issued a rule that requires lenders...
...More than 4,000 lenders provided home loans in the US last year, 60 per cent of which were made by independent mortgage companies, not banks....
...But Census data show that home ownership increases with age. Only at the ripe old age of 75 do Americans show a declining desire to own their own home....
...Even with this buffer, however, consumers face elevated prices and higher debt servicing costs. Forbearance policies for student loans are at an end....
...Although the pandemic era red-hot housing market has cooled, the lack of homes for sale and high mortgages have kept pressure on home prices, which rose for the eighth consecutive month in September....
...Liam Wilkinson arranges mortgages for non-EU residents, buying homes in Europe — mainly France, Spain and Italy....
...This has driven stellar spending on electronics, furniture and home equipment since 2020. Meanwhile, the prevalence of long-term fixed-rate mortgages has sheltered homeowners from higher rates....
...Who do Americans blame for high prices?...
...“I took a terrifying mortgage — terrifying — and bought this house where I played as a child.”...
...A lack of inventory has persistently propped up house prices, making it tough for Americans to buy a home....
International Edition