New home by Lennar Homes Treviso Bay, Naples, Florida photo: lennarhomes
Choosing a home in an unfamiliar neighborhood can be nerve-racking, but it’s almost inevitable when moving to a new city—or even across town. There’s a lot at stake: The wrong decision can cost you money and peace of mind.
Here are some tips to guide you in your search. Read the full article.
Naples Real Estate Market – NABOR Report February 2015 Real Estate Transactions | NABOR Report Indicates Healthy Market Trends Continue
The three biggest (credit reporting) companies that collect and disseminate credit information on more than 200 million Americans will change the way they handle errors and list unpaid medical bills as part of the broadest industry overhaul in more than a decade.
Under an agreement announced Monday with New York state, Equifax Information Services LLC, Experian Information Solutions Inc. and TransUnion LLC will be more proactive in resolving disputes over information contained in credit reports—a process federal watchdogs and consumer advocates have long decried as being stacked against individuals.
Most changes will be implemented nationally and will kick in over the next six to 39 months.
Read complete article big changes in credit reporting on realtor.com
Sevilla model home by Ashton Woods at Marsh Cove in Fiddler’s Creek community, Naples, Florida | photo: AshtonWoods.com
So you didn’t buy a house last year. That’s OK—you haven’t missed the boat yet on low mortgage rates or a healthy inventory of homes. In many ways, 2015 is a great time to buy a home, not the least of which is for certain tax breaks.
Here’s how you could enjoy three significant tax benefits if you purchase a home this year.
Deductible points are a standard tax break, but 2015 might be a good year to buy points. Interest rates have been at all-time lows, and many experts believe the only direction they can go is up. With 30-year rates hovering around 3.6%, an extra point or two can knock those low rates down even further.
One point typically lowers your interest rate by about 0.25%. (A point costs about 1% of your loan amount, and it’s paid at closing.) So if you buy two points off a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage of $350,000 with a 3.8% interest rate for $7,000, you could reduce your interest rate down to to 3.3%.
Points are considered a form of interest and are tax-deductible in the same year for first-home purchases as long as you meet a few standard requirements. So even if buying points doesn’t drop your monthly payments by much, you can still get a sizable tax break.
If you buy a home in 2015, you may want to outfit it with some energy-saving systems—because you can write off 30% of the cost as part of the Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit. Examples of eligible items include the following:
With the exception of fuel cell property, which has a limit of $500 per kilowatt, there are no maximum credit limits for qualifying items.
The tax credit is good until the end of 2016. If the amount of your tax credit exceeds your tax liability—meaning if you can deduct more than you owe in taxes in 2015—you can roll the credit over to your 2016 taxes. (There’s no word yet on whether the credit will extend to 2017.)
If you don’t own a home, you most likely rent. And renting has gotten very expensive, with no signs of slowing down. According to the Wall Street Journal, rent has been rising for the past five years—specifically, by 15.2% since 2009.
Renters don’t get many tax breaks, but home buyers do. 2015 might be the year to call it quits on paying $1,800 for a studio apartment with nothing to show for it. Check out the Realtor.com app to see what’s available, and use our Rent or Buy calculator to see how long it will be before renting becomes more expensive than buying in your area—you might be surprised.
The following buyer-related credits will expire by the end of 2015 if Congress doesn’t act. Don’t count on them, but don’t count them out either.
Mortgage applications made big moves last week, increasing 49.1 percent from one week earlier and showcasing the largest jump since November 2008, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 9, 2015.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 49.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 119 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index increased 66 percent from the previous week to the highest level since July 2013. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 24 percent from one week earlier to the highest level since September 2013. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 83 percent compared with the previous week and was 2 percent higher than the same week one year ago.
“The US economy and job market continued to show signs of strength, but weakness abroad and tumbling oil prices have led to further declines in longer-term interest rates,” says Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s Chief Economist.
“Mortgage rates reached their lowest level since May of 2013, and refinance application volume soared, more than doubling on an unadjusted basis, and up 66 percent after adjusting for the fact that the previous week included the New Year’s holiday. Conventional refinance volume increased to a greater extent than government refinance volume. Applications for larger refinance loans increased more than 4 times relative to the previous week. The average conventional refinance application increased to $298,700 from $233,500 the prior week. Although there was a somewhat smaller increase for government refinance volume, VA refinance applications increased by 50 percent. VA loans tend to be larger than FHA and USDA loans, and hence are more responsive to a given rate change.”
“In addition to the drop in rates, and news of improvement in the job market, there was additional positive news for prospective homebuyers with evidence that credit availability has increased somewhat, and with FHA’s announcement of a decrease in their mortgage insurance premiums. Purchase application volume increased by almost 24 percent, with stronger growth for conventional applications than for government loans. Purchase application volume was at its highest level since September 2013, increased on a year over year basis in the aggregate, and notably increased across most loan size categories, particularly for the conforming, middle of the market loan segments that had been weak for much of the past year. FHA purchase application volume was up by 17 percent for the week on a seasonally adjusted basis.”
The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 71 percent of total applications from 65 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 5.9 percent of total applications.
The FHA share of total applications decreased to 7.5 percent this week from 9.3 percent last week. The VA share of total applications decreased to 9.7 percent this week from 10.7 percent last week. The USDA share of total applications decreased to 0.8 percent from 0.9 percent last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 3.89 percent, the lowest level since May 2013, from 4.01 percent, with points decreasing to 0.23 from 0.28 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) decreased to 3.88 percent, the lowest level since May 2013, from 3.99 percent, with points decreasing to 0.23 from 0.24 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages backed by the FHA decreased to 3.71 percent, the lowest level since May 2013, from 3.81 percent, with points decreasing to -0.05 from -0.03 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3.16 percent, the lowest level since May 2013, from 3.24 percent, with points remaining unchanged at 0.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs decreased to 2.94 percent, the lowest level since October 2014, from 3.19 percent, with points decreasing to 0.46 from 0.51 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
RISMEDIA, Wednesday, December 03, 2014The 30-year fixed mortgage rate on Zillow(R) Mortgages is currently 3.76 percent, down one basis point from this time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage hovered around 3.75 percent last week before settling at the current rate.
“Rates continued to slide last week, and are now down more than a half of a percentage point from their mid-September peak,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “Strong economic data suggests rates should move higher, but weak demand for new loans has kept rates low. This week we expect to see some volatility as markets react to Friday’s job report, but anticipate rates to increase modestly by week’s end.”
Zillow’s real-time mortgage rates are based on thousands of custom mortgage quotes submitted daily to anonymous borrowers on the Zillow Mortgages site, and reflect the most recent changes in the market.
These are not marketing rates, or a weekly survey.
The rate for a 15-year fixed home loan is currently 2.97 percent, while the rate for a 5-1 adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) is 2.76 percent.
Purchase Mortgage Application Activity
Zillow predicts tomorrow’s seasonally adjusted Mortgage Bankers Association Weekly Application Index will show purchase loan activity increased by 15 percent from the week prior. Zillow combines loan requests made on Zillow Mortgages last week with the previous week’s Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Weekly Application Index to predict the MBA’s Weekly Application Index for purchase loans, which will be released tomorrow.
For more information about this prediction, visithttp://www.zillow.com/research/mortgage-app-index-part-one-7016/.
States’ rates are available at: http://www.zillow.com/mortgage-rates.
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