Category: Real Estate
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Hispanics Will Be the Majority of New Homeowners by 2040. Can the Market Meet Their Needs?
This year’s trend study from CoreLogic® shows a steady rise in mortgage lending in mainly Hispanic neighborhoods. Hispanic buyers tend to be younger and less affluent than other buyers across the board. Many are coming into real estate as first-time buyers. They’re motivated. Many will opt for FHA loans if conventional loans are out of…
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Affordability Rx: U.S. Government Is Now Funding Office-to-Home Conversions
As our readers know, the pandemic changed the way we work and live. Remote and hybrid working are now common ways of earning a living. We’ve also noted how repurposing empty offices could ease the housing crisis. Commercial areas contain more and more vacant space, more of the time. This fact holds true across the…
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Who Owns Your Home—You, or the Bank? Check for a “Defeasance Clause”
Defeasance? What’s that? Some home loans contain a defeasance clause. It means you’re giving up collateral. Do your home loan documents have defeasance language? If so, your lending institution holds your home’s title for as long as you owe the lender money. Although the legal owner is your lender, you are still called the homeowner.…
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How Philadelphia’s Funeral Homes Aid in Resolving Tangled Titles to Preserve a Billion Dollars in Real Estate Wealth
Once upon a time, Katherine Gilmore Richardson undertook the crucial task of reclaiming the title to her family home in Wynnefield, West Philly, where she grew up. She got the title back to her family home. She grew up in that corner home in Wynnefield, West Philly. So she wanted to recover its title with…
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What Is “Subject-To” Home Buying? AKA: Taking Over the Mortgage Payments
Ever heard someone say they got a “subject-to” offer on their home? Or maybe you or someone you know is contacted with a subject-to offer. Maybe you saw a sign saying “We buy homes!” and wondered what’s going on. Subject-to is a little-known strategy in the world of deed transactions. It comes in many forms.…
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Update! Fed Signals 2024 “Pivot” on Interest Rates. What Should Home Sellers and Seekers Know?
As we’ve all noticed, deed transfers really got stuck in a rut in 2023. Too few owners are selling their homes. Supply is down. Prices are up. A core issue? The Federal Reserve. Over the past two years, the Fed has hiked rates in order to banish inflation and to tighten up the economy. So,…
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Fannie Mae Was Going to Save Mortgage Borrowers Thousands by Dropping Its Title Insurance Requirement. Never Mind.
The Biden administration was working with loan backers to delete title insurance charges from closing costs. The move would have saved quite a few home buyers hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Noting that the plan had been silently scuttled, the Wall Street Journal said pressure against it came from “an obscure industry.” The obscure…
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Get in Early, Make a High Down Payment: The Case for Assertive Home Buying
Have you noticed the big home finance companies desperately touting their low-down-payment deals? You’d think no one wants to put 20% down anymore! But interest rates are high, so keeping your debt high is a pricey thing to do. Therefore, it can make sense, for those who can swing it, to: Let’s explore the case…
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KeyBank Talks Fair Housing—Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is
KeyBank® is putting $400,000 into NeighborWorks Western Pennsylvania. Why? To make housing accessible to Black communities — as they have been disproportionately left out of homeownership. Sure, $400,000 is a modest sum these days. But it’s part of a bigger picture. In recent years, KeyBank has contributed close to half a billion dollars to Greater…
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Fair Appraisals Matter—To the White House, and to Us
Have you heard about PAVE? Most people haven’t. It stands for Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity. When it comes to homeownership, fair appraisals are not just a matter of numbers—they’re a cornerstone of equity and financial prosperity. Enter PAVE. This initiative, championed by the White House, is more than just an acronym; it’s a pivotal…
