Tag: FHA Loans
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Financing a Home Purchase With a Disability: Where to Look
There’s a lot of talk today about affordable homes. But we also need more accessible affordable homes. More than one in four U.S. residents live with a disability. And the U.S. population is getting older. If you’re an individual with a disability, there are agencies and alliances that have your back. And yes, you can buy a…
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Are Risky Mortgages Making a Comeback? Here’s What We All Must Know.
Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) can be helpful financial tools. They can also create trouble when the rate adjusts upward. Since the pandemic, adjustable-rate mortgage loans have seen a comeback. And some market watchers are becoming concerned. As one headline put the point this month: Adjustable-Rate Mortgages Caused Trouble in 2008. They’re Worrying Experts Again.
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Buying Another Home? Qualifying as a “First-Time Home Buyer” When It’s Not Your First-Ever Deed
First-time home buyer status can make a purchase more affordable. And you don’t have to be a first-ever deed holder. “First-timer” is typically defined as someone who (a) actually never held a deed before; or (b) has not owned a primary home for more than three years. Just three years of faithfully holding your deed,…
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Breaking Down the Debate on 50-Year Mortgages
So, the federal government is going to bring 50-year mortgages back? Yes, the idea has been tried before. Some lenders marketed 50-year mortgages back in the lead-up to the 2008 mortgage crisis — although those loans weren’t government-backed. We can’t tell how the federal government would try to make them work this time, but there’s…
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Real Estate Update: Housing Agencies, States Suffer “Staggering” Blows in Shutdown
The U.S. federal government has been shut down for three weeks now. The impact on everyday life for many has been serious. What might not be obvious is the impact on federal housing agencies and state-based real estate industries. Sellers and buyers are feeling the effects as well. In some states, the impacts are outsized…
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Time to Make Financing a Manufactured Home Easier. Meanwhile, What a Difference Holding the Deed Makes!
Manufactured housing — and this includes mobile homes — make up a key segment of financially accessible housing. Today, 18 million people have roofs overhead thanks to manufactured homes. Most own them. Most are deed holders who took out mortgages from banks or credit unions. But it wasn’t easy for them. Some applied for regular…
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Buying a Home With Student Loan Debt in 2025
Do you have, or plan to have, student loan debt? Here’s a PSA for you: Yes, you can qualify for a mortgage, if you’ve determined homeownership is for you. More than 40 million people of the United States have student loan debt. And some 17 million of them are in the age category that produces…
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FHA Layoffs? Here’s What Home Buyers Want to Know
A powerhouse of the U.S. housing market seems at the brink of a major staff cut. HUD is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It oversees the country’s FHA-backed loans. And it’s in for some turbulence.
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Back in the Game: How to Get Another Deed After a Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, or Short Sale
Finding a mortgage again after a financial setback can seem like an impossible feat. But it’s doable. Here, we consider foreclosures, short sales, and bankruptcies. We look at how they can be overcome for the purpose of acquiring a deed to a home.
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Will There Still Be FHA Loans? How Trump’s Return Could Impact Housing
And here it is: a new administration. What’s changing for home seekers and deed holders? Yes, there will still be FHA mortgages. There will still be conventional loans with government backing. But we can expect… All of these possibilities impact the value and availability of deeds for ordinary people. So, let’s do some Q&A to…
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Gen Z Rising: Younger Buyers’ Strategies in the Housing Market
Twentysomethings acquiring deeds? It’s a thing. But in this market, how are Gen Zers pulling it off? According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Gen Z now holds 3% of U.S. home deeds. And the numbers also suggest that many young buyers had to be awfully scrappy to get these deeds.
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Looking for a Path to Homeownership? Look Again at Down Payment Assistance.
The typical person can’t afford the typical home. As property values keep rising, down payments aren’t getting any easier to make. If you know the feeling, have you looked up down payment assistance? It can be a grant, with no repayment requirement. Or it could be a loan — possibly a forgivable loan. Even if…
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Divorced and Looking (For a House)
If you’re newly separated or divorced, you could be shopping for a home. Letting go of the home you shared with your former partner leads to a series of steps: from the deed you shared, to a new deed. A deed to a home of your own. Here, we spot the issues for the newly…
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The Rise and Rise of Down Payments
A down payment is the portion of a home’s purchase price the mortgage borrower pays upfront. You knew that. But did you know the median down payment for U.S. homebuyers is now more than $55K+? That’s remarkable. It was less than $45K just last year. Buyers often try to put 20% of the purchase price down.…
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Can’t Wait to Move. (If Only We Could Pack Up Our Low Mortgage Rate and Take It With Us!)
Some people wish they could move, but hesitate to sell their current homes. They might be thinking: “I’d gladly sell my home right now, if only I could shift the remaining 25 years of my 4%-interest mortgage to the next house I buy! (Oh, well.)” “Giving up our 3% rate and getting a new mortgage…
