When you're getting ready to buy, move, or invest, it's important to know the latest interest rates, mortgage trends, programs and more. Check out the latest trends on our new blog, westandmain.co



Mortgage rates dipped slightly to a nearly three-year low because of concern about a potential global economic slowdown and some weak home sale news.

According to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average fell to 3.75 percent with an average 0.5 point. (Points are fees paid to a lender equal to 1 percent of the loan amount and are in addition to the interest rate.) It was 3.81 percent a week ago and 4.54 percent a year ago.

The 15-year fixed-rate average declined to 3.18 percent with an average 0.5 point. It was 3.23 percent a week ago and 4.02 percent a year ago. The five-year adjustable rate average dropped to 3.47 percent with an average 0.4 point. It was 3.48 percent a week ago and 3.87 percent a year ago.

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 If you’re a homeowner with a mortgage, paying off your mortgage early may be an excellent way to dodge interest over the years, saving you thousands over the length of your mortgage.

However, before you begin prepaying, talk to your lender to see if there’s a prepayment penalty on your loan, as well as a financial advisor to see if your additional payments could accrue more in an investment fund.

If prepaying your mortgage seems like a smart move, take these steps to get started.

Bump up your monthly payment.  An extra few hundred dollars a month can seriously decrease your overall interest over the length of your loan. Or, if you get a pay raise, include that extra income percentage into your monthly payment.

Make one…

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The most recent data shows that the average length of time someone lives in their home reached 11.3 years in May 2019, a 10 percent increase compared with a year ago.

First American Financial Corporation, a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, today released First American’s proprietary Potential Home Sales Model for the month of May 2019.

May 2019 Potential Home Sales

  • Potential existing-home sales increased marginally to a 5.20 million seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR), a 0.4 percent month-over-month increase.
  • This represents a 54.8 percent increase from the market potential low point reached in February 1993.
  • The market potential for existing-home…

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Sales of existing homes fell for a second straight month in April, but the market should rev up soon, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Tuesday.

Home sales dipped 0.4% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million . Sales were down 4.4% from a year ago.

Student debt is still holding back many millennial buyers, says Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. And prices for the entry-level homes that age group targets have risen sharply because of low supplies.

Meanwhile, a big drop in mortgage rates didn’t boost home sales. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.14% in April from 4.27% in March, according to Freddie Mac, the mortgage loan company. The average rate in 2018 was 4.54%.

Yun…

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There are more than 44 million Americans with student loan debt.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, said student debt is holding back America’s economy because employed college graduates are spending so much of their income on paying for their education, preventing them from moving up the property ladder.

“We have an entire generation that is delaying or forgoing purchasing houses,” Ocasio-Cortez, 29, who had around $25,000 student debt and made monthly payments of $300, despite meager earnings as a bartender and waitress, told Time in an interview.

The New York City Democrat also said her generation has never truly experienced “American prosperity.”

“Our entire economy is slowing down due…

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Interest rates are at the top of everyone's minds right now, especially if you are in the market for a home. But your interest rate isn't set in stone.

Several factors play into the interest rate on your loan, and you are in control of a lot of what affects it. Here are some of the things that can affect the interest rate on your home loan. Let us know if we can help you determine what your home loan may look like.

1. Credit scores
Borrowers with higher credit scores generally receive lower interest rates than borrowers with lower credit scores. Lenders use your credit scores to predict how reliable you'll be in paying your loan. Credit scores are calculated based on the information in your credit report, which shows information about your…

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If you’re in your 20's or early 30's and you’re looking to purchase a new home to live in, maybe you should consider turning your first home into an investment property.

While most people wait until after they’ve bought their first or second home to begin investing in real estate, you could probably start much sooner than you think. 

Many people, especially in the wake of the mortgage crisis, have found themselves wondering: “Is buying a house a good investment?” One way to ease your worries about whether buying a house will pay off is by renting out the first home you buy. By turning your home into an investment property, you can leverage your possibly less-than-perfect credit, less-than-perfect lifestyle and limited responsibilities into an…

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American homeownership has been on the decline, and Federal Reserve researchers point to the high cost of college as one culprit.

According to Bloomberg, just 36 percent of household heads between 24 and 32 years old owned homes in 2014, down from 45 percent in 2005. At the same time, average student debt per capita rose to an inflation-adjusted $10,000 from $5,000 in 2005.

About 20 percent of the decline in homeownership among young adults can be attributed to that increase in student loan debt, the authors estimate, making such borrowing an important, but not central, driver of the decline. Some 400,000 more young people would have owned homes in 2014 if debt burdens hadn’t risen.

Why does this happen? It’s partly because higher student…

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In much of the United States, single women are outpacing single men when it comes to homeownership.

This trend may be somewhat surprising, given the average woman in the U.S. only makes 80% of what the average man does. Nonetheless, the data clearly indicates that single women are more likely to own a home than single men are.

For example, in the New York metropolitan area, single women own slightly more than 820,000 homes. In the Los Angeles metropolitan area, that number is around 460,000. On the flip side, single men own about 435,000 homes in the New York area and about 260,000 homes in the Los Angeles area. In both cases, single women owned nearly twice as many homes as single men did.

To determine the number of single homeowners in each…

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