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

According to a new report by Trulia, millennials are facing different challenges than past generations. 

An astounding 98 percent of home-buying millennials surveyed for the report are being kept out of the market, with barriers including credit (cited by 26 percent of millennials), a down payment (31 percent) and prices (40 percent).

Given the hurdles, millennials are compromising on their wants: 84 percent, for example, would give up a feature in their home so that they could buy in their desired location, the report reveals. (The No. 1 do-without feature? A garage, followed by a kitchen that has been updated.) By comparison, just 25 percent of boomer buyers and 35 percent of Generation X buyers would do the same. Strikingly, 24 percent of…

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With home prices rising again this year, some are concerned that we may be repeating the 2006 housing bubble that caused families so much pain when it collapsed.

Today’s market is quite different than the bubble market of twelve years ago, and Keeping Current Matters provides four reasons why...

1. HOME PRICES

Hpme prices have reached 2006 levels in many markets across the country. However, after more than a decade, home prices should be much higher based on inflation alone.

Frank Nothaft is the Chief Economist for CoreLogic (which compiles some of the best data on past, current, and future home prices). Nothaft recently explained:

“Even though CoreLogic’s national home price index got to the same level it was at the prior peak…

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Metro Denver rent increases have returned with a vengeance according to recently released figures, and this latest trend echoes one that longtime residents and transplants alike will recognize. A new analysis of rent growth in the United States reveals that prices in Denver went up 48.3 percent from 2010 through the end of last year. The increase is the fourth-highest in the United States during that period, behind only three cities in California's Bay Area.

The study is by RealPage.com, a property-management software firm that's been tracking the Denver market for years. And as documented by the site, the current situation is being driven by what might be characterized as a perfect storm for rising rent.

During the first quarter of 2015, for…

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If you and your partner are planning a wedding and purchasing a home together, there are large expenses to take into consideration as you save up for both milestones. Couples are spending an average of $33,391 on their wedding, and first-time homebuyers are spending $18,000 on average for a home down payment ($10,512 with FHA loans).

With the average engagement period of 14 months, young couples may feel pressured to save up for both big-ticket events in a short period of time. Here are a few financial planning tips so you and your partner can strategically save for the wedding and home you both have always dreamed of:

1. Choose a Priority
With two large costs looming on the horizon, you and your partner need to sit down and decide if one takes…

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Thanks to a 2015 settlement agreement between the New York Attorney General and the three credit reporting agencies, big changes are on the way for credit reporting. The change will be nationwide. The changes are being made in three phases with the most noteworthy and significant being phase three, which started in September and must be implemented by June 8, 2018.

The most crucial aspect of this is around medical collections:

  • Experian, Trans Union and Equifax will reject any credit reporting of a collection that is not at least 180 days old. This gives the consumer time to pay the collection before it is reported.
  • Medical collections that are paid (or are being paid through insurance) will either be removed or suppressed from credit reports.

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Believe it or not, homes have become more affordable thanks to low mortgage rates, according to trulia.

When it comes to buying a home, Americans have been feeling the crunch in recent years. Demand is high, inventory is low, and prices continue to rise. These pressures have created a perfect storm for prospective buyers – they now need to pay more for a home, and will likely have a hard time finding that home.

In today’s squeezed environment, it can feel like the going is tougher than ever before – certainly, tougher than our parents had it. But were the good old days really that good? Trulia took a look at home affordability across the decades to try to answer this question.

They constructed an affordability score, comparing the highest…

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Finding the Perfect Denver Home is the Fun Part

In many markets across the country, including the greater Denver Metro area, the number of buyers searching for their dream homes greatly outnumbers the number of homes for sale. This has led to a competitive marketplace where buyers often need to stand out. One way to show you are serious about buying your dream home is to get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage before starting your search.

Even if you are in a market that is not as competitive, knowing your budget will give you the confidence of knowing if your dream home is within your reach.

Freddie Mac lays out the advantages of pre-approval in the ‘My Home’ section of their website:

“It’s highly recommended that you work with…

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Homeowners are now using rental income earned through Airbnb to refinance their mortgages.

It's a pilot program launched just a few weeks ago that took off quickly, and new loans are already closing.

It's another program from mortgage giant Fannie Mae designed to help more borrowers get better loans in today's tight mortgage market. Airbnb already tracks the income data and will now provide documentation for a mortgage application.

"We want to enable those borrowers to be able to refinance and lower their mortgage costs and tap into their housing equity," said Jonathan Lawless, vice president of customer solutions at Fannie Mae.

Partnering initially with three lenders, Better Mortgage, Quicken Loans and Citizens Bank, Fannie Mae allows…

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Owners of starter homes across the country are gaining equity faster than other homeowners because demand for entry-level homes continues to grow faster than supply.

The phenomenon – which has become more pronounced over the past few years -- underscores the power of homeownership to build wealth, particularly among the middle class.

For this analysis, Zillow divided the U.S. housing stock into equal thirds based on value and determined the median value of the most and least valuable homes.

Over the past year, homes in the most affordable segment of the market, which are often sought after by first-time buyers, gained 8.5 percent in value, compared to a 3.6 percent gain for the most expensive homes. Over the past five years, the…

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If you're a first-time buyer, looking for a mortgage can seem daunting. Where do you start, and what should you be looking for?

You can get a home loan from several different sources—a credit union, commercial bank, mortgage company, finance company, government agency, mortgage broker, and even the seller.

Note, however, that many lenders have tightened their credit standards in light of increasing foreclosures and higher delinquency rates.

Where to start? Begin your search by calling at least half a dozen lenders to inquire about the types of financing available, current rates on each loan type, loan origination fees and number of points, other loan features and their credit requirements for borrowers.

Once you actually apply for a mortgage, the…

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