Tag: Homeownership
-
What’s the Low-Down on This Housing Market? Harvard Weighs In.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard has just published its 2024 State of the Nation’s Housing report. HOUSING COSTS STRAIN OWNERS AND RENTERS ALIKE, the report proclaims. MILLIONS PRICED OUT OF HOMEOWNERSHIP. The headlines say it all, right? While construction is starting to bolster inventories, the new report notes certain persistent issues: record…
-
Received an Offer to Have Your Deed Mailed to You for a Fee? Toss It!
This year, Recorder of Deeds Jeanne Sorg has an important message for home buyers in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Look out, Sorg tells homeowners, for deceptive letters mailed to residents from outfits like Property Site. (That’s just one example of the companies who send out these letters, Sorg notes.) The letters at issue say the companies…
-
Driving Change: Can a Real Estate Company Use AI to Root Out Prejudice in Deeds?
Seattle real estate firm John L. Scott is on to something. The company is working with Amazon Web Services to create intelligent document processing. The goal? To help deed holders easily check for race-based deed restrictions — and take action. Race-based prejudice is all too common in deeds across the United States. The language…
-
Deed Theft Should Not Exist
What Does It Take to Safeguard a Title? If you hold the deed, you can’t be evicted, right? True — except if your deed is pulled out from under you by a nasty actor. It shouldn’t happen, but it does. Just ask Dada, a homeowner in Oklahoma City. Someone recorded a quitclaim on Dada’s deed,…
-
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.…
-
Is Buying a Home a Path to Financial Freedom? (Is the Answer Changing?)
For most U.S. deed holders, a home is at the core of their retirement wealth. So, does that make buying a home a path to financial independence? It certainly can be, although the calculus is changing.
-
Core of the American Dream? Three-Fourths Call Buying a Home Goal #1
The U.S. population has all sorts of goals. But of all that we strive for in our lives, seems we place the highest priority on owning a home. In recent surveys, three-fourths of respondents said owning a home is “the leading component of the American dream.” And yet, just about the same percentage of people…
-
Do I Have to Pay Off My Student Loans Before Buying a Home?
This month, 150,000+ people received emails that say some of their student loan debt will be forgiven. The latest $1.2 billion worth of debt forgiveness is a ray of sunshine for many potential first-time homebuyers. It impacts a person’s access to mortgage loans, and therefore the ability to acquire property deeds. But what about the…
-
Washington State’s Path to Fair Housing: The 2024 Recording Fee Increase and Covenant Homeownership Program
Beginning January 1, 2024, Washington State implemented a substantial revision to its recording fees, significantly affecting the real estate sector. This modification entailed a $100 increase in the recording fee for each document, aligning with the Covenant Homeownership Program assessment as outlined in RCW 36.22.185. This hike is applicable to a broad array of documents,…
-
Owning a Home Just Got More Useful. AI Speeds Up HELOC Lending
At the year’s end, it’s fun to pick out the best innovations to appear during the past 12 months. What about the role of artificial intelligence in home lending? More people might take out home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) to put their home equity to work — if only it weren’t such a drawn-out…
-
Added to a Deed: What Are the Tax Consequences?
It’s a common question. You’re going to be added onto someone’s deed. Will you have to declare your new homeownership to the IRS? An acquisition of real estate is not considered income. But being named on a deed could still implicate taxes. Let’s explore why.
-
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.…
-
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,…
-
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…
