Buying a home can be a nerve-racking experience, especially if you’re a first-time home buyer. Not only is it probably the biggest purchase of your life, but the process is complicated and fraught with unfamiliar lingo and surprise expenses. To make the first-time home buying journey a little less stressful, NerdWallet has compiled these 25
WASHINGTON – May 22, 2017 – U.S. real estate markets are becoming increasingly international. Two trends – changing demographics from immigration and a growing interest from foreigners – are positioned to bolster home sales activity and prices, according to speakers at an international real estate forum organized by Realtor® University’s Richard J. Rosenthal Center for
For first- time homebuyers, you can’t beat the Orlando and Tampa Bay areas. Despite steadily rising prices, both are relatively affordable compared to the West Coast and Northeast at a time when nearly half of all buyers are first-timers, a new Zillow report says. As millennials — those in the 18-34 age group — “reach
NEW YORK – Buying a home for the first time can be daunting. In addition to mountains of paperwork and new financial terms to sort through, you’ll face costs and fees that can quickly add up. Fortunately, many grants and programs exist to help first-time homebuyers. Here are some of them: FHA loan With this
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A top legislative priority of Florida Realtors passed on Wednesday. It gives voters the chance to make permanent a 10 percent cap in non-homestead property tax increases during the 2018 general election. The passage of SJR 76/HJR 21 successfully ends a nearly year-long effort by Florida Realtors to get the proposed amendment
NEW YORK –  At some point, mortgage rates will rise again. Americans have, so far, been resilient to rising mortgage rates, but a bigger impact could come soon, say Goldman Sachs economists. Housing’s share of the economy rose above normal levels from November to January, despite mortgage rates surging 60 basis points at the time.
WASHINGTON – Mortgage rates dropped below 4 percent last week for the first time since November, just as the crucial spring selling season gets under way. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 3.97 percent from 4.08 percent a week earlier; in mid-March, the FRM averaged 4.3 percent. The drop could encourage
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – April 12, 2017 – Millennials who bought a home are generally happy about it. Bank of America’s second annual Homebuyer Insights Report finds that millennials who have taken the plunge into homeownership buy the house they can afford now and plan to buy their ideal home later. A large majority (68 percent)
NEW YORK – April 12, 2017 – Continued economic improvement should give first-time homebuyers the boost they need to enter the market. In fact, about three in five independent mortgage lenders (59 percent) in a recent survey predict an increase in first-time homebuyers in 2017. The prediction comes from The Lenders One Cooperative, a national
Tampa developers are reviving plans for Del Villar, a long-dead Channel district condominium tower. Mercury Advisors, the group behind the $90 million Channel Club— a Publix Super Markets Inc. store and 21-story apartment tower under construction on East Twiggs Street — are planning a 36-story condo tower at the corner of East Whiting Street and