President Donald Trump, who paints himself as a champion of the middle class, hammers middle-income home buyers with FHA policy reversal. Within hours of being inaugurated, Donald Trump took a swipe at low-income and middle-class Americans — many of whom voted for him — by scrapping a planned mortgage fee reduction for FHA loans. In […]
Author: Brandon Cornett
Brandon is a full-time housing writer and creator of the Home Buying Institute. He has been covering the real estate industry for 12 years.
Forecast: Phoenix Home Prices to Keep Rising Into 2018
According to a recent forecast from the real estate data company Zillow, the Phoenix housing market could continue appreciating well into the first part of 2018. But homeowners in the areas probably shouldn’t expect the kind of home-price appreciation seen over the last year. House values in the Phoenix appear to be rising more slowly […]
U.S. Home Price Forecast for 2017: A Return to Normalcy?
A recent forecast for U.S. home prices suggests that house values will rise more slowly in 2017, more closely matching historical averages. This follows a period of above-average gains over the last two years. According to the real estate research team at Zillow, U.S. home prices rose by nearly 7% in 2016. That’s well above […]
Keller Williams Mid-Willamette Penalized for Illegal Kickback Scheme
Keller Williams Realty Mid-Willamette, a real estate brokerage located in Corvallis, Oregon, has been penalized and fined by a federal financial watchdog for participating in what has been called an illegal kickback scheme. According to a January 31, 2017 press release from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Keller Williams Realty Mid-Willamette (a.k.a., Willamette Legacy, […]
FHA Annual Mortgage Insurance to Go Down in 2017, HUD Says
Federal Housing Administration officials announced today that they will reduce the annual mortgage insurance premium for FHA loans by a quarter of a percent. The lower MIP rate will apply to most borrowers who use the FHA program to buy a home in 2017, and will save them an average of $500 per year. The […]
Mortgage Rate Predictions for 2017 Have Been Revised Upward
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), an industry group, recently increased its mortgage rate predictions and forecast for 2017. This was partly a response to the surge in mortgage rates that occurred during the last few weeks of 2016, and is shown in the chart below. MBA analysts expect that the average rate for a 30-year […]
Houston, Texas Housing Market Forecast 2017
Home prices in Houston, Texas have never been higher than they are right now, and there’s a chance they’ll rise even higher during 2017. That’s the Houston housing market forecast for 2017, according to a number of real estate analysts, economists, and industry leaders. Related: Marketing support for Houston mortgage brokers Houston Housing Market ‘Sprinting […]
2016 Mortgage Rate Chart Shows Big Surge
On Thursday, December 15, Freddie Mac reported that mortgage rates rose again in their latest industry survey. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As shown in the 2016 mortgage rate chart below, home loan rates in three categories have risen for the last seven weeks in a row and are now at their […]
Phoenix, Arizona Real Estate Market Forecast for 2017
Home values in Phoenix rose steadily and sharply in 2016, climbing 9% to 11% depending on the source. But 2017 forecasts for the Phoenix housing market suggest that prices could rise more slowly over the next year or so. In a somewhat contradicting report, the National Association of Realtors made a prediction that Phoenix would […]
FHA Changes: Higher Loan Limits for 2017
On December 1, 2016, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the revised FHA loan limits for 2017. The maximum loan limits for purchase mortgages were increased in most counties across the U.S., and will remained unchanged in some counties. There were no counties with a decrease. Next year, FHA loan limits for […]