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Reverse Mortgages, Family Style A mortgage company that specializes in setting up home-purchase loans funded by the buyers’ parents is now creating a vehicle through which siblings can pool their money to help their elders in a similar way. Called a caregiver mortgage by its creator, National Family Mortgage of Belmont, Mass., this new loan product is essentially a private, less regulated version of a reverse mortgage. Read more on: NY Times Renters Are Staying Put High rents and more affordable mortgages are not persuading more renters to buy, according to a new study. An analysis of data from real estate investment trusts, or REITs, that manage 520,000 rental units found that just 14.7 percent of tenants who moved out in the fourth quarter of 2014 did so to buy a home. The rate “has been in the 14 percent range since 2012, and just hasn’t really moved,” said David Guarino, a senior research analyst who conducted the analysis for John Burns Real Estate Consulting in Irvine, Calif. Read more on: NY Times Mortgage Amounts Rising More Quickly Than Home Prices Mortgage amounts are rising more quickly than home prices, an unusual phenomenon that seems to confirm continued weakness at the lower end of the housing market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade association reports that the average size of purchase loans began to outpace the recovery in home prices in September 2011. By December 2014, according to the group’s weekly mortgage application survey, the average purchase loan amount had risen by nearly 32 percent. The average for the week ending March 6 was $294,900, a record high. In other words, the average purchase loan now exceeds levels reached before the recession when home prices soared to unsustainable heights. Read more on: NY Times Peak Times for Loan Closings The most popular times to close on a mortgage are on Fridays and at the end of the month — even though there is not necessarily any financial advantage to borrowers in doing so. Data posted last month by the National Association of Realtors ranked the top seven closing days in 2014 as the last business days of June, May, August, April, July, September and February. All but three of the next 18 most popular closing days were Fridays. Read more on: NY Times Looser Credit for Home Buyers The coming reduction in insurance premiums on mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration will make these loans more attractive to the most creditworthy, lower-risk borrowers, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. The F.H.A., which secures loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, plans to cut the annual premiums charged to borrowers by 0.5 percentage point, effective Jan. 26. The reduction comes as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are extending credit to a similar audience with new conforming mortgage programs that allow as little as 3 percent down. Read more on: NY Times |
