American Mortgage

According to the National Association of Realtors, rising wages, loosening credit standards and demographic shifts are combining to create momentum for owning a home rather than renting one.

With the homeownership rate rising for the fifth consecutive quarter, it held steady at 64.2%, unchanged from the prior quarter and its highest level since 2014. The share of Americans who own a home rose from the prior year, from 63.6% in the first quarter of 2017.

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There are time-worn real estate adages that never seem to go away. “Location, location, location” is one of them, and it still applies. But what about the one used in every “fix-and-flip,” or “fix-and-occupy” program on HGTV about buying the worst home in the best neighborhood?

For all those experts who push buying the most run-down place in the best part of town as a surefire winning investment because the only way its value can go is up, it may be time to take a second look, according to by Spencer Rascoff and Stan Humphries’ book Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate.

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Conventional and Government (FHA and VA) lenders set their rates based on the pricing of Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) which are traded in real time, all day in the bond market. This means rates or loan fees (mortgage pricing) moves throughout the day, being affected by a variety of economic or political events. When MBS pricing goes up, mortgage rates or pricing generally goes down. When they fall, mortgage pricing goes up.

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