Many farmers are facing higher debt as a multiyear drop in prices for corn, wheat, and other commodities plagues on. That is pushing more farmers out of business. The Farm Belt will soon have fewer than 2 million farms, the lowest in years.Still, economists aren’t predicting the crisis to be as severe as the one that struck the Farm Belt in the 1980s, in which farmland values plummeted and interest rates soared.Economists expect farmland values
More Americans are showing optimism toward their personal finances and the housing market, a reversal to a five-month decline in Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index.In particular, Americans are more upbeat about home prices, home selling, their rising household incomes, and they’re less scared about losing their jobs, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, a survey of 1,000 Americans in January about their attitudes
The chairman of the tax-writing House Ways & Means Committee joined REALTORS® at NAR’s 2017 Federal Policy Conference in Washington yesterday and urged them to stay engaged over the next year while lawmakers in Congress look at a full-scale reform of the country’s tax code.This year, tax reform is expected to be high on the list of priorities Congress and the new Administration are expected to take up. Reform of the seco
Housing affordability dropped to the lowest level in seven years at the end of 2016. It now takes 22.2 percent of a person’s median income to make the monthly principal and interest payment on a median-priced home, according to new findings from Black Knight Financial Services. That amounts to a 10 percent increase in the fourth quarter alone.Economists blame rising mortgage rates, price increases, and sluggish income growth for the growing hou
A slight decrease in mortgage rates last week gave home buyers a slight jolt to get moving. Total mortgage application volume, which includes refinancings and home purchases, increased 2.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. That said, applications continue to run 23 percent below year-ago levels, mostly due to a big drop in refinancing applications.Last week, mortgage application
Sumter, Fla., is the best place in the country for a borrower to get a mortgage, according to a new study by SmartAsset.SmartAsset’s study considered four factors to pinpoint the best places in the country to get a mortgage: overall borrowing costs, ease of securing a mortgage, affordable property taxes, and affordable annual mortgage payments.Borrowing costs were analyzed by factoring in expected costs over the first five years of a $200,000 m
Among 201 metro areas with populations of at least 200,000, 89 of those metros – or 44 percent – reached new all-time home price peaks in 2016, according to new data released by ATTOM Data Solutions.Notably, markets reaching new price highs included: Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas: $230,571 Houston, Texas: $214,795 Atlanta, Ga.: $181,000 Boston, Mass.: $390,000 San Francisco: $720,000Several Ohio markets – Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati – als
President Donald Trump reportedly will sign an executive action Friday to scale back the regulatory system that was put in place in 2010 in response to the financial crisis. The Trump administration has set out to remove what it views as regulatory burdens by overhauling mortgage financing giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and easing lending regulations."Americans are going to have better choices and Americans are going to have better products b
Homeowners who sold in 2016 saw an average home price gain since purchase of $38,206 – or a 21 percent, on average, increase since purchase, ATTOM Data Solutions repots in its Year-End 2016 U.S. Home Sales Report. That's up from an average 13 percent gain in 2015, and it is the highest increase since 2007.The largest metro areas to see the highest average percent gain since purchase for home sellers in 2016 were: San Francisco, Calif.: 69% gain
Mortgage rates barely budged this week compared to the previous week, as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage held its 4.19 percent average, Freddie Mac reports."The 10-year Treasury yield fell 5 basis points this week following a tepid advance estimate of fourth-quarter GDP and the Fed's decision to leave rates unchanged,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 30-year mortgage rate remained flat at 4.19 percent, starting the m
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