DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Mortgage rates edge closer to 7%, dampening start of spring homebuying season
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Washington, DC CNN —Mortgage rates climbed for the fourth week in a row, inching closer to 7% just as peak homebuying season gets underway. Since reaching a 20-year high of 7.79% in October, mortgage rates have been slowly falling. The average mortgage rate is based on mortgage applications that Freddie Mac receives from thousands of lenders across the country. Last week, mortgage applications dropped 5.6% from the week before, according to the MBA. Higher home prices pushed loan amounts higher in January, offsetting what was a monthly decline in mortgage rates, said Edward Seiler, MBA’s associate vice president for housing economics.

Persons: Freddie Mac, ”, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s, Khater, Bob Broeksmit, Mike Fratantoni, Edward Seiler, MBA’s, Lawrence Yun Organizations: DC CNN —, “, Federal Reserve, Mortgage, Association, National Association of Realtors Locations: Washington

☆ Home affordability is the worst it has been since 1984
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Anna Bahney | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Washington, DC CNN —Buying a house requires a much bigger slice of people’s income now — making this the most unaffordable housing market since 1984, by one measure. The number of cost-burdened renters increased by 1.2 million, to a record 21.6 million households, between 2019 and 2021. In all, 40.6 million households were housing-cost burdened in 2021, including 20.3 million who were severely burdened. Affordability picture remains grim this yearHopeful house hunters continued to face challenging affordability conditions in July as rising mortgage rates and historically low housing inventory pushed prices higher, said Edward Seiler, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s associate vice president for housing economics. “Unfortunately, given today’s lack of inventory and affordability levels, it may take years before home affordability returns to more ‘normal’ levels,” he said.

Persons: Black Knight, Knight, “, ”, Andy Walden, Edward Seiler, Seiler, Joel Kan, Walden, ” It’s Organizations: DC CNN, Federal Reserve, Black, Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Mortgage, Moody’s Investors Service Locations: Washington

☆ Homeowners now have less equity than a year ago, the first annual decline in a decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The average US homeowner with a mortgage has less home equity now than 12 months ago. Equity per borrower slipped 1.9% from the same time last year, CoreLogic data shows. It's the first annual decline in homeowner equity since 2012. In total, homeowners with a mortgage cumulatively lost $108.4 billion in home equity since the first quarter of 2022, about a 0.7% drop. On Thursday, the National Association of Realtors said prices for existing homes fell in 3.1% May, the largest annual decline in since late 2011.

Persons: —, Edward Seiler Organizations: Service, Associated Press, National Association of Realtors

☆ Housing market inventory keeps declining and that's bad news for homebuyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We're revisiting housing inventory today because it's one of the key sticking points that's keeping home prices elevated and buyers wary. Get this: The housing market today has 39% fewer homes for sale than before the pandemic. Mortgage rates are currently about double what they were in 2021, when ultra-low rates fueled a home-buying boom. That could help influence mortgage rates to go even higher this year. People who are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for mortgage rates to decline, should know that's unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future."

Persons: I'm Phil Rosen, Jerome Powell, Joe Raedle, There's, Powell, Redfin's Chen Zhao, Edward Seiler, Tweet, JIM WATSON, Morgan Stanley, Steve Eisman, Larry Summers, Richard Branson's, Phil Rosen, Max Adams, Hallam Bullock Organizations: realtors, Mortgage Bankers Association, US, Getty, Fed, FedEx, Nvidia, Bloomberg, Treasury, Virgin Galactic Locations: homebuilding, New York, London

☆ The housing market has about 40% fewer homes for sale than before the pandemic, and listings keep falling
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The current housing market offers 39% fewer homes for sale than pre-pandemic, Redfind said. Homeowners are unwilling to part ways with low mortgage rates secured before borrowing costs went up. Mortgage rates are now hovering close to 7%, nearly double where they were at in 2021, when ultra-low rates fueled a home-buying boom. "People who are sitting on the sidelines, waiting for mortgage rates to decline, should know that's unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Edward Seiler, the associate vice president for housing economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association, told Insider earlier that the housing market has never been this unaffordable for new buyers.

Persons: Redfind, —, Chen Zhao, Redfin, Edward Seiler, Seiler Organizations: Service, Federal Reserve, Mortgage, Mortgage Bankers Association Locations: homebuilding

☆ Home buyers are facing the least affordable market on record
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Joe Raedle / Getty ImagesEdward Seiler is the associate vice president for housing economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Phil Rosen: The MBA's Purchase Applications Payment Index just hit a new high in April. For new home buyers, this is the worst situation since the end of the Great Recession. Current homeowners that were lucky enough to get a 2.75% interest rate in 2022 are in a great position, but for new buyers looking to buy a first home, or those looking to move to another home, it's a very daunting proposition. In his view, monthly payments for first-time buyers are up roughly one-third compared to last year — and that's going to keep buyers on the sidelines and weigh on demand.

Persons: I'm Phil Rosen —, Joe Raedle, Edward Seiler, Phil Rosen, Jen, Hsun Huang, Huang, Kim Kulish, Gregg Fisher, he's, Jensen Huang, It's, There's, Evercore's Mark Mahaney, Meta, shouldn't, David Rosenberg, who's, Larry Pitkowsky, Max Adams Organizations: Mortgage, Association, Twitter, Nvidia Corp, GPU Technology, Nvidia, Treasury Department, Fed, Tech Locations: San Jose , California, New York

☆ The housing market has never been this unaffordable for new buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

New home buyers are facing the least affordable market ever, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows. A higher reading indicates declining borrower affordability conditions, due to either increasing loan amounts, rising mortgage rates, or a decrease in earnings. Meanwhile, the national median mortgage payment was $2,112 in April, up from $2,093 the prior month, per MBA data. As the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022, mortgage rates on 30-year fixed loans more than doubled from 3% to above 7%. As of now, with the Fed having made 10 consecutive rate hikes and the June meeting looming, mortgage rates are hovering just under 7%.

Persons: —, Edward Seiler, MBA's, Seiler, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Mortgage Bankers Association, Service, Privacy, Mortgage, Association, Mortgage Bankers, Federal Reserve, Baltimore Locations: Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, California, Louis, Detroit, Chicago

☆ Housing affordability drops as home prices stay elevated and average mortgage costs jumped in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Housing affordability dropped in March as low inventory kept home prices elevated, the MBA said. Meanwhile, the average mortgage payment for new applicants increased 1.6% over the month of March. That's largely due to low inventory in the housing market, the MBA said, which has kept home prices high despite downward pricing pressure that usually comes with higher mortgage rates. New listings of homes for sale dropped over 20% in April compared to a year earlier, Redfin reported, marking the steepest drop in housing inventory since the pandemic. Central bankers raised rates over 1,700% in the past year to lower inflation, a move that's influenced mortgage rates to move higher as well.

Mortgage rates have trended down recently and are holding steady today. Rates have increased dramatically throughout most of 2022, pushing the typical monthly mortgage payment further out of reach for many cash-strapped buyers. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, the median mortgage payment applied for by applicants increased to $2,012 in October. If the Fed acts too aggressively and engineers a recession, mortgage rates could fall further than what current forecasts expect. This means your entire monthly mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance, shouldn't exceed 28% of your pre-tax monthly income.

The average U.S. 30-year mortgage rate surpassed 7% for the first time in two decades, mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday. Meanwhile, the national median mortgage payment was $1,941 in September, up from $1,839 in August and an increase from $1,844 in July, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Homebuyer affordability took an enormous hit in September, with the 75-basis-point jump in mortgage rates leading to the typical homebuyer’s monthly payment rising $102 from August,” Edward Seiler, associate vice president of housing economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association, said in a statement. “With mortgage rates continuing to rise, the purchasing power of borrowers is shrinking. "With 7% mortgage rates, only 15% of Black households can currently afford to buy the typical home compared to 30% of White households," Nadia Evangelou, National Association of Realtors senior economist and director of forecasting, said in a statement.

Search resuls for: "Edward Seiler"

10 mentions found