BLOGS

Two Questions To Ask Yourself if You’re Considering Buying a Home If you’re thinking of buying a home, chances are you’re paying attention to just about everything you hear about the housing market. And you’re getting your information from a variety of channels: the news, social media, your real est

30YR Fixed 6.96% -0.13% 15YR Fixed 6.38% -0.04%   Home Prices Hit New Peaks Despite Affordability Issues   The Black Knight Mortgage Monitor for May doesn’t even hint at a housing crisis on the horizon. Affordability is again (or maybe still) a concern, but buyers are out there, and home prices refl

30YR Fixed 7.14% -0.08% 15YR Fixed 6.50% -0.15%   Mortgage Rates Back Over 7% as Markets Digest Economic Data Until a few weeks ago, it looked like we might have seen the last of 7% mortgage rates, but the last 2 weeks have been brutal. The culprit has been a collection of several scheduled economic

Today’s Housing Inventory Is a Sweet Spot for Sellers One of the biggest challenges in the housing market right now is how few homes there are for sale compared to the number of people who want to buy them. To help emphasize just how limited housing inventory still is, let’s take a look at the lates

30YR Fixed 7.02% -0.02% 15YR Fixed 6.42% -0.03%   Mortgage Rates Jumped Over 7% This Week, Even if You Heard They Were 6.71% Mortgage rates have been hovering in the high 6's for weeks, but they broke above 7% on Thursday. At the same time, multiple news outlets reported a 30yr fixed rate of 6.71%.

30YR Fixed 6.91% -0.01% 15YR Fixed 6.32% +0.00%   April Home Prices Bolster Case for Recovery Both the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index and the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA’s) Home Price Index (HPI) show home prices continuing to increase in April although at a muc

Do homes with solar panels sell for more than comparable homes without panels? Caption     Yes, homes with owned solar panels typically sell for more than comparable homes without panels. According to a study by Zillow, homes with solar panels sell for an average of 4.1% more than comparable homes w

The True Cost of Selling Your House on Your Own Selling your house is no simple task. While some homeowners opt to sell their homes on their own, known as a FSBO (For Sale by Owner), they often encounter various challenges without the guidance of a real estate agent. If you’re currently considering

Eco-Friendly, Energy-Efficient Homes Attract Buyers Smart Home Features - Add Value to Homes   Are you planning to sell your house? If so, you may be surprised to hear just how much buyers value energy efficiency and eco-friendly features today. This is especially true as summer officially kicks off

30YR Fixed 6.95% +0.05% 15YR Fixed 6.32% +0.04%   Two Ways to Look at Existing Home Sales The reality of the home sales market is in the eye of the beholder these days and the just-released Existing Home Sales report doesn't shed much light.  The National Association of Realtors (NAR) logged an annu

What Homebuyers Need To Know About Credit Scores If you’re thinking about buying a home, you should know your credit score’s a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to qualifying for a home loan. Lenders review your credit to assess your ability to make payments on time, to pay back debts, and

30YR Fixed 6.90% +0.03% 15YR Fixed 6.28% +0.03%   New Home Construction Growth Swings From 14 Year Low to 13 Month High Although the New Residential Construction report released by the Census Bureau has notoriously wide margins of error, it's rare to see numbers like today's rendered irrelevant by a

Saving for a Down Payment? Here’s What You Need To Know. If you're planning to buy your first home, then you're probably focused on saving for all the costs involved in such a big purchase. One of the expenses that may be at the top of your mind is your down payment. If you’re intimidated by how muc

$1,350,000 4 Beds | 4 Baths | 3,100 SqFt 30 Bay Street, Highlands, NJ 07732 Active Looking for a luxurious, modern home that offers breathtaking views of Sandy Hook Bay and the NYC skyline? Look no further than this stunning custom-built property located in the hills of Highlands, NJ. With a listing

30YR Fixed 6.89% -0.01% 15YR Fixed 6.28% -0.01% Mortgage Rates 101, Part 5: What Causes Mortgage Rates to Change? Mortgage rates change daily, and sometimes multiple times per day. In this article, “mortgage rates” will refer to the combination of upfront cost and actual interest rate described here

Oops! Home Prices Didn’t Crash After All During the fourth quarter of last year, many housing experts predicted home prices were going to crash this year. Here are a few of those forecasts: Jeremy Siegel, Russell E. Palmer Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of Business: “I expect ho

  Getting pre-approved for a mortgage is a crucial step in the home buying process. It allows buyers to know how much they can afford to spend on a home and shows sellers that they are serious about making an offer. But how exactly do you get pre-approved for a mortgage? In this blog, we’ll walk you

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how much a house is worth. A house's value depends on several factors, including the location, size, condition, and amenities of the home. The value of a house can also be affected by the current market conditions. Here are some of the factors

Keys to Success for First-Time Homebuyers Buying your first home is an exciting decision and a major milestone that has the power to change your life for the better. As a first-time homebuyer, it’s a vision you can bring to life, but, as the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shares, you’ll have

The Benefits of Selling Now, According to Experts If you’re trying to decide if now’s the time to sell your house, here’s what you should know. The limited number of homes available right now gives you a big advantage. That’s because there are more buyers out there than there are homes for sale. And