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Category: For Buyers

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Two Moves That Can Get You Into Your First Home Sooner

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Affordability, Buying Tips, First-Time Buyers, For Buyers, Rent vs. Buy, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

For a lot of first-time buyers, owning a home can feel perpetually a few years out of reach. Saving for a down payment takes time, and each year you spend renting can make owning feel further off.But buying your first home doesn’t have to happen to feel like a far away goal. Two choices you control can bring your first home years closer, even with affordability as tight as it is right now.How Long Buying Really TakesFirst, one quick definition. “Breaking even” is the point where owning has cost you about the same as renting would have over the same period. And after that...

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Hoping for (or Dreading) a Housing Crash? The Experts Just Weighed In.

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Buying Tips, Equity, First-Time Buyers, For Buyers, Forecasts, Home Prices, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

Half the buyers out there are scared home prices are about to crash. The other half are hoping they will.A recent survey from Clever found 58% of Gen Z buyers are actually rooting for a crash, just so homeownership feels within reach.So, what do the forecasts actually say?Every quarter, Fannie Mae surveys more than 100 housing experts on where prices are headed. The newest results are in. And spoiler alert: they’re not calling for a crash – not even the pessimists.What the Newest Numbers Actually SayThe panel’s latest forecast has prices climbing every single year through at least...

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Data Centers Are Moving Closer to Homes. What Does That Mean for You?

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in For Buyers, For Sellers, Home Prices, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

Data centers probably weren’t on your list of things to think about when buying or selling a home.School districts? Sure. How close you are to family? Absolutely. A large building full of computer servers down the road? Probably not.But that may be changing.Data centers are popping up in more communities across the country. And as they do, buyers and homeowners are starting to wonder what having one nearby could mean for everything from home values to utility bills. So, let’s get into what the data actually says. Because there’s a lot more nuance here than if they’re...

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Remote Work Could Be Your Affordability Answer

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Affordability, Agent Value, Buying Tips, First-Time Buyers, For Buyers, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

For most first-time buyers, the hardest part of buying a home is making the numbers work. You budget, you save, and the finish line still feels far away. But your salary is only half the equation. Where you live shapes what you can afford just as much. And if you can work remotely, you have an advantage a lot of buyers don’t. You’re not tied to living where the jobs are, so you can look where your money goes further.Where You Work Doesn’t Have To Dictate Where You LiveRemote job openings are on the rise. According to FlexJobs, remote job postings climbed 22% from the quarter...

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Who Has the Upper Hand in Today’s Housing Market?

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Buying Tips, For Buyers, For Sellers, Selling Tips, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

Ask around and almost every homebuyer out there wants to know if there’s a way to get a better deal. And just about every seller wants to know if they’ll still get top dollar.The interesting thing is… both can be right at the exact same time. It just depends on where you live.That’s because today’s housing market isn’t moving in one direction anymore. Some markets clearly favor buyers. Others still favor sellers. But most are sitting somewhere in the middle.And knowing which market you’re actually in can completely change the strategy you use to buy or...

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Here’s Why Mortgage Rates Are What They Are Right Now

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Affordability, Economy, For Buyers, For Sellers, Mortgage Rates, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

If you’re waiting for mortgage rates to fall a lot before you buy, you may be waiting a while. But before you get discouraged, there’s a number working behind the scenes that’s actually good for you right now. It’s called the spread, and once you understand it, you may see today’s rates in a whole new light.The Pattern That’s Held for 50+ YearsFor starters, mortgage rates don’t move on their own. They tend to follow the 10-year treasury yield, a number tied to how investors feel about the economy.It’s not an exact science, since plenty of other factors can move...

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The Case for Putting 20% Down on Your Next Home

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Affordability, Buying Tips, Downsize, For Buyers, Move-Up, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

If you’re planning to buy your next home soon, you’ve probably heard the old rule about saving 20% for your down payment.The truth is, you usually don’t have to. Plenty of loan options let qualified buyers put down much less. But a lot of repeat buyers are choosing to put down 20% anyway.So, why are they if they don’t have to?Two reasons. They know a bigger down payment pays off, and after years in their current house, they’ve built up enough equity that it’s finally possible.Repeat Buyers Put More Money DownAccording to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the typical repeat buyer...

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4 Ways To Give Your Offer an Edge This Spring

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Buying Tips, For Buyers, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

Looking to buy a home this season? Here’s what you should know. Buyers have more leverage today than they’ve had in years. There are more homes to choose from and, in many areas, sellers are more open to negotiation. But that doesn’t mean competition is gone completely. These days, it varies a lot depending on where you’re hoping to move. If you’re buying in a popular neighborhood, or in a market where there aren’t many homes for sale, you may still find yourself competing with another buyer.And that’s especially true in the Spring. Here’s how to stay one step ahead of any...

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This’ll Change What You Think About Investors in Today’s Housing Market

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in For Buyers, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

There’s a lot of noise out there right now about investors in the housing market.Some headlines make it sound like big Wall Street firms are buying up everything in sight. And if you’re trying to purchase a home yourself, that can make it feel like the odds are stacked against you.But when you take a closer look at the data, a very different picture starts to come into focus.Most Investors Are Just Everyday OwnersFor starters, when you hear the word investor, you probably picture big corporations. And that misconception is a large part of what’s feeding into the myth that they’re buying up...

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Renting vs. Buying: The Numbers Might Surprise You

Written by The Villages FL Mortgage Syndicated User on . Posted in Affordability, First-Time Buyers, For Buyers, Rent vs. Buy, The Villages FL, The Villages FL Mortgage.

Renting can feel like the easier choice right now. There’s no big down payment. No dealing with surprise repairs. And no long-term commitment.But then your rent goes up again. And again. And suddenly the thing that seemed flexible starts looking… expensive, especially considering you’re not building any equity. And once that happens, it’s easy to feel a little trapped in the cycle.That’s because there’s so much chatter today about how buying a home isn’t affordable. But the truth is, the math may work out better than you’d expect based on what’s changed recently.Buying Is More...

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