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A soft second loan, sometimes called a silent second, is subordinate to the first mortgage, whose payment is deferred or forgiven until a specific date or the resale of the property.   This would mean that buyers would not have to contend with regular payments thereby keeping their debt-to-income ratio lower and more affordable. While normal lending institutions may not be open to such types of financing, family and friends may be.   In some cases, these relatives and friends may be inclined to make a gift to help buyers get into a home.   Instead of an outright gift, if the person makes the loan, they have options to be repaid at some point in the future or in other cases, they could forgive the debt but don't have to make that decision today. There are more than 2,000 down payment assistance programs nationwide.   State, county, and city governments run many of them.   Other programs could be from churches, employers, non-profit organizations, regi...

You may remember the famous line in the Dirty Harry movie when Clint Eastwood has just had a shootout with bank robbers and is standing in front of the lone surviving thief who is considering going for his gun. Harry with his gun pointed at the bad guy says to him " " Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kinda lost track myself. But being this is a 44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and would blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question:  Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya?"  Our economy has had a long recovery from the great recession, due in most part to the housing crisis of 2007-2009.   Then, the Pandemic hit in 2020 which tanked the worldwide economy but the surprise to homeowners happened to be housing.   2021 became a red-hot market with prices going up by 21% nationally.   In 2022, mortgage rates have increased by four percentage points and ...

Housing affordability has declined dramatically in 2022 due to continued rising home prices and a three-percentage point jump in mortgage rates.   Based on the popularity of Google searches for "housing bust" or "housing bubble", it could be surmised that buyers are anticipating relief, but they are probably not going to see it anytime soon. Home price appreciation is moderating and is down from the 20% level experienced in 2021.   Some of the major industry prognosticators are estimating anywhere from 9% to 14% for 2022.   Interest rates are expected to continue to rise through the end of 2022 and could be at 7%.   Freddie Mac 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.66% on October 6, 2022. Even though homes currently for sale increased to 3.2 months in August 2022, it isn't that much more than it was for the same month in 2021 when it was at 2.6 months.   Most markets are still entrenched in favor of sellers because a balanced market ...

The rapid rise in mortgage rates during 2022 coupled with continued appreciation of home prices have limited the number of buyers in the market which is reflected by the lower number of home sales currently.   "It's a fact that many households are impacted by higher mortgage rates as they no longer earn the qualifying income for the median-priced home." Nadia Evangelou, NAR Economist One of the things that agents are doing to help buyers lower their house payments is to suggest an adjustable-rate mortgage.   The rates on these types of loans are tied to indexes that reflect the current market rates and produce less risk for the lender.   The payments adjust on the anniversary date based on the index plus margin named in the note. While many people think that they only adjust upward, they also adjust downward when the index indicates it.   For the week of September 29, 2022, the Freddie Mac 5/1 ARM was 5.03% compared to the 30-year fixed-rate ...