In a move expected to bring 250,000 first-time homebuyers into the market, FHA will reduce annual Columbia SC mortgage insurance premiums by half a percentage point, to 0.85 percent. The move is expected to make homeownership more affordable for more than 2 million homeowners in the next three years.
After raising Columbia SC mortgage insurance premiums six times during the housing bust, the Obama administration is reversing course and rolling back mortgage insurance premiums charged by the Federal Housing Administration by enough to save homeowners an average of $900 a year.
Upfront Columbia SC Mortgage Insurance Premiums Will Remain Unchanged
FHA's upfront premiums of 1.75 percent will remain unchanged. So a first-time homebuyer taking out a $180,000 mortgage will pay $3,150 upfront and $1,530 a year in premiums for access to FHA mortgage programs that let them purchase a home with as little as 3.5 percent down. Today, the same homeowner pays $2,430 a year in annual premiums.
The National Association of Realtors claims that FHA premium increases priced nearly 400,000 borrowers out of the housing market in 2013, and 234,000 in 2014. In the past four years, NAR said, the share of first-time buyers using FHA-backed loans shrank from 56 percent to 39 percent.
The hope is for the premium rollback to provide greater access to homeownership for entry-level and underrepresented buyers.
We'll keep you informed on this reduction of Columbia SC mortgage insurance rates as it moves forward. In the meantime, you can get more information about Columbia SC mortgage insurance and mortgages in our section on Columbia SC Mortgage Info to your right under Columbia SC Real Estate Categories.
We post daily to Twitter and Facebook and would love to have you find and follow us there.
The burden of Columbia SC household costs fell for the third consecutive year, according to the U.S. Census’ 2013 American Community Survey. Nationwide last year, 39.6 million households spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing, which is a decrease from 40.9 million in 2012 and down from the peak of 42.7 million in 2010.
Columbia SC household costs are mostly dropping among home owners, while they continue to strain renters, according to a recent analysis by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies of the data. In 2013, 26 percent of home owners were considered burdened by household expenses (i.e.: spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing), compared to half of all renters at 49 percent.
Why Columbia SC Household Costs Are Escalating For Renters
The number of renter households is on the rise, which partially explains why Columbia SC household costs for renters are escalating. But renters are also plagued by rising rents that are not matching incomes. Median renter costs were up about 5 percent in 2013 compared to 2001, even though median incomes were nearly 11 percent lower, according to the report.
This has led to more renters being severely burdened by Columbia SC household costs in 2013, paying more than 50 percent of their incomes toward housing costs. 11.2 million renters were in this category.
The number of home owners burdened with higher Columbia SC household costs is dropping. After surging during the housing bubble, inflation-adjusted owner costs have dropped about 2.5 percent below their 2001 level. Owner burdens are also down due to a significant reduction in the overall number of home owners in 2013 than 2012. This decline in the number of home owners for the third straight year suggests that many burdened owners dropped out of ownership, moving into the costly rental market.
Get more timely information about Columbia SC household costs and news affecting those costs in our section on Columbia SC Real Estate News to the right under Columbia SC Real Estate Categories.
We post daily to Twitter, and also on our Facebook Page. We'd love you to check us out there too.
More people closed on a Columbia SC home or condo last month, with sales of existing Columbia SC homes rising to the highest level since September 2013.
Columbia SC Home Sales Mirror National Numbers
The same trend that Columbia SC home sales are seeing holds true across most of the rest of the country as well. The National Association of Realtors says existing home sales rose 1.5 percent to an annual pace of 5.26 million. Sales were also higher than year-ago levels for the first time in a year.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun says, "Sales activity reached the highest annual pace of the year as buyers continue to be encouraged by interest rates at lows not seen since last summer, improving levels of inventory and stabilizing price growth."
The median price of an existing home that sold nationwide was up 5.5 percent from a year ago, the 32nd consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.
Foreclosure and short sales were down 9 percent from a year ago. Just 7 percent of all October sales were foreclosures and just 2 percent were short sales. Condo and co-op sales posted the biggest monthly gains, up 3.3 percent from September.
The median price for an existing home in October was $208,300, 5.5 percent higher than it was a year ago.
Get more timely information about Columbia SC home sales and news affecting mortgage rates and sales in our section on Columbia SC Real Estate News to the right under Columbia SC Real Estate Categories.
We post daily over on Twitter, and on Facebook as well.. We'd love you to check us out there too.
Families are losing their Columbia SC homes because of unpaid utility bills. It's happening all over America, not just in the Columbia SC area…
Be sure to Find us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter!
A majority of Baby Boomers surveyed recently by the non-profit Demand Institute say they plan to stay put in their Columbia SC homes.
Many of the decisions to stay in their Columbia SC homes has to do with the recession. The financial crisis put an end to years of rapid wealth accumulation, causing the typical Boomer household's net worth to fall to $143,000 in 2013 from just over $200,000 in 2007, according to Federal Reserve data.
The Boomer generation is also carrying a lot more mortgage debt. The survey found that the median outstanding mortgage balance for 50- to 69-year-olds was $118,000 in 2013, up from $48,743 in 1992. Financially, the Boomer generation is not necessarily ready for retirement, and half of their assets are tied up in their homes.
37% of the Boomers surveyed said they were planning to make a move, however. Nearly half of the movers said they wanted to get a bigger place — and that they intended to spend more money on it. But with a median net worth of just $40,000, this group was among some of the least wealthy surveyed. In fact, the report found that many of those who were looking to "up-size" were also looking to switch from renting to owning.
Many Baby Boomers Plan to Remodel Their Columbia SC Homes
Boomers seemed generally unconcerned about whether or not it would be "aging-friendly" — even though a whopping three-quarters of them reported having significant health issues, such as cardiovascular conditions, arthritis, obesity and high blood pressure. Only one-in-five of the movers said they intend to live in senior housing.
Instead, many of those surveyed said they plan to use their money to remodel things like kitchens and bathrooms in order to increase the value of their existing Columbia SC homes.
More than 17% of the 76 million Boomers are already retired and about 10,000 will reach the traditional retirement age of 65 every day for the next 15 years. And even though many Boomers plan to stay in their current Columbia SC homes, the Demand Institute estimates that nationwide, this generation will purchase about $1.9 trillion in homes over the next five years.
For more articles on Columbia SC area homes and the news that affects those homes and the prospects considering buying them, check out our Columbia SC Real Estate News section under Columbia SC Real Estate Categories to your right.
Keep up with our daily real estate and mortgage related news tips as we post them on Twitter, and find us on Facebook as well.