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3 Top Tips To Selecting The Right Home For Your Family

March 12, 2013 by Bob Elliot Leave a Comment

New Home With FamilyWhether you are moving to a new house with children or you are buying your first Minneapolis home with the intention of raising future little ones there, many factors will come into play when making your decision.

You will want to find a house with the right size and layout, that has a suitable number of bedrooms and bathrooms, is in an excellent neighborhood and has all of the local amenities your family will need.

Here are three important factors to consider during your new home search:

Location

Take a look at the area where the property is located.

Is it close to a school that your kids can attend when they are old enough?

Is there a playground where they can play with their friends?

Are you near any convenient shopping areas or stores for picking up groceries?

Location is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing a place to raise your family.

Neighbors

Take a look at the demographics of the neighborhood.  You may want to spend some time walking the neighborhood and learning about the surrounding area.

Taking evening walks in the neighborhood might allow you the opportunity to meet other people who are living there and learn what they think is important about the area.

If it has mostly young families around the same age as you, your children will likely have plenty of neighbors to play with as they grow up.

Affordability

You may think that spending as much as you can possibly afford on an expensive home is the best thing for your kids, but you might be wrong.

In fact, you could end up stressed out from working too hard to make your mortgage payments and feel like you never get enough time to spend with your family.

Another option would be to buy a more modest house that you can reasonably afford and have more time with your children.

Choosing the right place to live is difficult. It might take a while to find the right house, but when you do, it will be worth it.

When you do, you will have a wonderful place to fill with love and memories, where your children can grow up in peace and happiness.

If you’ve been seriously contemplating purchasing your first home, or possibly the next home, the best thing you can do is contact a licensed real estate professional to determine what is available in the market that would fit your needs.

Filed Under: Real Estate Tips Tagged With: Family Home, home purchase, New Home

What’€™s Ahead For Mortgage Rates This Week: March 11th, 2013

March 11, 2013 by Bob Elliot Leave a Comment

What's Ahead For Mortgage Rates This WeekMortgage rates and the major stock market indices rose last week in response to a strong jobs report and lower national unemployment rate.

The Department of Labor’s Non-farm Payrolls report for February surpassed expectations with 236,000 new jobs reported against expectations of 170,000 new jobs expected by Wall Street.

This stronger than expected showing in jobs numbers points to a stronger economy and may lead to less pressure to hold mortgage interest rates lower.

The Dow Jones Index also reached record levels last week. This strong stock market performance is to be expected with better than expected employment reports.

February’s numbers also exceeded January’s reading of 157,000 new jobs added to the economy.

Lower Unemployment Rates Help Economy, May Push Interest Rates Higher

The Unemployment Report for February also provided good news as February’s reading dropped to 7.7 percent from January’s unemployment rate of 7.9 percent.

While good news, it’s important to bear in mind that the Fed has established and unemployment rate of 6.5 percent as a benchmark for ceasing its monetary stimulus program.

The Federal Reserve released its Beige Book Report for March on Wednesday, and summarized reports from its 12 districts by noting modest to moderate economic improvement in 10 districts and slower economic growth in 2 districts.

Residential real estate markets are improving in most districts with home prices rising and inventories of available homes shrinking.

This news, coupled with last week’s rising mortgage rates is further emphasizes the upward trend in home prices in many areas and the rising cost of financing or refinancing a home.

While rising home prices are good for the economy, they impact affordability of homes, particularly for first-time home buyers.

Busy Upcoming Week In Financial News

Next week has a busy calendar of scheduled economic news; here are a few highlights:

  • Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday: Treasury Auctions
  • Wednesday: Retail Sales, and Retail Sales without Auto Sales
  • Thursday: Producers Price Index (PPI) and Core PPI (PPI without volatile food and energy sectors)
  • Thursday: Weekly Jobless Claims, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Core CPI (without food and energy sectors)
  • Friday: Consumer Sentiment

It will be interesting to see how or if Consumer Sentiment reacts to recent signs supporting progress toward economic recovery.

If you’ve been watching interest rates to see when the best time is to lock in, this may be a good opportunity.

As the economy continues to improve, mortgage interest rates will continue an upward climb.

Filed Under: Mortgage Rates Tagged With: Employment Report, Interest Rates, mortgage rates

3 Tips To Get The Best Results On Your Mortgage Application

March 8, 2013 by Bob Elliot Leave a Comment

Home Loan Approval TipsAlthough the financial markets have tightened mortgage lending guidelines and financing requirements over the last few years, the right advice when applying for your loan can make a big difference.

Not all loans are approved. And even when they aren’t approved immediately, it doesn’t have to be the end of your real estate dreams.

There are many reasons why a mortgage loan for the purchase of your real estate could be declined.

Here are a few things to understand and prepare for when applying for a mortgage:

Loan-to-Value Ratio

The loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is the percentage of the appraised value of the real estate that you are trying to finance.

For example, if you are trying to finance a home that costs $100,000, and want to borrow $75,000, your LTV is 75%.

Lenders generally don’t like a high LTV ratio. The higher the ratio, the harder it normally is to qualify for a mortgage.

You can positively affect the LTV by saving for a larger down payment.

Credit-to-Debt Ratio

Your credit score can be affected negatively, which in turn affects your mortgage loan if you have a high credit-to-debt ratio.

The ratio is figured by dividing the amount of credit available to you on a credit card or auto loan, and dividing it by how much you are currently owe.

High debt loads make a borrower less attractive to many lenders.

Try to keep your debt to under 50% of what is available to you. Lenders will appreciate it, and you will be more likely to get approved for a mortgage.

No Credit or Bad Credit

Few things can derail your mortgage loan approval like negative credit issues.

Having no credit record can sometimes present as much difficulty with your loan approval as having negative credit.

With no record of timely loan payments in your credit history, a lender is unable to determine your likelihood to repay the new mortgage.

Some lenders and loan programs may consider other records of payment, like utility bills and rent reports from your landlord.

Talk to your loan officer to determine which of these issues might apply to you, and take the steps to correct them.

Then, you can finance the home of your dreams.

Filed Under: Mortgage Guidelines Tagged With: Home Loan Tips, Loan Approval, mortgage guidelines

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