4 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score

4 Ways To Improve Your Credit Score


This post is by our regular contributor, Catherine.
Quick: what number impacts your life the most?
If you’re over the age of 18, it’s probably not your SAT score — now it’s your credit score.
You probably know that your credit score impacts whether or not you can get approved for a credit card, a car loan, or a mortgage.
It also affects what kind of interest rate you can get on those loans.
So a good or excellent score can save you thousands of dollars over your lifetime. Plus, you might not know that your credit score can also affect your ability to get hired, since employers often run a credit check.


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7 Ways to Celebrate (Finally) Paying Off Your Mortgage

7 Ways to Celebrate (Finally) Paying Off Your Mortgage


If you own the roof over your head, odds are you also have a mortgage hovering over you, too. Month after month, year after year, you keep making tiny dents in that mountain of money you owe, feeling like you'll never reach the summit. Will this ever be over?
Well, guess what? Mortgage payments do eventually end. Hallelujah! And whether it took you 30 years or three, the elation you'll feel when you fork over that final payment may make you exultant, giddy, even a bit lightheaded. You're free!
So just how should you commemorate this auspicious occasion? Look no further than these ideas below (and even if you're still years away from being loan-free, it's still worth pondering as added incentive).
Throw a mortgage-burning party


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Could this venture-backed zero energy house revolutionize the home building industry?

Could this venture-backed zero energy house revolutionize the home building industry?




What if you could buy an affordable Zero Energy home that could be erected on your property in a matter of days, instead of the many months it usually takes to build a home on site? New startup Acre Designs promises to make this idea a reality, and could revolutionize the paleolithic home-building industry with their new, innovative approach to quick and efficient building using a kit home model. After receiving backing by Palo Alto startup incubator Y Combinator, Acre Designs is gearing up to start building Net Zero Energy kit homes throughout the country. They are on a mission to build better, more high-tech homes on a large scale that are both affordable and super energy efficient. And considering that the state of California is mandating all new homes to be Net Zero Energy by 2020, it seems that Acre Designs couldn’t have launched at a better time.


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Lennar Posts Delivery Gains, Pointing to Rebounding Housing Market

Lennar Posts Delivery Gains, Pointing to Rebounding Housing Market


Home builder Lennar continued to log another quarter of double-digit percentage gains in key metrics, pointing to a recovery in the U.S. home market.

The company's earnings and revenue also beat analysts' marks.

On Friday, Chief Executive Stuart Miller said "the housing market is continuing its slow and steady recovery driven by years of under production, tight inventory levels, attractive interest rates and the lowest unemployment levels since 2008."

Miami-based Lennar, one of the largest U.S. home builders by houses constructed, said the number of deliveries rose 12% for the first quarter from a year earlier. The company's results were hurt by its Houston segment which has faced continually low energy prices in recent quarters. Other than Houston, all of Lennar's segments posted delivery gains and overall growth being driven by the central and west markets.

The average price of a delivered home increased 26% to $366,000, reaching a record high.

The number of new orders increased 9.6% while backlogs increased 13%.


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How One Barcelona Firm is Taking the City's Historic Housing to Stylish New Heights

How One Barcelona Firm is Taking the City's Historic Housing to Stylish New Heights


Apartments in the seaside Spanish city of Barcelona, especially those situated in the late-19th-century Eixample district, often come with desirable assets: double-height ceilings with fancy friezes; French doors leading to balconies; cement tile floor tiles embellished with a riot of colors and patterns.
What most don’t have is a layout suitable for modern life: Original kitchens tend to be minuscule (they were designed for the maid after all), and windowless bedrooms can make you feel like you are doing penance.

"The first thing we do is look at the light and the how we can alter the floor-plan to let more of it in," says Rubén Berenguer, one-third of Nook, a Barcelona studio that has become the go-to for (principally foreign) buyers looking to turn their fixer-uppers into homes as sunny as the city's weather.
The other two "Nook People" (as they call themselves) are Ann García and Joan Cortés. They work together in an old industrial loft in the Poblenou neighbourhood, which they converted into a spectacular co-working space with a freestanding volume in its center that serves as a meeting room.


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811 Gold Beauty MLS# 1115736 (Big Bend) Jesse Rene Garza

810 Gold Beauty (Cedar Point) Jesse Rene Garza

5 worst housing markets for first-time buyers

5 worst housing markets for first-time buyers


First-time homebuyers will have better luck in some spots than others.


New homebuyers are far better off purchasing a home in many towns in the middle of the country, and far worse off in many cities in California, according to an analysis released this week by financial website SmartAsset.com. The site examined data on housing affordability for people living in the area (as measured by the ratio of median household income over five years to ownership costs over five years, including closing costs, mortgage payments, insurance and taxes), ease of getting a mortgage and the stability of the housing markets in cities with populations of 300,000 or more.


Oklahoma City tops the list, thanks largely to how affordable homes are in the area for those who work there (the median home is only about $125,000, according to Zillow) and how stable the housing market is. Tulsa, Okla. is second on the list; even though it has fewer mortgage lenders than Oklahoma City, it is even more affordable for residents with the median home costing just over $100,000. Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Houston round out the top five. (Added bonus: all of these cities have unemployment rates below the national average.)


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5 Reasons You Need to Know Your Credit Score

5 Reasons You Need to Know Your Credit Score


Do you know your credit score? Credit affects more aspects of your financial life than you may realize -- the ability to buy a home or car, get a credit card, rent an apartment, or even get a job can be affected by your credit score. To help you better understand the importance of credit scores, Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO and Founder of personal finance website WalletHub Opens a New Window. shared five important reasons why you should know yours.


Better interest rates on loansThe most obvious reason it's important to know your credit score is because your score determines your ability to qualify for loans and to get better interest rates when borrowing.
If you know your credit score, a little research can let you know how much you should pay in interest on a loan before you apply. For example, according to recent data, a consumer with a credit score of 720 can expect an interest rate of around 3.56% on a $250,000 30-year mortgage. So if you know your score is a 720 and a bank offers you a rate of 4%, you'll know to keep looking.


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Why Your Mortgage Might Be Missing From Your Credit Report

Why Your Mortgage Might Be Missing From Your Credit Report


Your mortgage is generally reported to the major credit-reporting agencies each month, just like any other loan or line of credit. And, so long as you're making all of your payments on time, its presence will help you build credit and secure affordable financing down the road.
There is an outside chance, however, that your mortgage might not make it onto your credit report. Here are two reasons why.
1. Your loan is in someone else's name
When you apply for a mortgage, your name and Social Security number are tied to that loan for its term or until you sell or refinance the property. Once the loan is made, your lender is not permitted to arbitrarily change its terms by adding or removing a borrower.
Take a married couple, for example. Let's say, they put their mortgage in the wife's name only because she had a better credit score or income at the time of the application. Were she to pass away, the husband would not simply start to get credit for any payments they made, given he wasn't on the original mortgage.


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Weekly Mortgage Watch - March 13, 2016

Weekly Mortgage Watch - March 13, 2016 [Infographic]

FIRST TEAM’S WEEKLY MORTGAGE WATCH (MARCH 13TH, 2016) THIS WEEK HIGHLIGHTS THE FOLLOWING UPDATES:

• Last week, mortgage rates managed to gain a little ground, bouncing off the positive economic news of the previous week and news out of Europe.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) expanded its effort to stimulate growth and reduce deflation risks. The expansion of the ECB bond purchase program now includes corporate bonds, and banks are paying the ECB more to hold excess reserves.
• Even with added challenges to international markets,our economy continues to grow, albeit unevenly.This week is a huge week for financial markets.
• In addition to significant economic data due, including Retail Sales, Industrial Production, and the twin Price Indices, the Federal Reserve meets to discuss monetary policy.
• While most experts are expecting the Fed to leave its programs and interest rates unchanged, the Fed’s economic outlook and expectations for future increases in its interest rate could move mortgage rates significantly.
• If the Fed Governors shrug off global challenges, and hold fast to increasing the Fed’s rate four times this year, mortgage rates will very likely rise. 

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The 11 best US cities for young people to buy a home

The 11 best US cities for young people to buy a home


According to personal finance site SmartAsset, fewer than 35% of adults under age 35 own a home. But owning a home doesn't have to be a far-off dream, even if you're still in your 20s or early 30s.
In a recent report, SmartAsset determined the best cities in the US for first-time homebuyers by looking at data on the affordability, mortgage availability, and stability of the housing market in every city with a population over 300,000.
For millennials in search of their first home, Oklahoma and Texas are going to be the best buys — five of the top ten cities are located in these two states. Read on to see which other cities made the cut, the average price per square foot of home in each city (from Zillow), and the percentage of loans that get approved in each city (from the Mortgage Bankers Association). For reference, the average loan funding ratio for major US cities is 69%.
We also included the median home prices for each city's metropolitan area, from the National Association of Realtors.




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18 money-saving tips for experienced homebuyers

18 money-saving tips for experienced homebuyers


In the complicated process of finding and buying a home, the uninformed shopper can get caught up in costly missteps along the way. From establishing a budget to closing the deal, here are 18 tips to help keep homebuyers on track and on budget.
Plan to stay put.

Current homeowners moving to a new city might assume buying is better than renting, but that's not always the case. It may make more sense to rent than to pay the one-time costs associated with buying if you have to move again soon. There are tax benefits to staying in a home for at least two years. Sellers can exclude up to $250,000 in capital gains ($500,000 for married couples filing a joint return) from a home sale, but only if they owned and lived in the home for at least two of the previous five years. The exclusion can be used once every two years.



Have options.

Negotiating can be difficult and uncomfortable, but one way to ease the tension is to have options. Find several properties that would make good homes and negotiate hard on the price, concessions, and repairs, knowing that a backup is ready if one deal falls through.


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New Mortgage Rules Introduced By Liberals Driving Up Housing Market: National Bank

New Mortgage Rules Introduced By Liberals Driving Up Housing Market: National Bank


The Liberal government’s new, tighter mortgage rules were meant to help keep the housing market from overheating, but National Bank says the new rules are doing the opposite, at least for now.
Economist Marc Pinsonneault says the new rules — which require a higher down payment on mortgages above $500,000 — account for some of the furious housing activity seen in Toronto and Vancouver, and will probably continue to drive activity higher in the coming months.
Vancouver has “the tightest home resale market in 12 years,” National Bank said Monday in its latest report on the Teranet house price index. Home sales are far outstripping new listings in that market.

National Bank noted that Toronto clocked a record number of home sales in February.


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Where Americans Buy Second Homes

Where Americans Buy Second Homes


Second homes are not just centered in beachfront communities. In fact, 913 counties within 49 states had second homes that accounted for at least 10 percent of the local housing stock, according to a new analysis by the National Association of Home Builders.


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6 pros and cons to living large in a tiny house

6 pros and cons to living large in a tiny house


The average size of a home in 2013 was 2,598 square feet -- an enormous increase over the cozy 1,525 square feet that was the average in 1973. As homes become bigger and mortgages grow to match, more and more homeowners are going to something much simpler and smaller: The tiny house. Usually defined as a home between 100 and 400 square feet, these micro-homes offer huge benefits, including lower overall cost, lower utility bills, a smaller carbon footprint and even the ability to move whenever you please.
Today's average tiny house costs about $23,000, and as a result, 68% of all little house owners aren't tied to a mortgage. Tiny houses can be built on site, or they can be easily shipped to the buyer, thanks to the fact that they will usually fit on a flat-bed truck. More companies that specialize in compact houses are popping up across the country, making it much easier for anyone to go small.
But is the tiny house movement really all it appears to be? As with any new trend, it's important to seriously consider the pros and cons. So we talked to a few who have lived in tight spaces and asked them the important questions: What do you love -- or hate -- about your small space?


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Home of the Week- 8611 Shady Mountain (McKenzie II) MLS# 1147486

Here's 4 reasons US home-ownership rates are so low

Here's 4 reasons US home-ownership rates are so low


U.S. home ownership has been languishing near its lowest level in about half a century after hitting a peak just before the financial crisis. And while there are few signs of an imminent rebound, it isn’t for lack of a desire to buy homes.

In the last quarter of 2004, before the housing bubble popped and the Great Recession reared its head, 69.2 percent of American homes were owner-occupied. But for roughly the last year, the homeownership rate has failed to crack 64 percent, and at one point rivaled a low last seen in the 1960s.

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3 Smart Financial Moves to Make For Your First House

3 Smart Financial Moves to Make For Your First House


Owning a home is a great personal goal for many, as well as a fantastic way to build your personal wealth. Unfortunately, some home buyers make simple mistakes that can cost them thousands of dollars. Those who do more research before getting started with a realtor can be ahead of the game and by doing so, you will be able to save a lot of money over the long-term.

Go to Your Local Credit Union

When shopping for just about anything, it is important to compare options. We do this with computers, automobiles, and clothing, but almost never do it with a home loan.
Do not just go with any bank. It is recommended you check out a local credit union, and then compare the costs and personal service you receive there to a large bank like Chase or Bank of America. You may find that the same loan has a big price difference depending on where you go.


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Mortgage rates well below end-of-2015 level for spring homebuying season

Mortgage rates well below end-of-2015 level for spring homebuying season


Despite increasing for the second week in a row, mortgage rates are still well below levels seen at the end of last year.
According to Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week of March 10, this is only the second increase this year, making mortgage rates very attractive for the upcoming spring home-buying season.


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