Fannie Mae is a government-sponsored enterprise, as are Ginnie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA or Fannie Mae), Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA or Ginnie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC or Freddie Mac) are all “secondary market lenders.” Fannie and Freddie subsidize the real estate mortgage market by buying mortgage loans originated by banks and other lending institutions. They also package mortgages and sell them to insurance companies, pension funds, and other financial institutions as mortgage-backed securities.

Fannie Mae was created by Congress in 1938 as a government agency to buy mortgages from lenders, creating a secondary market for loans insured by the FHA. Congress had created the Federal Housing Administration in 1934 to prop up real estate by providing governmental mortgage insurance for lenders. The federal government has also created the Government National Mortgage Association, GNMA or Ginnie Mae, to provide subsidized loans. A bank can originate a below-market loan to a low-income borrower, and then sell it to Ginnie Mae at full market value; the government pays the difference. (more…)

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USA Today reports that the National Association of Realtors is forecasting a 5.3 percent increase in rents this year, which is about double last year’s increase. The paper reports it would be the largest increase in rents since 2000, when the Internet boom and a white hot job market sent lots of young adults out of college looking for places to live. The last six years have seen a boom in new home construction, though, along with low mortgage rates, which helped many former renters move into their own homes, and helped keep rent increases more modest.

Rising rents is one of the factors in the higher-than-expected jump in consumer prices in the April reading from the Labor Department. In addition to making home purchases less affordable, the recent housing boom led many investors to convert apartment buildings to condominiums to try to cash in on the rise in real estate prices. One out of three apartment buildings sold last year were converted into condos for sale, the paper reports, and that took 191,400 apartments off the market, according to the Realtors. In addition, the newspaper reports the number of new apartment buildings under construction is down this year. (more…)

search for : National Association of Realtors, Internet, new home construction, real estate prices, apartment

The cold, clear water of LeConte Creek cascades over moss-covered boulders, lingers momentarily in small pools skirted by dense rhododendron and then rushes on through the hemlock, poplar, birch and maple forest. It’s here and in a handful of other streams in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that the brook trout _ the only trout native to the eastern United States and more specifically to the southern Appalachians _ is making a comeback.

Imperiled from Georgia to Maine by decades of pollution, poor land management and competition from nonnative brown and rainbow cousins, “brookies” are regaining a foothold in the country’s most visited national park on the Tennessee-North Carolina line. For the first time in 30 years, catching and keeping brook trout became legal again in the Smokies under an experimental program begun in April. The announcement came just days before a coalition of conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and fish and game departments in 17 states announced an Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture to restore brook trout habitat. (more…)

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Mortgage rates row above 6% Housing prices continue to climb, and mortgage rates are on the rise. That’s double trouble for people looking to buy a home. In the past three years, the monthly cost of buying a typical house in the Richmond area shot 72 percent higher, thanks to the higher rates and prices. Monthly payments are 34 percent higher than just one year ago. And that doesn’t include escalating real.

Compared with just one year ago, your income would have to go up 20 percent to afford the same house. And not many people are seeing those kind of salary increases. If you bought an average-priced house — $179,036 — in the Richmond area in May 2003, you could expect to pay about $1,004 a month, excluding taxes and insurance. A year ago, the payment jumped to $1,288, based on a $221,493 house, the average price. Today, it would be $1,729, with the average climbing to $268,161. That’s using a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage to finance the total purchase price. For the sake of making a clean comparison, assume no down payment. (more…)

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To impress first-time buyers in today’s dynamic real estate marketplace, you have to work harder than ever before. They’re self-educated about market trends, use the Web to narrow their search before they call you, and have received no shortage of homebuying advice from family and friends. As savvy as they are, this new breed still benefits greatly from your expertise — if you can deliver it in the right way. By tuning into their needs and making the homebuying process as stress-free as possible, you’ll be the one they contact when they’re ready for their next move, and the move after that, and the move after that.

When asked what they want most from their real estate practitioner, first-time buyers say they need help finding the right home, negotiating price, handling paperwork, determining what comparable homes are selling for, and arranging financing. A hefty 79 percent use the Web as part of their home search. Because they rely so heavily on the Internet to research the market, today’s first-time home buyers tend to be very informed on housing styles, prices, loan programs, and neighborhoods. They use this data to narrow their search, sort of like window shopping. (more…)

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Baby Boomers have a higher rate of homeownership than the national average and one out of four own more than one property, according to a new study of the largest generation in U.S. history commissioned by the National Association of Realtors®. Initial results were released at NAR’s Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo last week. The comprehensive study of nearly 2,000 Americans born between 1946 and 1964, conducted for NAR by Harris Interactive®, also shows boomers are optimistic about the future, but many are not adequately prepared for retirement.

Nearly eight in 10 Boomers own their own homes and almost nine out of 10 have owned at some point in their lives; 96 percent believe owning a home is a good financial investment – evidenced by their actions. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the overall rate of home ownership is 69 percent. For the portion of Baby Boomers who have never owned a home, 85 percent cited financial reasons but 38 percent simply didn’t want the responsibility of homeownership. One-quarter of respondents own one or more other kinds of real estate in addition to a primary residence: 13 percent own land, 8 percent own rental property, 7 percent a vacation home or seasonally occupied property, 2 percent commercial real estate and 3 percent some other kind of real estate. (more…)

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