At Denver Real Estate - Blog

Buyers see lower down payment requirements

mark.eibner@atdenverrealestate.com — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

CNN Money recently published a report shoing that banks are lowing their requirements for down payments, allowing as low as a 5% down payment on a home loan. After the housing bubble burst, most lenders required at least 20% down payment. The way around this was to go through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) who allowed lower down payments and often lower interest rates. Due to market recovery, private lenders are loosening the reigns. Some banks will even allow a 2% gift from a family member to lower the buyers required down payment to just 3%.

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The report states that banks are trying to compete with the low rates that the FHA has prviously offered in hopes of attracting more buyers. "FHA dominated the market for low down payment loands during the housing bust. Taking on all those risky loans, however, depleted teh ageny's reserves and has force it to increase costs," said Les Christie, of CNN.

This valuable information for buyers who may not have as much cash, they now have more options to consider when starting down the path to home-ownership.

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Colorado ranks 8th in nation for mortgage fraud cases

mark.eibner@atdenverrealestate.com — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

According to a recent LexisNexis Mortgage Fraud Report, the state of Colorado ranked eighth in the nation last year for mortgage fraud cases. There were 69,000 reports of "suspicious financial activity" nationwide - down 25 percent from 2011 - but "fraud and misrepresentations were confirmed in 69 percent of those cases, a five-year high."

Read the complete article.

Denver home sales still going strong

mark.eibner@atdenverrealestate.com — Mon, 09 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The housing market in the Denver Metro area continues to strengthen as we head into the autumn season, largely due to steadily-increasing home prices. Denver’s MLS reported that 5,635 home sales closed in August, which is a 20 percent gain from the same time last year, although down some from July 2013. Home sales were down a bit from July 2013.

Kirby Slunaker, president of MLS, says, “We expect to see continued high sales velocity and inventory numbers well into the winter months. The impact of seasonality may not be as significant as we’ve seen in years past.” In August 2012, Denver’s homes spent an average 64 days on market, compared to an average of 39 days this August. The average sold price last August was $285,692 compared with $312,418 this August.

Realty Trac’s vice president, Daren Blomquist, released a statement in which he claimed that these increasing housing prices “are lifting all boats in this housing market and should spill over into more inventory of homes for sale in the coming months.”

Read the complete article.

Mortgage activity rises a bit

mark.eibner@atdenverrealestate.com — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported today that even though mortgage activity has increased over the last week, it is still well below last year's record-low-levels.

While new mortgage applications rose 1.3 percent for the week ending Friday August 30th, they have dropped over 50 percent since May 2013.

Refinance activity has also slowed, down 55 percent from the same time last year.

Read the complete article.