The holiday season is right around the corner, and with it comes the age-old debate about whether or not it’s a good idea to try and sell your home between now and the end of the year. While some real estate professionals believe the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s …

A: You can get a home loan from several different sources—a credit union, commercial bank, mortgage company, finance company, government agency, thrift (which includes savings banks and savings & loan associations), mortgage broker, and even the seller.

Note, however, that many lenders have tightened their credit standards in light …

Housing is an important source of economic growth. As of the second quarter of 2013, housing’s share of gross domestic product (GDP) was 15.6 percent, with home building yielding 3.1 percentage points of that total.

Housing-related activities contribute to GDP in two basic ways.

The first is through …

With home prices and household formations rising and household balance sheets healing, the ongoing housing recovery is expected to gain momentum next year even as several challenges remain, according to economists who participated in a recent National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Fall 2013 Construction Forecast Webinar.

“The cards …

Freddie Mac recently released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® (PMMS®), showing average fixed mortgage rates falling for the third consecutive week amid declining consumer confidence and the onset of the federal government shutdown. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage is at its lowest level since the week …

You’ve seen lists telling buyers what to do to find the right home but knowing what not to do can be just as important. After finding the right home, negotiating a contract, making a loan application and inspections, buyers, understandably, start making plans to move and put …

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential construction statistics for August 2013:

Building Permits
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in August were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 918,000. This is 3.8 percent (±1.3 percent) …

In July, U.S home prices continued to increase, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. On a year-over-year basis, home prices grew by 12.4 percent in July, the fastest annual pace since February 2006, at the height of the housing bubble. While this is good news for housing, a …

Equity is the difference in what your home is worth and what you owe. Ideally, as the value goes up and the unpaid balance goes down with each amortized payment made, the equity grows from two directions.

This dynamic leads to increasing a person’s net worth …

While the sources of finance for new home sales have changed noticeably since the start of the Great Recession, cash sales remain more common for existing homes compared to new construction.

According to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Sales by Price and Financing, the onset of the …