Elena Zimina's Real Estate

Rising costs threaten millions with ‘housing instability,’ Harvard report says Source: The Orange County Register With incomes falling woefully behind galloping rents and home prices, more and more Americans are “cost burdened” — that is, paying more than the recommended 30 percent of their earnings on housing. Those were among the findings of a new Harvard report on the “State of the Nation’s Housing.” The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies released its 30th-anniversary edition Tuesday, June 19. Making sense of the story Almost a third of U.S. households — 38 million — were cost burdened in 2016, up from 31.5 million in 2001. And almost half of all renters — 21 million — were cost burdened in 2016. That’s a dramatic change from a half-century ago. In the 1960’s, 24 percent of renters were cost-burdened, vs. 48 percent in 2016. That’s because housing costs have soared, even after adjusting for inflation, while incomes failed to keep up.  The median U.S. ren...

President Trump Signs Dodd-Frank Rollback  President Trump recently signed into law the  Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act , rolling back some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. While many of the provisions are related to rolling back requirements for small and medium banks, some will have a more direct impact on REALTORS®. REALTORS® may find the following provisions of interest:  TRID Relief: The Act removes the three-day waiting period required under TILA-RESPA mortgage disclosure when the creditor extends a second offer of credit with a lower APR.   Mortgage Licensing: Registered/licensed loan originators are given temporary authority to act under the SAFE Mortgage Licensing Act when changing employers.   Renters’ Protection: The Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (sunset in 2014) is permanently restored.   PACE Loans: Real property retrofit (Property Assessed Clean Energy) (PACE) loans are now subject t...

Finding the Green to Go Green By Sherri Butterfield WRITER AND EDITOR The changes needed to make your home and yard green or greener can be expensive, but help is available in the form of renovation mortgages, home energy upgrade financing, product rebates, federal income tax credits, and—in some instances—reductions in municipal permit fees. You’ve probably thought about going green—or greener.  Whether your goal is to reduce the burden of your monthly utility bills, increase the value of your home, or save the planet, the obstacles are twofold: (1) summoning the will to tackle the project and (2) finding the money to pay for it. There are many good reasons for going green—or greener—and many good ways to get there, but you have to begin someplace. If you are wondering where that place is, you may want to recall the instructions that the King of Hearts gave to the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Begin at the beginning and go o...

Source: Business Insider  The value of the nation’s housing stock grew by 6.5 percent to $31.8 trillion this year — with Los Angeles and New York City far outpacing the rest of the country’s top-valued metro markets and Miami landing at No. 4. The Los Angeles market’s $2.7 trillion valuation topped that any other metro across the country after growing 5.7 percent over the past year. That’s a smidgen higher than New York City’s $2.6 trillion valuation, up 7.9 percent from last year. A and NYC were the only two markets worth more than $1 trillion, with Washington ($996.7 billion), Miami ($865.2 billion) and Chicago ($821.3 billion) rounding out the top five. San Jose saw the largest percentage growth — 13.5 percent — of the nation’s top 10 markets, while Columbus, Ohio’s 15.1 percent growth was the highest of the top 35 markets. The nation’s yearly growth is the highest since 2013, according to a Zillow report cited by Bloomberg. The $31.8 billion figure is 1.5 times the nation’s Gr...

Rent control, property taxes and taller apartment buildings: California considers major housing bills in 2018 Source: The Mercury News The state’s housing crisis is back on the agenda as California lawmakers return to work after a month-long recess. Proposals floated on the first week of the year would bring major changes to laws governing property taxes, rent control, and local zoning rules. Senate Democrats are also proposing a workaround for the recent GOP tax overhaul, which set a $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions. Making sense of the story Deduction cap: A bill introduced Thursday would allow Californians to instead donate to the state, receiving a dollar-for-dollar tax credit, so they can — in theory — deduct the full amount from their federal taxes. There is no cap on deductions for charitable contributions. Rent control fight: Should California repeal a landmark 1995 law that keeps local rent control ordinances in check? The law, known as Costa Hawki...

Mortgage rates :  Week ending 8/17/2017 (Source: Freddie Mac) 30 year fixed: 3.89% fees/points: 0.4% 15-year fixed: 3.16% fees/points: 0.4%

Realtor.com Introduces "My Home" To Help Homeowners Manage Their Home Like an Investment Realtor.com announced the release of My Home, a new feature on  realtor.com ’s desktop and mobile site, which empowers homeowners to manage their home as an investment.  With My Home,  realtor.com  provides homeowners with easily accessible tools and information needed to have a complete, all-in-one view of their home value, equity, financing options, neighborhood activity and trends, as well as home improvement projects that add value to their home.   As part of My Home,  realtor.com  is introducing an enhanced home value estimate for homeowners that utilizes lender-grade valuation models to provide a better estimate of what a home is worth today and in the future. When an owner first enters My Home the dashboard provides an estimate of mortgage payments and equity, assuming a 20 percent down at the time of purchase. An owner can then update My Home with the...