Market Matters

3 ways to make your home worth more Source: Yahoo! Finance In the new book "Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate," Zillow’s CEO Spencer Rascoff and Chief Economist Stan Humphries put data from the online portal to use by sharing ways to get the most value out of a home. They crunched the data and found that a bathroom remodel adds the most value to a house—not a kitchen remodel. According to Zillow's data, a mid-range $3,000 bathroom remodel results in a $1.71 increase in home value for every $1.00 spent on renovation. They also argue that ending your home price in a ‘9’ is incredibly beneficial. Read the full story   It's Easier to Get a Mortgage in 2015 Source: Kiplinger   Thanks to rising home prices, less-stringent down-payment requirements, and new rules that limit lenders’ liability when loans that meet certain criteria go bad, it is expected that borrowers should encounter fewer obstacles when getting a mortgage in 2015.  Mortgage rates are still hovering at levels unimaginable a generation ago, but many buyers have been unable to capitalize on such low-rate loans due to tight lending standards after the recession.  Read the full story More Young Adults Are Living With Their Parents, and It’s Probably Because of Student Debt Source: Wall St. Journal   A $10,000 increase in student debt per graduate in a U.S. state is associated with an additional 2.9 percentage point rise in the rate of 25-year-olds living with parents, according to an analysis of young Americans with credit reports by the New York Federal Reserve. This is the latest study to show that young Americans are now much more likely to delay leaving home, or to “boomerang” back. “Parental co-residence rates” were as high as 50 percent in 12 U.S. states during 2012.  Read the full story      We must boost homeownership Source: Sacramento Bee   Chris Kutzkey, President of the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, stresses the importance of homeownership to families, communities, and the economy. Kutzkey writes, “Somewhere, somehow over the last six years, too many decision-makers have come to believe homeownership isn’t important. Their inability to create a clear path forward in the mortgage finance arena has led to uncertainty and restricted credit for qualified homebuyers. This has hurt not only families, but the nation as a whole.” Read the full story Castro grilled over lowering mortgage insurance premiums Source: The Hill Republicans grilled Housing and Urban Development Department Secretary Julian Castro during a House hearing about his recent decision to lower mortgage insurance premiums despite the Federal Housing Administration falling short of its capital reserve requirement. But Castro argued that the FHA is delicately balancing its mission of meeting the needs of U.S. homeowners of more modest incomes while trying, at the same time, to reach the statutory 2 percent capital reserve requirement. Read the full story New home purchases jump 29% Source: HousingWire  Mortgage applications for new home purchases jumped by 29 percent compared to the previous month, according to the January Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey. The average loan size of new homes dropped from $311,398 in December to $304,364 in January. The MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units in January 2015. Read the full story