The Solution to the U.S Down Payment Dilemma

Those looking to buy a home in the States are all currently saying the same thing is holding them back….They can’t seem to afford the down payment.

Down payments on houses can be burdensome and oftentimes weigh on the ability to buy a home. In some cases, it calls for years of disciplined saving. Something that can be difficult for someone who wants a home and wants it now.

That’s where the start-up company Loftium comes in with a solution. This is a business started by 29-year-old Yifan Zhang of Seattle.

As someone who has personally heard her friends talk for years about the down payment dilemma, she finally decided to do something about it.

Zhang started as any other Airbnb business owner. Renting out one room in her townhouse to generate extra cash. Little did she know just how much cash she could actually generate.

Quickly into her business, she was earning enough to completely pay for her mortgage and then have some left over!

That’s when the idea dawned.

Zhang decided to eliminate …

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Why the American Housing Market is Crashing

With housing being the most affordable it has been since the mid-1970’s, why are Americans choosing to rent instead of buy?

Many good things are to come by investing property, one of the best ones being the extremely high returns that can be received.

With mortgage rates at an all-time low, many areas with generally inexpensive rental properties are still proving to be more costly to live in, relative to the alternative of buying into the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors is even expecting rent costs to increase up to 5% over the upcoming years, giving any person a difficult purpose to justify renting over buying.

Caitlin McCabe suggests that part of the hardship is a “housing hangover” that was caused by the market crash of ’08. Many American homeowners are still experiencing a considerable loss while they have more to pay on their mortgages then what their home is even worth.

McCabe also did a study in which she found that less than one-third of those that lost their homes due to foreclosure plan to return to …

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Government spending more than planned to help the housing crisis

With the government paying about €260 million in the first half of 2017 above the previous first half of 2016, it means the government is trying to throw money at helping the housing crisis.

The Department of Housing has spent around €312 million during this time. The rapid increase is said to be in main part because of the Government’s housing programme.

The Minister of State from the Department of Finance, Patrick O’Donovan has responded that the impact from the increased government spending has already been seen through the amount of commencement notices being filed. Since a commencement notice has to be filed when someone has begun construction of a new home it is a good indicator of the health of the housing market. The previous 12 months from May, commencement notices have amounted to 15,579. This is up 42 percent of the previous twelve month period.

Recently there has been a housing shortage in Ireland that has taken over the housing market. It is making it harder to obtain a house and a mortgage.

The amount of total pre-approved …

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12 people become property millionaires each week

On average, a dozen people each week becomes property millionaires in Ireland. There are currently around 4,000 homeowners with property worth more than €1 million, and the rates at which new million euro homes are listed and sold are increasing rapidly.

 

Across the country, house prices have increased by 9.4% in the past year, and 40% in the past five years, turning many homeowners into property millionaires. While the average property value is currently around €230,000 and the average value in Dublin is around €350,000, many districts and counties have average values of 700,000 or more.

 

Sandycove in Dublin has an average property value of close to €800,000. An even more expensive street is Herbert Park in Dublin, where five homes have sold for more than €3 million in the past 2 years. A quick search on myhome.ie will reveal that around Dublin’s Ranelgh area, a couple houses are listed at more than €5 million. Other areas with the most expensive home prices include Foxrock and …

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The most expensive places to buy in Ireland

The most expensive property sold in 2017?

€8.4 million was paid for a house in Fintragh of Shrewsbury Road according to the Daft.ie. Five streets have had transactions of €3 million or more in the last 18 months: Shrewsbury Road, Ailesbury Road, Temple Gardens, off of Palmerston Road in Dublin and Westminster Road in Foxrock.

Only one percent of all homes in Ireland are worth €1 million and over according to the Property Price Register.

Highest number of over a million home transactions is Herbert Park in Ballsbridge.

Total spent on housing since 2016?

€800 million was spend on housing alone since 2016 according to the Property Price Register. That averages around €12 million every week paid for in housing. The average price for a house the first quarter of 2017 was €230,000.

Ten years ago, however, the average home was worth around €370,000. After the crash, the average price of a home was around €165,000 five years ago.

Total of all Ireland’s Property worth?

If you would combine all the valuations of all the properties in Ireland it will …

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An opportunity for home owners amidst rising house prices

The average house price in Ireland has risen 11.2% over the past year, and prices in at least 8 counties are currently rising faster than that immediately preceding the market crash. Rapidly rising prices, low interest rates, and insufficient supply are together representative of the current situation in Ireland’s property market. Although this situation has many market watchers worried about possible inflation, and is definitely a hindrance to buyers still seeking for a home at an affordable price, there is a perk that could result for homeowners with an existing mortgage.

 

This blog post will illustrate this hidden opportunity and give homeowners the necessary knowledge if they intend to pursue it.

 

For homeowners with a high standard variable or fixed rate mortgage, your interest rate is most often based directly on your Loan-to-Value  ratio (LTV). The loan to value ratio is ratio of your loan to the value of your property. Each lending institution may have a different way of calculating and determining your interest rate but in general, the higher your LTV, the higher your interest rate. …

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An increase of housing demand for millennials in the US

Real estate is on millennials to do list despite the stalled wage growth and housing market fears in the United States.

The National Association of Realtors show that the amount of first-time home buyers increased 3 percent year-over-year. They made up of 33 percent of the home mortgage market in May.

First-time home buyers can be categorized as someone who has not owned a home in the past three years.

Fannie Mae statistics shows that first-time home buyers make up of 42 percent of all home mortgages from January to April which is up 2 percent from 2016.

As interest amongst the millennials is rising in home buying, whether or not that will be a good idea is at question. The Federal Reserve just raised their interest rates which will affect the millennials in search for a …

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A new tax on rents over €2,500

This year a new tax bill in Dublin was introduced that has not been welcome amongst the public. As we see rents rapidly increasing in Dublin, a 1 percent stamp duty on rents over €2,500 becomes ever more pertinent than before.

 

This 1 percent duty was initially set at around €1,500 month. It was then raised to €2,500 after the financial crisis to help relieve some of the pressure on tenants.

 

However, it has now came to that level where a more massive amount of people are hitting this €2,500 a month target.

 

With housing rates increasing rapidly, an analysis by Goodbody Stockbrokers claimed around 55 percent of three-bedroom Dublin homes are above this €2,500 level on the Daft.ie. A third of all these properties are in the same area.

 

What does this mean for many families?

On …

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If the Help-to-Buy scheme is cut it will only worsen the housing crisis

The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) claims that if the Help-to-Buy scheme is in fact removed it will only worsen our housing crisis.

The CIF, an industry lobby group, said it will take time for the scheme to do what it is intended for. The scheme has expanded the first-time buyer market so banks will start lending to builders more to construct starter homes.

The Help-to-Buy scheme can help first-time buyers get a tax rebate of up to €20,000. The public has blamed this scheme for playing a part in the rising house prices this past year.

The Help-to-Buy scheme apparently has made residential building in key locations possible from the first-time buyers being assisted. The CIF director general, Tom Parlon, says that this scheme has significantly helped in the growth of residential construction. Since more first-time buyers can purchase a home, building starter homes becomes a more enticing move for builders.

The Central Statistics Office published on Tuesday a report saying that housing prices grew 2.2 percent last month. This is the largest monthly increase since last July.

In Dublin, …

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