The Qualified Mortgage Patch

In less than a year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is letting the “Qualified Mortgage Patch” (QM Patch) expire. Why does this matter for first time buyers?

The QM Patch states that mortgage buyers must have a debt-to income ratio less than or equal to 43% in order to buy a home. This rule was created to protect borrowers from racking up too much debt. Removing the QM patch could have drastic effects for the European economy. Let me explain:

I grew up living in the United States during the Mortgage Crisis of 2007. It started with many investors looking for low risk high reward profits. They turned to the housing market to buy those loans. Banks would convert thousands of marketable securities and turn them into shares for investors to buy. They believed the investments were safe because house prices were rising dramatically during this time and credit unions gave many of these securities AAA ratings. AAA rating is the best rating a house can receive.

Investors loved these loans because they were very profitable. They started pushing the …

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Property Market in Wuppertal, Germany

About the City:

Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in the west part of Germany. There’s a population of about 350.000, and the name Wuppertal comes from the river ”Wupper” which flows through the city. Some key characteristics of the town include the suspension railway, ‘’Schwebebahn’’, the university and the Pina Bausch dance theater. The Schwebebahn is one of the defining features in Wuppertal, due to the fact that the train is actually upside-down.

Areas in Wuppertal, Germany

As in all other countries, the market in Wuppertal is divided into rental properties and properties to buy. Wuppertal is also divided into 6 different sectors, which have a strong influence on rental and purchase prices. Barmen, Elberfeld, Vohwinkel, Cronenberg, Ronsdorf and Beyenburg all have different prices for various types of properties. 

Prices for renting and buying

The cheapest area to buy and rent in Wuppertal is Elberfeld and the highest prices are found in Cronenberg. The prices generally start at 6.01 EUR/m² and goes up to 8.36 EUR/m².

For buying a house in Wuppertal, expect to pay 2.442,05 EUR/m² at …

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Dortmund Property Market – areas, prices and average costs

Areas and Districts

The city of Dortmund is divided into twelve distinct districts. All city districts are then subdivided into a total of 62 statistical districts. Some of main, more well known districts include Downtown-West, Downtown-North, Downtown-East, Eving, Scharnhorst, Brackel, Aplerbeck, Hörde, Hombruch, Lütgendortmund, Huckarde and Mengede. 

Price fundamentals

Housing prices in Dortmund depend greatly on a number of factors, not unlike any other city. As any good realtor will tell you, pricing is mainly contingent on location. After that buys and sellers look for things such as year of construction, the condition of the property, living space, date of last modernization, final energy requirement (e.g. quality of insulation), surroundings, neighbourhood, car parking spaces or garages and much more. For this reason the following information may differ.

Development of prices / rents

The Empirica Price Database and others form the basis for the following comments on the property price development in Dortmund:

Depending on location, interior or other criteria from above, the current rent for an apartment in Dortmund are somewhere in between 7 € and 12 € per square …

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Helping the Homeless: Ireland vs. U.S.

There’s no question that within the last five or so years, the homeless population in Ireland has significantly increased. People in less than ideal conditions can be seen while walking down the streets of Dublin. Although unemployment in Ireland is nothing new, as with any country, there has been a noticeable increase in that population. “Focus Ireland” found that since 2007, the total homeless population has more than tripled. It seems that in the United states however, the opposite is occurring. Since the same year (2007), the homeless population in the U.S. has decreased by roughly 15% (which is almost 100,000 individuals). Whether a countries homeless population is on the rise or decline, there will always be some amount of homeless. So, the question remains: What does each country do to support this continuous population?

In Ireland, there are things such as soup runs and emergency sleeping accommodations for rough sleepers (people physically sleeping on the streets). For the most part, there are places to get some food and possibly a place to stay. These however are very short-term solutions. …

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Construction slowing in new home development sector

With competition for loan approval building, home development companies are feeling the heat. This year has proved to be one of the most difficult for possible consumers to obtain loans, largely due to the uncertainty that Brexit brings to the table. Due to the lack of accessibility of funds when attempting to purchase a home, many homes have simply gone unfilled. 

Goodbody Stockbrokers, a  company that specializes in asset management and global investment funds, has taken a clear interest to the changes that are currently happening in the market. This company developed a house building tracker, which in turn showed that from April to June 2019 there was a sharp decline in the output of newly developed housing. 

This is largely due to the fact that without the high availability of loans, many homes simply are not getting sold. In the lower priced areas of the housing market, there is significant competition but any home that is priced at or above €500,000 has been struggling to get off the market. In general, this trend is showing that affordability is becoming …

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HAP fails to assist

The housing market continues to prove that it is hard to penetrate by people who are eligible for social housing. In order to qualify, you must meet a multitude of standards. The most important of these being that you need housing and cannot provide using your own resources, you have a legal right to remain in the State, you are 18 years of age or older, and lastly your net income must be lower than a calculated threshold based off the structure of your family. 

If you are in the spectrum that allows you to receive social housing, then you are likely to be able to utilize social housing support that is run by the local authorities; this tool is known as HAP and it can be utilized in a multitude of ways. 

HAP went into effect on 1 March 2017 and has been available under local authorities. This program was implemented to allow HAP tenants full-time and still keep their housing support. It also gave rise to a more structured approach at organization by making all social housing supports …

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Some immigrants struggle to afford proper housing

The Dublin housing crisis has hit hard all over the county, causing the prices of homes and rent to skyrocket. These high prices have given many people looking for housing no choice but to resort to home or apartment sharing so that they can afford the monthly payments. 

As a full-time, successful employee, it can be hard to find a place that has every aspect on your wishlist due to both lack of supply and prices that rise with every additional feature. Finding a place to live within budget and within expectations can be very hard to do. 

   One group of people that has an extremely hard time being able to afford suitable housing is those who have come over on a student visa. Many young people and adults are drawn from their respective countries to Dublin so that they can attend university or english school. Although there are exceptional resources all across the city for this, one must thoroughly weigh the costs and benefits of living in a city as expensive as Dublin. 

After having the opportunity to talk …

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First time buyer steps explained

Being able to take out a mortgage has become a major hassle for all types of home buyers, but especially first time buyers. Recently, a 2018 study by the Central Bank reported that the best position to be in so that your request for a loan can be approved by one of the 7 largest lending banks is in a couple with a substantial down payment already available.

This is most likely the case because a couple can bring in two salaries, making a steady stream of income more reliable even if one person were to lose their job. Additionally, having a large down payment reduces risk for the lender. If you were to foreclose on a property, meaning you couldn’t afford to pay your mortgage anymore, there would be significantly less consequences on the lender side.

Although this is an ideal situation for approval, it is not the only solution. Plenty of first time buyers are individuals without extremely high credit scores and salaries, but there are a few key parts that must be fulfilled in order …

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New plot may lack space

Recently, a 125 acre plot of land in in Baldoyle, county Dublin has been given permission to plan for construction of at least 1,000 new residential units in the near future.

The land itself will be broken into two different sites; one will be used for a more expensive, modern type residence with a town center and grand landscaping. The other part will be used for a more residential area, with zoning estimations of up to 759 units on the land.

With an apparent lack in the amount of appropriate proportion of home buyers and sellers in Dublin, a shortage of housing has become one of the cities main focuses. This newly zoned area will continue adding to the already large capital city of Ireland.

Although there are many opportunities for growth within this huge chunk of land, I am personally quite skeptical of the livability of these areas. New developments are always shiny and clean looking on the outside, but can have a lot of inherent problems in actual habitation of these units.

If the …

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