Home Affordability Offering Up 40-Year Deals
Home affordability is at 1971 levels, due to falling home prices and record low mortgage rates, pushing home ownership in reach to more families, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
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Banks Face Scrutiny Over Home Insurance Steering
The New York State’s Department of Financial Services is investigating several big banks to determine if they illegally steered distressed home owners toward overpriced insurance policies, The New York Times reports.
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Mortgage Applications Soar 4.5%
Mortgage applications for purchase — a gauge of future home buying — increased 8.1 percent last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. The purchase index on an unadjusted basis now stands at 41.9 percent higher than last year, signaling more people taking out loans to buy homes.
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MetLife Closes Mortgage-Origination Business
MetLife Inc., the nation’s largest insurer, announced Tuesday it is getting out of the mortgage-origination business and that it will no longer be accepting new mortgage applications as it prepares to shutter its residential mortgage unit. However, the company says MetLife Home Loans will continue to offer reverse mortgages as well as service its current mortgage customers.
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Michael Williams, the CEO of Fannie Mae, announced on Tuesday that he plans to step down as CEO, but he will continue on in his role until a successor is named.
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Most homes are not designed with the family pet in mind, but Fauna Plus Design of Kobe, Japan, designs dog-friendly homes that are both attractive, practical, and attentive to animal behavior. To maximize space, the company has designed a home with an indoor kennel for a Labrador retriever located under a children’s playroom and another home with a waterproof indoor kennel, located under a study, for two dachshunds.
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