Should I buy a home while still paying student loans?
I am a millennial with student loans which makes saving for a down payment on a house difficult. I am currently renting and feel like I may be throwing my money down the drain when I could be building equity. Should I consider a low down payment option or put off buying a home until I can afford the recommend 20% down payment? -Zach Cain, 24, Atlanta
The Top 10 Downtowns: Did Your City Make the Cut?
Thriving nightlife? Check. Walkable city streets? Check. Arts scene? Check.
The results are in, and the small to midsize city that boasts the most happening—yet still reasonably affordable—downtown of 2016 is historic Alexandria, VA, according to a recent report. Go Alexandria!
Livability.com, a real estate research and education website, looked at more than 2,000 cities with populations under 350,000 and analyzed their vacancy rates, the new developments going up, and the influx of people moving in (along with the cultural and affordability criteria above) to see just how America’s Main Streets stacked up.
Good News for Buyers: More New Homes Are in the Pipeline
More homes are sprouting up across the United States—and the sound of those jackhammers and excavators at work should be music to the ears of aspiring home buyers growing ever more frustrated by the dearth of houses on the market.
Builders began construction on 1,178,000 new homes across the country last month, up a staggering 30.9% from February 2015, according to the seasonally adjusted numbers in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s monthly new residential construction report. The number of new homes under construction also rose 5.2% from January.
Millennials in the Burbs? You Won’t Believe the Latest Home-Buying Trends
What’s a millennial pushing 30 to do? Apparently, leave the fun, the fantasy, the pace, and the possibilities of big-city living far behind and buy a home … out in the burbs.
Just 17% of buyers under the age of 35 closed on urban residences, down from 21% a year earlier, according to a recent National Association of Realtors® report on generational trends in home buying and selling.
The report looks at housing data from July 2014 through June 2015 and income data from the end of 2014.
The luster of urban life may be fading—for some, anyway—due to skyscraper-high prices in top markets. Suburbs exerted a strong pull on buyers of all age ranges. About 51% of millennial home buyers scooped up residences in the suburbs or a subdivision compared with 58% of Generation Xers (ages 36 to 50); 51% of baby boomers ages 51 to 60; 53% of boomers ages 61 to 69; and 42% of the Silent Generation (70 and older).