purchase Archives - Griffin Funding

Millennials Continue to Shake Housing Market

Bill Lyons — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 23:00:22 +0000

Millennials Leading the Way

Millennials are increasingly entering the housing market as first-time buyers and are expected to lead the growth in new home buyers too, the National Association of Home Builders reports from its analysis of Census data. The overall homeownership rate of millennials is at 36 percent, which is the largest gains among all age groups in 2017, the Census data shows. Millennials are the nation’s largest demographic group, and more than 70 million are expected to enter the housing market over the next few years. “Millennials are recognizing the benefits of homeownership and are eager to buy their first homes,” says Randy Noel, chairman of the NAHB. “And contrary to conventional wisdom, this generation is in the market for single-family homes in the suburbs as they look ahead to raising their families.”

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Homebuilders are responding by increasing the number of entry-level homes they are building, according to the NAHB. But they note that rising construction costs and limited lot availability have created challenges to building smaller, single-family detached homes that are affordable to first-time buyers and yet still cost-effective for builders. More townhomes http://www.buyxanax.org may be the answer, builders say. The townhome sector plunged during the Great Recession, but it has steadily been on the rise since 2009. Townhouse construction was up 7 percent in 2017 over 2016, according to Census data. Builders are also taking note of millennials’ preferences as they look to add inventory. Millennials desire a three-bedroom and two-bathroom home, outdoor space, flexible areas that can be used for multiple purposes, and more luxurious finishes, such as quartz countertops, the NAHB says of its surveys.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

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Mortgage Closings Keep Getting Quicker

Bill Lyons — Mon, 22 May 2017 22:32:59 +0000

The time it takes to close all loans (both purchase and refinance) fell to 42 days in April, down from 43 days in March and a substantial drop from the beginning of 2017 when the average was 51 days in January.

Although refinances are still closing faster than purchases, purchase originations continue to rule the market. This past month, refis made up only 35% of the market, while purchases dominated the other 65%.

One explanation of this pick up in closing time is due the growing use of technology in the home-buying experience. There are many companies working to take the mortgage industry out of the stone ages and into the 21st century. One company making huge waves is Approved.

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Their goal is to streamline the lending process through the use of tech. They’ve created an online and mobile platform complete with automatic document collection and an easy to use interface for both lenders and borrowers. It is game changers like this that cause the rest of the market to keep pace.

We predict that closing times will continue to get quicker as technology gets better and more widely adopted among mortgage professionals.

We here at Griffin Funding use Approved’s secure digital mortgage platform to close loans faster. To get a mortgage through our Approved platform please call us at 888-721-0003 or contact us here to request a secure account.

Update 11/1/2018:

Now that Approved was acquired by Credit Karma we now use our own Digital Mortgage Platform.

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Homeownership Most Often Delayed By Downpayment Confusion

Bill Lyons — Sat, 20 May 2017 21:24:56 +0000

According to a survey by by Genworth Mortgage Insurance, misperceptions about downpayments are deterring what would be homeowners from purchasing their first home. They found that a majority of borrowers still believe that it is a requirement for purchasing a home. Even the many prospective borrowers who know that a 20 percent downpayment is not mandatory still think it would be difficult to pursue purchasing a house with less.

There are plenty of lower downpayment options available that make homeownership possible for just about everyone these days. Here at Griffin Funding, we walk you through all available loan solutions that fit your unique situation and show you the benefits (and potential drawbacks) of each one. We feel that proactively educating borrowers is our duty as mortgage professionals.

Here are some options to consider:

1% down on loans less than $424,100 with certain restrictions
3.5% down on FHA loans below the FHA country limits
5% down for conventional loans below $424,100
10% down for high-balance conventional loans below the high balance county loan limit (up to $636,150)
5% down on non-prime jumbo loans up to $3,000,000

To find our more about today’s downpayment options, give one of our expert loan officers a call at (888) 721-0003, or fill out a contact form on our website!

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