Housing Chatter delivers the news you need to know about current events in the housing market in simple terms. We have no political or institutional affiliations so you can be confident that our content and commentary is unbiased. Housing Chatter is brought to you by your professional Realtor®.

15 Ways to Preserve Your Sanity on Thanksgiving

For some people, Thanksgiving dinner is more stressful than the daily grind. Here are 15 common turkey day stressors and how to handle them. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And that means two things for sure: you will eat too much and you are going to have to work hard to keep your family from driving you crazy. Here are 15 mini-aggressions likely ... Read More »

The value of digital closings

As easy as 1-2-3 For mortgage lenders, there are three overarching goals that should be driving your current business decisions: 1) Increase revenue 2) Decrease costs 3) Align your organization with the mission, vision and values of the CFPB If the eClosing pilot proved anything, it was that a digital closing platform is a critical tool f ... Read More »

10 Workplace Hacks to Boost Your Team’s Success

Have your office looking wonderful and your employees feeling great Have you ever walked into someone’s house and thought, “How can they live like this?” Well, your employees may have similar feelings when they come in to work. Granted, your office probably isn’t a pig sty with days-old dirty dishes piled up in the sink and flies circling the garbage can l ... Read More »

Tales of a First-Time Homeowner

For most things in life, acquisition requires qualification. To get a job, you need relevant experience. To get a driver’s license, you have to pass a written and road test. To be the greatest reality TV host ever, you have to be able to explain that when there’s only one rose, it’s the final rose. Similar principles apply when purchasing a home. Credit che ... Read More »

How Much House Can You REALLY Afford?

It doesn’t matter if you’re searching homes for sale in Fort Lauderdale, FL, or Philadelphia, PA. Type “how much house can I afford” into a Google search and you’ll come up with a number of online tools and mortgage calculators to help you figure the answer to your query. You might also see rules of thumb that state things like “your mortgage payment shouldn ... Read More »

The Easiest Way To Clean Your House, In One Simple Chart

Let’s face it, cleaning your home is not fun. Whether you live in a modest apartment or a sprawling estate, it always seems to take forever. Half of the battle is finding the time and the patience to take on everything from the toilet to the kitchen sink. It’s just downright overwhelming. Allow us to present this handy infographic that will officially put a ... Read More »

How to Use the Cycle of Consumerism in Your Favor

Consumerism keeps our economy on track and our businesses growing. Use it to your advantage. It’s easy to want too many things. Consumerism, right in line with capitalism, is simply what the American economy thrives on. Although material fulfillment is often an American characteristic heavily criticized by many, it’s important to look at both sides of cons ... Read More »

Freddie Mac: Mortgage rates drift lower

Mortgage rates reported little change for the week, with the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate staying just barely below 4%, Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey said. The average 30-year fixed rate mortgage has been below 4% since the week of July 23rd of this year, which is helping homebuyer affordability in the face of rising house prices due to ... Read More »

[Infographic] What do Millennials look for in real estate agents, housing?

90% used a real estate agent or broker There are a plethora of reports and studies out there all defining what the Millennial generation looks like. This latest infographic from UpNest puts a lot of that information into one creative graphic. Along with who they are, the infographic digs into what features they want in a home, where they want to live and ... Read More »

New home sales beat expectations

Rise 10.7% Sales of new single-family houses in October 2015 beat expectations and came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 495,000, according to estimates released jointly Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and theDepartment of Housing and Urban Development. This is 10.7% above the revised September rate of 447,000 and is 4.9% above the October 20 ... Read More »