The Power of Being Pre-Approved as a Buyer in Today's Market
Article from Keeping Current Matters
If you’re buying a home this spring, today’s housing market can feel like a challenge. With so few homes on the market right now it is essential to have a firm grasp on your homebuying budget. You’ll also need a sense of determination to find the right house and act quickly when you go to put in an offer. One thing you can do to help you prepare is to get pre-approved.
To understand why it’s such an important step, you need to know what pre-approval is. As part of the process, a lender looks at your finances to determine what they’d be willing to loan you. From there, your lender will give you a pre-approval letter to help you understand how
The biggest myth we see with homebuyers: You need 20% down payment to purchase a home. A recent survey by the NAR (National Association of Realtors) showed that 44% of people who purchased a home in 2022 put less than 20% down.
For years, the idea of having to save up 20% of a home's purchase price for a down payment has been ingrained in many people's minds. However, this is no longer the case. While a 20% down payment may have been the norm in the past, there are now many options available for homebuyers to purchase a home with a much smaller down payment.
In fact, some programs allow for as little as 3% down payment for a conventional loan, and there are also
Though there are more homes for sale now than there were at this time last year, there’s still an undersupply with fewer houses available than in more normal, pre-pandemic years. The Monthly Housing Market Trends Report from realtor.com puts it this way:
“While the number of homes for sale is increasing, it is still 43.2% lower than it was before the pandemic in 2017 to 2019. This means that there are still fewer homes available to buy on a typical day than there were a few years ago.”
The current housing shortage has an impact on how you search for a home this spring. With limited options on the market, buyers who consider what’s a necessity versus what’s a
The Power of Being Pre-Approved as a Buyer in Today's Market
