(iStock) Homeowners looking to refinance their mortgage are going to be in for a pricier ride. And mortgage and housing professionals, who’ve benefited from record low rates to do brisk business, are miffed. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae said Wednesday that they will charge an additional 0.50 percent, or 50 basis points, fee to lenders on refinance loans. That means the average consumer looking to refinance a home will soon be paying $1,400 more than they would previously, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Fannie and Freddie cited Covid-related losses from the coronavirus and economic uncertainty to justify the fee hike, which kicks in in September. The government-sponsored entities, which are under the oversight of the Federal Finance Housing Agency (FHFA), do not originate mortgages, ...

The 2.98 percent is the lowest Freddie Mac has seen in nearly 50 years of tracking (iStock) The average rate on a 30-year mortgage, America’s most popular home loan, has fallen below 3 percent. The 2.98 percent is the lowest Freddie Mac has seen in nearly 50 years of tracking. It’s the third consecutive week of decline and the seventh record-low set this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Rates last hit a record low of 3.07 percent on July 7. Jeff Tucker, an economist at Zillow, told the Journal that falling below the 3 percent benchmark indicates that “we remain in a crisis here.” But not all mortgage rates are experiencing the same pace of decline. Jumbo loans — those roughly $510,400 in ...

Stephen Gravett, CEO of Kennedy Homes and a rendering of Trevi Isle home community A company tied to Kennedy Homes sold its 50-home community in Palm Beach Gardens for $6.5 million as the development group is involved in a lawsuit that alleges the company executives mismanaged funds. The Boca Raton-based homebuilder sold the 12.5-acre site at 12825 Trevi Isle Drive to 5 Star Developers LLC, which is tied to Jordan Fischer of Plantation, Florida. Kennedy Homes planned to build 50 townhomes with four models on the land, but only a few of the homes have been completed so far, according to county records. The homes were marketed for sale in the low $400,000s. Kennedy Homes and its executives have been entangled in lawsuits after the ...

Palm Beach (Credit: iStock) South Florida’s residential markets performed well in the first quarter, just as the coronavirus pandemic began to take hold in the region. Closed sales dollar volume in the tri-county region totaled nearly $9 billion between January and the end of March, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. Single-family and condo sales were up in each county, year-over-year, and prices also rose across South Florida. Miami-Dade Total residential sales rose 6.8 percent, year-over-year, to 6,042 in Miami-Dade County during the first quarter. Single-family home sales jumped 7.9 percent to 2,871. Condo sales increased 5.8 percent to 3,171. Single-family sales dollar volume rose 8.3 percent to $1.6 billion. Condo dollar volume increased 4.7 percent to $1.3 billion. The median price for single-family ...

Mortgage rates are near 4 percent As quick as they shot up, mortgage rates have fallen back down. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell to a hair above 4 percent this week, according to Freddie Mac data first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The number is the lowest since January 2018, just before the average began to steadily rise to a November peak to just below 5 percent. High mortgage rates in the fall pushed mortgage applications to a four-year low, slowed U.S. home buying, and put home builders at their least confident in two years. But rates have dropped sharply over the last several months as the Federal Reserve halted hikes on 10-year Treasury bonds that drove last year’s mortgage ...