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Author:
Draper & Kramer Mortgage Corp
About S. John
Over the past 33 years, mortgage originator John Murray has personally closed over 9,800 loans and is one of only a handful of originators in the country to have funded over $2 billion in personal loan production.
John has built a team of experienced mortgage professionals that is second to none in New England, and they have helped him to be named among the top 1 percent of all mortgage originators in America for each of the last eighteen years. John has been featured as an industry leader in Mortgage Market Guide, American Banker, Loan Toolbox, Mortgage Originator magazine, Originator Network News and Broker magazine. He is also a contributing faculty member on the advisory board for a mortgage automation and customer relationship management company.
From first-time homebuyers to seasoned real estate investors, John is proud to help everyone reach their home financing goals. His specialties include no-point, no-closing-cost mortgages and jumbo loans. John's No. 1 priority with every client is to provide a smooth and stress-free financing experience from start to finish.
John graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. He and his wife, Laurie, live in Wenham, Massachusetts with their three children and spend winter weekends skiing with family at Black Mountain in Jackson, New Hampshire, where they have a second home.
Don't hesitate to contact John with any questions you have about purchasing or financing a home. He welcomes the opportunity to put his decades of mortgage experience to work for you.
Comments:
Keeping Current Matters Article brought to you by S. John Murray of Draper & Kramer Mortgage Corp.
Whether you’re thinking about buying your first home or moving up to the home of your dreams, this is one of the best times to buy in the last 30 years.
There’s a current narrative that owning a home today is less
affordable than it has been in the past. The reason some are making this
claim is because house prices have substantially increased over the
last several years.
It’s not, however, just the price of a home that matters.
Homes, in most cases, are purchased with a mortgage. The current
mortgage rate is a major component of the affordability equation.
Mortgage rates have fallen by over a full percentage point since
December 2018. Another major piece of the affordability equation is a
buyer’s income. The median family income has risen by approximately 3%
over the last year.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) releases a monthly Housing Affordability Index. The latest index shows that home affordability is better today than at almost any point over the last 30 years. The index determines how affordable homes are based on the following:
“A Home Affordability Index value of 100 means that a
family with the median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a
mortgage on a median-priced home. An index of 120 signifies that a
family earning the median income has 20 percent more than the level of
income needed pay the mortgage on a median-priced home, assuming a 20
percent down payment so that the monthly payment and interest will not
exceed 25 percent of this level of income (qualifying income).”
The higher the index, therefore, the more affordable homes are. Here is a graph showing the index since 1990: Obviously,
affordability was better during the housing crash when distressed
properties – foreclosures and short sales – sold at major discounts
(2009-2015). Outside of that period, however, homes are more affordable
today than any other year since 1990, except for 2016.
The report on the index also includes a section that calculates the
mortgage payment on a median priced home as a percentage of the median
national income. Historically, that percentage is just above 21%. Here
are the percentages since June of 2018:
Again,
we can see that affordability is much better today than the historical
average and has been getting better over the last year and a half.
Bottom Line
Whether you’re thinking about buying your first home or moving up to
the home of your dreams, don’t let the false narrative about
affordability prevent you from moving forward. From an affordability
standpoint, this is one of the best times to buy in the last 30 years.
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1/24/2020