Tag Archives: Johnson County Kansas Home Buyers

Despite Tripling Of Gas And Bread Prices, Low Interest Rates Keep Kansas City Mortgage Payments Same As 20 Years Ago

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

The stats below have been sitting on my desk for some time now and I just got around to looking them over. It was eye-opening and something I wanted to share it here. The stats compare recent prices to prices from about 20 years ago. Take a look and you’ll see how much bread, gasoline, vehicles and home prices have gone up. Then take in that mortgage interest rates have been cut in HALF — that critical detail has kept the average monthly mortgage payment virtually the SAME as two decades ago.

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Gas prices have nearly tripled… Car prices have doubled… Average home sale prices have nearly doubled… Despite all this, because mortgage rates are at historical lows, the average monthly mortgage payment is virtually UNCHANGED! The Johnson County Kansas real estate market has been stable for well more than a year. Add in that mortgage interest rates have nowhere to go but up and that makes this one of the best opportunities ever to buy a first home or make the move up that you’ve been delaying.


Posted by Jason Brown

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Plan For At Least A 3.5% Down Payment And 580 Credit Score To Buy A Kansas City Home

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Guidelines definitely vary from lender to lender but a typical baseline for securing a home loan will be having at least a 3.5% down payment and a 580 minimum credit score. FHA loans require a 3.5% down payment and conventional loans (i.e. loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) require a 5% down payment. A typical FHA loan requires a credit score of at least 580, however home buyers with at least a 500 credit score can obtain a FHA loan IF they have a 10% down payment. Most conventional loans will require a minimum 660 credit score.


The maximum loan FHA will allow varies from one U.S. county to another and to buy a home in Kansas City, Johnson County Kansas, Overland Park and the surrounding metro area, the maximum FHA loan permitted is $271,050. The maximum Fannie Mae conventional loan is $625,500, with loans over $417,000 being subject to more stringent loan requirements than homes below $417,000. At this time, both FHA loans and conventional loans allow a seller to pay up to 3% of a buyer’s allowable closing costs. But with today’s crazy markets, the rules are changing by the day…

The rules may have changed by the time you read this post. It’s a lot for even a seasoned Kansas City real estate agent to stay on top of, so take my advice and contact a knowledgeable LOCAL lender/loan officer who can guide you through the mortgage loan process. Need a great recommendation? This is one of the important aspects of the real estate process we help Kansas City home buyers with on a daily basis. Getting with a great loan officer is more important than ever because the rate of loans not closing is increasing across the U.S. and overlooking the smallest of details can doom your real estate transaction.

Posted by Jason Brown

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Higher FHA Mortgage Payments For Kansas City Home Buyers Now In Effect

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

The FHA changes we discussed back in February went into effect this week. This means higher mortgage insurance premiums on all FHA loans.  For example, Rick Woodruff with Metropolitan Mortgage explains this means a $33 higher monthly mortgage payment on a $163,000 home (with a 3.5% down payment). A Mortgage Insurance Premium (MIP) is the equivalent of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) seen on a typical conventional 15-year or 30-year fixed rate mortgage, where the borrower has less than 20% down payment (less than 20% equity in the home).

More than half of loans being provided today are FHA loans, so mortgage payments just got more expensive more a lot of potential home buyers. The increased fee is necessary to replenish the FHA’s cash reserves – so they can keep the FHA program afloat – and to meet the 2% minimum cash reserves that Congress mandates they have in cash on hand. This change only affects loans where the buyer goes under contract after today’s date. All buyers who went under contract yesterday or earlier and/or who already have a FHA loan in effect are unaffected by this change.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Johnson County Kansas Home Buyers Weren’t Scared To Buy In A Seller’s Market, So Why Start Now In A BUYER’S Market?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I’m intrigued by how our down housing market has many home buyers running scared. There are of course risks in any investment you make, but we need to remember that while our down market is bad news for many home sellers, it’s GREAT news for most home buyers. Values are down like never before but if our market is now stabilizing – as it appears to be now in many areas – there’s going to be a lot of disappointed people who missed a golden opportunity. Look at this as an amazing time to explore your options for buying a home. Or in selling your current home and buying another.


On the graph above, take a ruler and lay it along the line you see from 1970 through the year 2000 (when began seeing unprecedented appreciation rates. It works about the same on either the red or blue lines. What you find is that were at a point now where we probably should have been at anyhow — before the steep rise and prices AND after the correction we’ve seen the past few years. Again, we don’t know that we’re at the bottom of the market, but this graph would lead me to believe we are. Real estate has been one of the safest investments since the great depression and if you keep the long-term trends of real estate in mind, the question I’m asking home buyers right now is “why WOULDN’T you buy a home today?”

Our current real estate market could easily be the best chance you’ll ever have to get in a home larger than you ever hoped and to also make equity gains that others won’t see when jumping in AFTER we’re already well into a real estate market recovery. The deals that are out there right now for Johnson County Kansas home buyers should provide a huge cushion even if the market should dip further. Don’t be one of those buyers who were happy to buy in a seller’s market and pay a premium price but are now too shy to take advantage of the amazing buying deals in today’s buyer’s market.

As a buyer, YOU hold the cards. I know this as your buyer’s agent. The listing agent knows it. And, most importantly, most Johnson County Kansas home sellers are acutely aware of the market conditions. There are deals to be had everywhere from your typical resale homes to foreclosure listings, Short Sale listings and investors who have lost their shorts and are looking to get out of the market. So get out there and see if the home you want is available at a price you may never see again.


Posted by Jason A. Brown