Homes for - 1601 13th NE, Kasson, MN 55944

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates Fall to Lowest Level in several Weeks

30330 year Mortgages fell over the past week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace at 4.14 percent, down from 4.20 percent at this same time last week.

The 30-year fixed mortgage rate plummeted on Wednesday from 4.24 percent to 4.12 percent, where rates have continued to hover into this week.
“Last week, rates dropped to their lowest levels in weeks as investors shifted out of stocks and into safer assets, like U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities,” said Erin Lantz, vice president of mortgages at Zillow. “This week, there is a full slate of economic reports scheduled for release, with the potential to nudge rates up.”
 Check Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for mortgage rate trends and up-to-the-minute mortgage rates for your state.  
*The weekly mortgage rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals.

Selling Your Home After Making Improvements?

The tax break doesn't come into play for everyone. Most home owners are exempted from paying taxes on the first $250,000 of profit for single filers ($500,000 for joint filers). If you move frequently, maybe it's not worth the effort to track capital improvement expenses. But if you plan to live in your house a long time or make lots of upgrades, saving receipts is a smart move.

What counts as a capital improvement?
While you may consider all the work you do to your home an improvement, the IRS looks at things differently. A rule of thumb: A capital improvement increases your home's value, while a non-eligible repair just returns something to its original condition. According to the IRS, capital improvements have to last for more than one year and add value to your home, prolong its life, or adapt it to new uses.
Capital improvements can include everything from a new bathroom or deck to a new water heater or furnace. Page 9 of IRS Publication 523 has a list of eligible improvements. There are limitations. The improvements must still be evident when you sell. So if you put in wall-to-wall carpeting 10 years ago and then replaced it with hardwood floors five years ago, you can't count the carpeting as a capital improvement. Repairs, like painting your house or fixing sagging gutters, don't count. The IRS describes repairs as things that are done to maintain a home's good condition without adding value or prolonging its life.

There can be a fine line between a capital improvement and a repair. If you replace a few shingles on your roof, it's a repair. If you replace the entire roof, it's a capital improvement. Same goes for windows. If you replace a broken window pain that's a repair. Put in a new window, capital improvement.