For buyers, the downpayment is often the area where they have the most trouble. It can be the biggest obstacle when trying to move from renter status to homeownership. Saving for a home can feel like saving for something that's intangible because the gratification is not instantaneous.
In a world where so many things are at our finger tips–for instance, with the click of a mouse, you can buy just about anything online and have it delivered nearly instantly–a house is not one of those deliverables.
Yet, the American dream to own our own home remains alive. Overcoming the obstacle of saving for a downpayment has a lot to do with what you do daily.
It's not only about how you're saving your money but also how you're spending it that ultimately will determine how easily you can accumulate a downpayment.
Here are five tips to help you save for that downpayment starting right now. Like dieting, many people put off saving for another day. They think that one last spending spree on ...

An overwhelming majority of home sales in April in the Greater Milwaukee marketplace sold for less than $200,000.

52.9% of homes in Milwaukee County sold for less than $100,000, the highest proportion of any of the counties in the metropolitan area. This price point mainly consists of investors buying up homes and converting them into rental properties in the hardest hit neighborhoods.

The largest price category of home sales in Waukesha County was between $100,000 and $299,999, where 68.1% sales occurred. Click here for details.

Almost one-third (32%) of residential listings took more than 120-days to sell, while over half of condo listings (51.9%) took more than 4-months. A majority of those residential units are in neighborhoods beset by foreclosures. Click here for details.

Financing of housing in April was dominated by conventional 30-year, fixed rate mortgages, representing 43.5% of the residential and 48.1% of the condo market. Buyers purchasing with cash ...

The number of U.S. home short sales surpassed foreclosure deals for the first time as banks became more agreeable to selling houses for less than the amount owed on their mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) (LPS)

Short sales accounted for 23.9 percent of home purchases in January, the most recent month available, compared with 19.7 percent for sales of foreclosed homes, data compiled by the Jacksonville, Florida-based company show. A year earlier, 16.3 percent of transactions were short sales and 24.9 percent involved foreclosures.

“It’s a fairly recent phenomenon that short sales have been increasing,” Jonathon Weiner, a vice president in the applied analytics division of Lender Processing Services, said in a telephone interview. “Short sales should be the dominant way of disposing of assets” in distress, he said.

Lenders are catching up to short sales after being slow to provide the staffing and incentives necessary to complete the deals, Weiner said. The ...

Short sales are rising sharply, offering many struggling homeowners a better alternative to foreclosure in many of the nation's hardest hit states.

In short sale deals, the sale price of the home is less than what the seller owes. Often, the bank that holds the mortgage takes so long to approve the sale that the deal falls through. But in recent months, the pace of short sales has increased, a trend that should gain momentum, according to RealtyTrac.

In January, short sales rose 33% compared with 12 months earlier, the company reported.

During the month, 32 states saw year-over-year percentage increases in short sales. Even more encouraging, short sale deals outnumbered foreclosures in 12 states, including some of the hardest hit like California, Arizona and Florida.

January's numbers look to be just the beginning. "[W]e believe 2012 could be a record year for short sales," said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.

Banks are showing signs of being more open and willing t ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency laid out new rules aimed at speeding up the short sale process, a move that could keep many homes from falling into foreclosure.

In a short sale, the bank that holds the mortgage must agree to accept a price for the home that is less than what is owed. Even though short sales are considered a better alternative to foreclosure, banks often take so long to review and approve short sales that the deal falls apart and homes get repossessed.

"Delays in approving short sale requests remain a significant challenge for realtors and consumers and often results in canceled contracts and the property going into foreclosure," said Moe Veissi, president of the National Association of Realtors.

In California, which accounts for a disproportionate number of the nation's short sales, 60% of short sale offers failed to result in a closed sale last year, according to a California Association of Realtors member survey

The organization attributed much of the closing ...