BUYING A HOME

Learn all about homeownership

If you're thinking about buying a home, new to homeownership, or want to learn how to tap into your equity, these articles can help answer your questions.

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Buying a Home

5 Reasons to Use a HELOC

So you’ve opened a Home Equi­ty Line of Cred­it, what can you do with it? Here are 5 ways to use your HELOC. 

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Buying a Home

What Is Private Mortgage Insurance?

When apply­ing for a home loan, it’s impor­tant to know how pri­vate mort­gage insur­ance can impact the home buy­ing process. Buy­ing mort­gage insur­ance can low­er your down pay­ment, leav­ing you cash to spend on oth­er costs of buy­ing a home such as mov­ing expens­es and repairs.

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Buying a Home

How Long Does it Take to Buy a House in the Bay Area?

Tired of rent­ing? Learn about the steps to buy­ing a house in the Bay Area, how long it takes, and how to speed up the process. 

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Buying a Home

Do You Need a 20% Down Payment?

Learn about down pay­ments and how they impact your home pur­chase. Do you real­ly need 20% down?

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Buying a Home

Home Buying Made Easy with HomeAdvantage

Whether you’re search­ing for a home, look­ing for a home loan, or try­ing to sell your cur­rent home, Home­Ad­van­tage™ sim­pli­fies the process, sav­ing you time and mon­ey. And it’s free for our members.

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Buying a Home

Why the Loan-to-Value Ratio Matters

When apply­ing for a loan, it’s impor­tant to under­stand the loan-to-val­ue ratio: what that means and how it impacts what you can bor­row and at what inter­est rate.

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Buying a Home

Should You Use a Home Equity Line of Credit for Home Improvement?

A Home Equi­ty Line of Cred­it (HELOC) can help home­own­ers finance a home improve­ment project with a low­er inter­est rate than a cred­it card and inter­est-only min­i­mum pay­ments. In some cas­es, there may be tax benefits.

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Buying a Home

Why the Debt-to-Income Ratio Matters

Lenders con­sid­er a lot of fac­tors about your mort­gage appli­ca­tion. Your debt-to-income ratio is a key fac­tor in deter­min­ing inter­est rates, terms, and even approval itself. 

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Buying a Home

11 Things to do Before Buying a House

Buy­ing a home is an excit­ing time and a huge achieve­ment. Before you buy that wel­come mat, here are 11 things you should know and do. 

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Buying a Home

Bay Area First Time Home Buyers

Buy­ing your first home is an excit­ing mile­stone. But the Bay Area real estate mar­ket can be intim­i­dat­ing. Here are some things to know and do before you buy your first home. 

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Buying a Car

Online Car Loans in San Francisco

Get a car loan from home. Shop for cars and car loans online quick­ly through the Cred­it Union Direct Lend­ing program. 

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Investments

Investing 101

The invest­ment land­scape can be extreme­ly dynam­ic and ever-evolv­ing. The first step is learn­ing to dis­tin­guish dif­fer­ent types of invest­ments and their indi­vid­ual risks.

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Personal Finance

9 Ways to Master Your Money

Are you tired of mon­ey prob­lems run­ning your life? Don’t wor­ry, you’re not alone. Here are 9 ways to mas­ter your mon­ey. Stop wor­ry­ing. Start get­ting ahead. 

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