Zillow offers 1% down payments

Zillow is offering mortgages with just a 1% down payment as it tries to attract house hunters facing the most-unaffordable market in almost four decades.

The 1% down payment program is even lower than Freddie Mac’s best of 3%, with Zillow offering to pay 2% of the down payment at closing, according to a statement.

It comes after mortgage rates in the U.S. hit a 22-year high Thursday, further squeezing would-be home buyers.

The average for a 30-year, fixed loan was 7.23%, the highest since May 2001 and up from 7.09% last week, Freddie Mac said in a statement.

The 1% offering comes as Zillow looks to grow its customer base and may “even the playing field with larger competitors,” Bloomberg Intelligence said, but it will likely hurt margins and paying 2% at closing could prove costly in the long term.

Zillow is offering the new program in Arizona first before expanding to other markets.

Hyundai union votes for strike

Hyundai’s union workers voted to go on strike for the first time in five years, part of an effort to boost wages and raise the mandatory retirement age as inflation hits the South Korean economy.

A majority of the roughly 45,000 unionized workers at Hyundai voted to strike, officials said in a text message on Friday.

The group, a branch of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, will discuss when the strike will start and how long it will last on Aug. 30.

In all, 97% of Hyundai’s union workers cast ballots, with 92% of them supporting the strike plan.

The union’s decision to launch its own strike for the first time since 2018 comes after the nation’s largest automaker posted its highest quarterly profit in history, following record 2022 earnings, thanks to the popularity of its electric vehicles.

Production from Hyundai’s South Korean plants accounted for 46% of its 2022 revenue, according to a company filing.

From wire reports