Feb 27
Do Energy-Efficient Buildings Have a Downside? When the Alberta Court of Appeal reopened after a renovation in 2001 to make the building more energy-efficient, it didn’t take long before occupants started noticing problems. Judges, lawyers, and others complained of fatigue, irritated lungs, and watery eyes. A professor of architecture asked to investigate the problem said …
Feb 26
The Cost of Home Ownership on the rise. With home prices and mortgage rates rising, the overall costs of home ownership have spiked dramatically since 2012. A new analysis by RealtyTrac finds that the estimated monthly house payment for a median-priced three-bedroom home purchased at the end of 2013 was 21 percent higher than it …
Feb 25
Home Owners Love Their Green Homes How satisfied are home owners who bought a green-certified home? A recent survey finds that the majority love their homes and would even buy another green home in the future. According the report from GuildQuality, a customer surveying company for residential real estate, 94 percent of home owners …
Feb 21
Weather Blamed for Freeze on Housing Starts Construction on new single-family homes and apartments dropped 16 percent, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 880,000 in January, the Commerce Department reports. This marks the second consecutive monthly drop in housing starts, as frigid winter weather puts a chill on the new-home recovery, according to the National …
Feb 20
Families Step in as Lenders to Help Kids Buy a Home Employment troubles, large student loan debt, and tight underwriting standards have been major hurdles holding back potential first-time home buyers in their 20s and 30s, the Los Angeles Times reports. In 2012, Americans who were 30 to 34 had the lowest home ownership rate …
Feb 19
Not Just the Weather That’s Frozen Sales? Many industry analysts have pointed to the frigid temperatures and harsh winter weather this season as the culprit behind the drop in new- and existing-home sales in both November and December. But some experts are saying that Old Man Winter is getting an undue amount of blame for …
Feb 18
New Home Owners Targeted in Deed Scams Scammers are approaching new home owners and trying to trick them into paying $83 for unnecessary property records — including deeds that are available for a few bucks at county government offices or are already supplied at the end of a real estate transaction, the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal …
Feb 17
Tax Tips for You and Your Clients This coming Tuesday, Feb. 18, is the deadline for financial institutions to send their customers the documents they’ll need to file taxes if they received capital gains, interest dividends, or profits from real estate sales. Finally, you’ll have all the paperwork – including forms 1099 – you …
Feb 14
3 Hot Web Design Trends for 2014 Does your website need an update? Forbes.com recently highlighted three leading trends in Web design for this year. Which trend will you choose as the basis to lead your Web design forward in 2014? Responsive design: A website that is optimized for multiple screens — smartphones, tablets, …
Feb 12
Helping Unmarried Home Buyers Navigate the Purchase More couples these days are purchasing homes together before they marry, and some do not intend to marry at all. Unwed twosomes need to determine how to hold the title: whether the home will transfer to the surviving partner if the other dies, as joint tenants with …
Feb 11
Men, Women Lust Over Homes Differently Sixty-nine percent of consumers recently admitting to having a “home crush”—a property they liked so much they were drawn back to looking at it more than once online or in person, according to a new realtor.com® survey of 1,000 consumers. But men and women respond quite differently to …
Feb 10
CFPB Debuts New Online Mortgage Tool The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a new online mortgage tool sifting through Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, allowing the public to learn more about residential mortgage trends with certain loan products and gather a better understanding of borrowers’ access to credit. But CFPB views this tool …
