Jan 29
2015: The Breakout Year for Sellers? Home owners are living in their homes longer. Typically, home owners stay in their homes six or seven years before making a move. But in 2014, that number grew to a 10-year average, according to research by the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR researchers are predicting that “pent-up …
Jan 28
How does Home Staging Really Win Over Buyers? Home staging can influence buyers’ perceptions of a home and even motivate them to pay more, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2015 Profile of Home Staging, a survey of more than 2,300 REALTORS® representing buyers and sellers. Eighty-one percent of REALTORS® who represent buyers say …
Jan 26
A Hot Trend to Watch: Tiny Homes Could you imagine living in 97 square feet? Tiny houses – some might even call them teeny-tiny – are growing in popularity among buyers in the second home market. Some are even making them their primary residence. Leaf House, a tiny home builder based out of Whitehorse, Yukon, …
Jan 23
States with Highest, Lowest Foreclosure Rates. Foreclosures are falling, but not everywhere. Some economists are forecasting that lenders are gearing up for a “spring cleaning of deferred distress” in the first half of 2015 in some local markets. “While the national level of foreclosures may normalize in the next two years, there will always be …
Jan 22
What You Don’t Know About Outdoor Kitchens. Now that the 2015 International Builders’ Show has partnered with the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show, there are plenty of examples of beautiful cooking spaces, indoors and out. But what about the numbers? The results of a new survey released at the show attempt to define what consumers …
Jan 21
Housing Market Only 75% Back to Normal The housing market is only about three-quarters of the way back to what is considered “normal,” when factoring in new-home construction, existing-home sales, prices, mortgage delinquencies, and the Millennial employment rate, according to a newly released report by Trulia. Two particular areas holding back the return to …
Jan 20
More Home Owners Are Remodeling Again A housing index that measures activity in the remodeling market reached a record-high in the final quarter of 2014, showing that home owners are once again sprucing up their homes following a large slowdown in remodeling activity in the years following the Great Recession. The National Association of …
Jan 16
Mortgage Giants Urged to Ease Up on Credit The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to explore “alternate” credit-score models and the credit history of the loans they back. The move is part of several efforts by FHFA to ease tight mortgage standards and help more potential buyers qualify for …
Jan 15
A Second Chance at First Impressions As a real estate professional, you make your living working with people — and making that crucial good first impression is always the most important step. If you’ve had encounters that made you wish you could do them over, there’s good news: You probably can — and you’ll have …
Jan 14
A Guide to Finding Mortgage Savings Many borrowers are paying more than they need to for a mortgage because they didn’t shop around for lenders enough, according to a new study released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In response, CFPB is releasing an interactive online toolkit called “Owning a Home,” which aims to help …
Jan 13
Mortgaged Homes Have Equity Again About 273,000 homes returned to positive equity in the third quarter of 2014, bringing the total to 44.6 million of all properties with a mortgage, according to a newly released equity report from CoreLogic using data from the third quarter of 2014. That number represents around 90 percent of all …
Jan 12
Best Bets for Housing in 2015 Forbes recently spotlighted the top places to invest in the new year, whether for investors looking for rental properties or young professionals looking to make their first home purchase. “The key is to buy in cities with strong job growth that people are moving to, so that the stock …
