Sales of newly built homes dropped for the fourth consecutive month, while new construction inventory reached the highest level in years, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Sales of new single-family homes dropped 5.5 percent last month, the slowest pace since December 2016.“New-home sales activity has slowed this summer as housing affordability remains a serious issue,” says Randy Noel, chairman of the National Association of H
The living room tends to be a major area for social activity in the home, and how you arrange the furniture can either encourage or hamper that.“Every piece of furniture you own might not have a perfect spot in your house, but it does have a best spot,” Myquillyn Smith, author of The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, told realtor.com®. Smith sees several common furniture placement mistakes that homeowners mak
The surge in off-market “pocket listings”—those held off the MLS in favor of secret channels and networks between agents or within a brokerage—is a growing issue in the real estate industry. In markets starved for inventory, real estate professionals are struggling with being kept out of these secret dealings for homes that their buyers could potentially want.In markets such as Los Angeles, for example, reports say that up to 30 percent
The technology to power driverless vehicles is already here, and greater tests of autonomous vehicles are already hitting the roadways. And as autonomous vehicles are spread around and the popularity of car-share programs rise, housing analysts are already calling on the death of the garage in residential homes.Babcock Ranch, located north of Fort Myers, Fla., is a sustainable, tech-enabled master-planned community development that is already sh
Which city will be the site of Amazon’s second headquarters? City officials in finalist areas are anxiously awaiting, and some investors are already betting on the winner and snatching up real estate ahead of the announcement or gathering commitments ahead of time so they’ll be ready to pounce once the winner is announced, The Wall Street Journal reports.“HQ2 is guaranteed to meet three criteria: tech job growth, tech job growth, and tech
Many consumers may see their credit scores move higher, following an announcement on Monday from FICO, a leading credit scoring company. FICO, Experian, and Finicity announced a new pilot program that will consider how prospective borrowers manage their cash that could move credit scores higher. Credit scores are a critical component when qualifying for a mortgage and getting the lowest rates.The program, called UltraFICO score, aims to help peop
Many homeowners overlook key safety measures when performing property upkeep, focusing too heavily on sprucing up the kitchen and overall design of their home and not enough on securing the structure against damage, according to a new survey of 1,000 people conducted by Porch.com. Thirty-one percent of homeowners say they don’t own a fire extinguisher, for example, and nearly 8 percent say that though they have one, they don’t know where it i
HouseLogic, a home improvement resource, recently highlighted some unusual ways to keep a home clean and gleaming.Apply a car product to keep shower doors free from scum. Soap buildup could be eliminated by covering a glass shower door in the rain-repellant product that is used for car windshields (only advised for glass doors). The product creates an invisible barrier, causing water and soap to roll off.Use protectants on furniture and carpets.
Investors could be eligible for significant tax breaks when purchasing property in distressed economic areas across the country that the U.S. Treasury Department has labeled “opportunity zones.” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin predicts that the newly designated zones could attract up to $100 billion in investment.The goal is to draw capital to areas where investment has lagged since the Great Recession by allowing investors to avoid some tax
Retirees may want to head to Lancaster, Pa. The town earned the top spot in U.S. News & World Report’s list of 2019 Best Places to Retire in the U.S. Lancaster’s housing affordability and its residents' high rank for their happiness, helped it to bump Sarasota, Fla., from the number one position this year.U.S. News & World Report evaluated the country’s 100 largest metro areas to see how well they met retirees’ expectations, suc
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