Tougher lending requirements, a transient lifestyle and seeing mortgages throw their parents’ finances in turmoil are causing more millennials to rent instead of buy a home. This attitude shift on homeownership and the rise in demand for rentals is directly influencing the growth of private firms looking to fill out… read more →
The home-improvement shows you see on TV make it look so easy. Buy a complete dump of a house with “good bones,” and presto change-o, turn it into your dream home. The reality, however, is that buying a fixer-upper is some serious work. One option is to hire someone to… read more →
Most homeowners who have formal living and dining rooms rarely use them; Thanksgiving and Christmas are but two days of the year. Similarly, millions of square feet in great rooms, breakfast nooks, laundry rooms and hallways and even “spare” bedrooms go underused – space wasted most or all of the… read more →
A new study shows that many home sellers are unrealistically optimistic, asking considerably more than they’re likely to get. As a result, they risk long delays in finding buyers, which means a lot of lost revenue while the house sits idle on the market. What’s more, homeowners who bought after the… read more →
The numbers from the housing sector by and large have been weaker than originally expected during the first months of 2014. A new, revised 2014 outlook from Freddie Mac is out, and we have compared it to the most recent outlook from Fannie Mae from the end of April. The… read more →
In housing, it takes two to tango. Buyers have known for some time that low prices and low interest rates make it a good time to shop for a home, and now sellers are getting on the bandwagon. That could help solve the low-inventory problem that has dogged the market.… read more →
The U.S. economy is off to a bit of a rocky start in 2014, something that might actually benefit homebuyers this busy spring homebuying season. The unsteady – and frankly, at times unpredictable – economy has allowed mortgage rates to hit yearly lows as recently as the first week in… read more →
New-home construction has seen consistent growth in the past three years, and sales of new homes are expected to increase by about 16 percent, or 580,000 homes, in 2014, according to Kiplingers Economic Outlooks. And as more homes are built, new architecture trends will begin to appear — slowly. Building is not… read more →
Most renters sign a standard 12-month lease when renting an apartment, but there is another option available: the month-to-month lease. This type of lease certainly isn’t right for everyone, but given the right circumstances, it may be exactly what you need. Pros of a month-to-month lease Some renters prefer shorter-term… read more →
In recent years, officials in many of the nation’s most expensive housing markets have embraced “micro-apartments” as a way to provide less-expensive housing for young renters. They are betting that the tiny apartments — generally the size of a hotel room for about half the rent of a full-size apartment… read more →