Forty-three million American homeowners aged 55 and older say they plan to live out the rest of their years in their current home. But adding the necessary features they'll need to age in place could prove costly—and possibly financially impossible for some—according to a new analysis by mortgage financing giant Freddie Mac.About 1.5 million existing homes require retrofitting, such as widened doorways and hallways, adding levered handles, or
An increase in interest rates means home shoppers likely will need a higher salary in order to afford a median-priced home in 27 of the largest metro areas, according to mortgage data provider HSH.com's fourth-quarter 2016 salary-homeownership analysis.Couple that with higher home prices, which are rising year over year, and it takes more to afford the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance payments on a median-priced home. Take a look at the
Some of your clients may be dreaming about buying a home on foreign shores, particularly in countries such as Mexico, Costa Rica, the Philippines, Colombia, and Canada. In fact, about 14 percent of REALTORS® say they had a client in search of property abroad last year, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2016 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate. That number has more than doubled from the previous yea
As real estate heads into its busy spring season, consumers aren't showing typically large demand for mortgage loans just yet. Total mortgage application volume, which includes refinances and home purchases, dropped 2 percent week over week for the week ending Feb. 17, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. Total mortgage volume has plunged nearly 21 percent from a year ago.Refinancing applications has shouldered most of the blame for the decr
If your home buyers are looking to buy new, you may want to share the latest list of home building’s “most admired companies” from Fortune.They named these five companies as the top most admired brands in home building: Toll Brothers Lennar D.R. Horton CalAtlantic Group NVRIn the general real estate category, Fortune also named these five companies as most admired: Simon Property Group Host Hotels & Resorts Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) CBRE
Usually it’s existing homeowners who are associated with blocking new lower income construction, due to fears that their property value could be affected, neighborhood aesthetics, or local protectionism. But a new study shows that renters in high-cost cities may hold that same NIMBYism—not-in-my-back-yard—mentality too.Renters in high-rent cities are showing NIMBYism toward market-rate housing at a level that matches homeowners, finds new r
Some of the cleanest cities in the U.S. are usually in agricultural communities that have a natural forest or natural reserve nearby, according to realtor.com®’s data team. On the other hand, the most polluted cities tend to be located in former industrial hubs, such as in the Rust Belt and along the Gulf of Mexico.Pollution in the U.S. has been declining. For instance, in 2015, the nation’s industrial facilities released 25 percent less tox
One of the nation’s largest owners and operators of apartment homes is trying to halt Airbnb listings of its units. Apartment Investment & Management Company (Aimco), a property manager that oversees more than 50,000 properties, has filed a lawsuit in both California and Florida to prevent Airbnb from listing its units, saying that doing so violates its leases.“It is not acceptable to us that Airbnb actively promotes and profits from del
Once a buyer settles on a home, they often show their commitment with an earnest-money deposit. But if they’re not careful, they could lose thousands of dollars.Realtor.com® recently featured some of the biggest mistakes home buyers most often make with earnest-money deposits, including:Failing to understand exactly what an earnest-money deposit is.It is proof that a buyer is committed to completing the sale. Earnest money is used as credit to
The best way to get more search traffic to your website: Blogging. That said, it takes a lot of blogging to see results.HubSpot, an inbound marketing and sales software company, reviewed the blogging frequency and website traffic of 13,500-plus of its customers. They found that you don’t tend to see any significant boost to traffic if you publish just four times a month. Instead, companies had to publish 5-10 blog posts a month to see noticeabl
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