Smart-home features can boost a home’s sale value by up to 5 percent. That totals about $15,000 on a $300,000 home—no chump change to a seller.Home appraisers are now starting to factor in the value of smart-home features into their valuations as well, according to a recent article at realtor.com®.So what exactly are the perks of a smart home if you ever find you’re selling one? The article points to some of the following benefits:Smart ho
Where are the hotspots of new apartment development post-recession?New York’s Long Island City leads the nation for the most new apartment construction. The area has added 12,533 new units between 2010 and 2016 in 41 buildings, according to a new analysis by RentCafe. A handful of other cities also saw large spikes in apartment buildings in that time period.RentCafe analyzed construction data from Yardi Matrix and Property Shark in about 1,000
Homebuilders say they’re struggling to deliver on the demand of lower-priced entry-level homes that cater to the growing number of willing millennial buyers, arguing that more entry-level homes will hurt their bottom lines.“Since the recovery has really been at the middle end of the market, home prices have gone up and land prices have followed,” Megan McGrath, managing director at MKM Partners, told CNBC. “So it is very, very hard to mak
“Homeownership serves as the foundation of wealth for most American families.”̶ HUD Secretary Ben CarsonIn Support of the DreamHUD Secretary Ben Carson at the Regulatory Issues Forum. Photo credit: Jon BoughtinResponsible homeownership plays a crucial role as an engine of economic growth and in the financial well-being of U.S. households, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson told REALTORS® Tuesday at the Legislative Meetings &
Just how widely can the cost of living vary from state to state? Financial website GoBankingRates.com culled 2016 data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, examining six categories of living expenses: housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous items. The site used the data to calculate each state's overall cost of living index.Hawaii is the priciest state to live in, where cost-of-living e
Twenty-six percent of millennial college students say they plan to move back home as soon as they earn their degree in order to pay off some of their student loans, according to TD Ameritrade's Young Money Survey of about 2,000 young adults.Thirty-two percent of millennials between the ages of 20 and 26 say they owe between $10,000 and $50,000 in student loans. The average student loan balance was $10,205.That is prompting more graduates to move
Home sales reached their highest pace in a decade in the first quarter of 2017 as property prices continue to escalate, according to the National Association of REALTORS®' latest quarterly report.The median price of an existing single-family home nationally was $232,100 in the first quarter, up 6.9 percent from the same time period a year ago. Home prices rose year over year in 85 percent of the 178 metro areas analyzed.The continued inventory s
Buyers continue to flood the market as some areas experience 'unhealthy appreciation'Key Takeaways In Q1, the national median single-family home price was $232,100, a 6.9 percent quarter-over-quarter and 5.9 percent year-over-year increase.The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its latest Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability report, which boasted the best quarterly sales pace in nearly a decade.The median existing singl
Get ready to see more first-time home buyer clients. In the first quarter of 2017, the number of new-owner households was double the number of new-renter households.About 854,000 new-owner households were formed during the first three months of this year, more than double the 365,000 new-renter households in that period, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. What’s more, it’s the first time in a decade that new buyers outpaced new renters.Fir
The nation has 1.9 million new graduates, and many may be looking for that perfect place to relocate to. Realtor.com®’s research team sought to find the best metros for new college grads by analyzing 200 of the largest metros to see which ones offered the most in-demand job opportunities, affordable housing, and largest single and millennial populations, among other factors.About half of those who recently graduated hold jobs that aren’t rel
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