Homeowners are eyeing their kitchens and bathrooms when it comes to home sprucing. The median spending cost on kitchen remodels rose 10 percent year over year in 2017, according to home remodeling website Houzz’s latest study, “2018 Houzz & Home: Overview of U.S. Renovation.” Other bathrooms and master bathrooms were the second and third most popular rooms, respectively, that homeowners claimed they wanted to renovate.Four in five reno
The month of May saw a record number of new-home purchases. Sales of newly built single-family homes increased 6.7 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 689,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Monday. It marks the highest number of new-home sales of the year and the second highest in sales since the Great Recession.“Sales numbers continue to grow, spurred on by rising home equity, job growth, and reports of a greater nu
Some homeowners are hitting the million-dollar mark after selling their home. Researchers from PropertyShark, a real estate data firm, analyzed 31 cities to see which areas had the most millionaires as a result of purchasing a home before 2001 for less than $1 million, and then selling it after 2001 for $1 million or more.The highest share of home-sale millionaires were from San Francisco, such as homeowners who bought a home prior to the dot-c
Cost-cutting is a rising priority for mortgage lenders, according to Fannie Mae’s Chief Economist Doug Duncan. Faced with declining profits, mortgage lenders are looking to court more business to make up for the lower share of homeowners who are refinancing. Mortgage rates are up about 80 basis points since last September, which has decreased the incentive for homeowners to refinance. Further, existing- and new-home sales were both down in Apri
Any change the federal government makes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must be carefully thought through to ensure there’s no disruption to the availability of safe, affordable mortgage financing, experts from around the country said at a forum hosted by the National Association of REALTORS® on Friday.NAR hosted the forum to bring views from all sides of the debate to help clarify what needs to be done once the federal government turns it atten
The ultrarich’s biggest spending category tends to be on real estate, according to realtor.com®. So where are the richest people in America settling down and buying a home?“In terms of neighborhoods, [the ultrarich] are either going for aspirational places or looking for the next hottest place,” Dolly Lenz, founder of Dolly Lenz Real Estate in New York, told realtor.com®.Realtor.com®’s data team sought to find the priciest ZIP codes an
City design can have a big influence on how residents feel about where they live. The Center for Active Design—a nonprofit that promotes design solutions to improve public health—and the Knight Foundation teamed to release a new set of recommendations for urban planners to enhance city design, called the Assembly Civic Design Guidelines.The CfAD believes that cities can do more to make residents want to use public spaces more, which could lea
Counter to the national trend, several housing markets saw foreclosure starts rise year over year last month, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.Forty-three percent of local markets saw an annual increase in May in foreclosure starts. Foreclosure starts were most on the rise in Houston, which saw a 153 percent jump from a year ago. Hurricane Harvey struck the Houston metro area in August 2017, tying with
More than 90 percent of builders say that rising lumber prices are hampering the affordability of new homes, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Recently surveyed builders say that the higher construction costs are causing more prospective buyers to back out of purchasing a new home as well.Builders are blaming the rising construction costs on the increase in lumber prices over the past year an
Outdoor projects can help boost a home’s value by up to 10 percent, according to a new realtor.com® report. Outdoor showers, barbecue stations, entertainment pools, and firepits are the top projects that realtor.com® researchers found with the biggest potential increases to a home’s price.For its research, realtor.com® analyzed listings at its site for summer-related outdoor features in single-family homes listed for $150,000 or more.An ou
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