- Get the Most from Your Home Sale
- Kiplinger.com helps you sell your home:
In this tutorial we'll walk you through the steps to a successful sale -- from maximizing curb appeal to ensuring a smooth settlement.
- 2007-06-04
- Don't let your yard sabotage your home sale
- MSN tells you how keep an attractive yard without a lot of maintenance:
These days, elaborate patios, outdated or high-maintenance landscaping and invasive plants and trees can kill buyer interest in a home almost as quickly as an outdated kitchen or orange shag carpeting, according to landscaping experts and real-estate agents.
- 2007-06-04
- 7 landscaping tips
- From Money Magazine, some quick landscaping tips if your selling right away or some bigger ideas for long term:
By spending $500 to $3,000 on plants and materials and a few hours of time, you can achieve a well-landscaped look without shelling out for professional help.
- 2007-06-04
- Pending home sales index drops
- From the Associated Press, pending home sales dropped 3.2 percent in April, but a realtor group sees stabilization in the near future:
Lawrence Yun, the realtor association's senior economist said in a statement that the relatively flat level of pending sales for March and April provide evidence that home sales "should be fairly stable in the months ahead," following a period of market disruptions.
- 2007-06-04
- Idaho home prices among fastest-rising in U.S.
- From IdahoStatesman.com, Idaho along with six other states had big home price increases:
The seven states posting double-digit rates of increase over the 12-month period were Utah, 17 percent; Idaho, 12.3 percent; Montana, 11.7 percent; Wyoming, 11.7 percent; Washington, 11.6 percent; New Mexico, 11.2 percent, and Oregon, 10.8 percent.
- 2007-06-04
- What's Wrong With This House? Finding a Good Home Inspector
- From Real Estate Journal.com, find problems before it's to late:
Many states and real-estate companies require sellers to disclose what they know about a home's problems, such as mice in the attic. But inspections, which are the buyer's responsibility, can reveal what the seller either doesn't know or isn't telling you.
- 2007-06-05
- Forget global warming: Beach property is hot
- From Fortune Magazine, the forthcoming flooded coasts have not affected near by home prices:
On one level, I can understand why someone looking to enjoy a beach house in 2007 might not obsess over what will happen in 2050 or 2100. Still, one of the key attractions of real estate as an investment has always been its permanence. As the saying goes, they're not making any more of it. So if a $5 million property is going to be gradually swallowed up by the sea, to me it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to pay a premium price for what appears to be a depreciating asset.
- 2007-06-05
- Home prices: More pain to come
- From CNNMoney.com, prices are expected to drop for the first time this year, but expected to be up in 2008:
[The National Association of Realtors] is expecting a rebound in sales and prices in 2008. It now expects that median prices for existing homes to climb 2.6 percent next year, although most of that gain won't come until the second half of 2008.
- 2007-06-06
- Few consumers really know real estate
- From MarketWatch, a survey from AARP revealed a lot of people don't know how the industry works or what's available to them:
The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, which oversees much of the realty transaction under the auspices of the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act, has been seeking for several years to update archaic rules and simplify disclosure and closing paperwork. But those efforts have stalled amid political and industry bickering.
- 2007-06-06
- "For sale by owner" web sites can generate higher prices than Realtors
- From ars technica, three economists discover selling your home yourself online can earn you more money:
If a low-stress selling experience is what you want, a Realtor is probably the way to go. But if it's all about the bottom line, Igal Hendel, Aviv Nevo, and Francois Ortalo-Magné argue that selling a place yourself can be more lucrative in a city with a well-used FSBO web site.
- 2007-06-09
- Most Resilient U.S. Real Estate Markets
- From Forbes.com, Boston and Denver will be slow to recover, but other cities are expected to do well:
Ripe for investment? Philadelphia and New Orleans. Based on housing inventory and local economic conditions, both should hit price troughs by year's end and bounce back with moderate gains around 4% in 2008.
Also see the most resilient real estate markets in pictures.
- 2007-06-09
- Foreclosures jump 90% over last year
- From Reuters, a poor market early in the year has led to an increase in foreclosures:
The May foreclosures - a sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions - totaled 176,137, up 19 percent from April, the firm said in its May 2007 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
- 2007-06-12
- How low can housing go? Buyers hope a lot
- From the Associated Press, many people looking for a deal are left wondering when the right time to buy is:
“In general, it is very difficult to time the market,” said Raphael Bostic, associate director of the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate.
“The real problem with that is you don’t know when the floor is until after it’s passed. If the floor is right now, you missed it,” he said.
- 2007-06-12
- The Little Engine That Could
- From the WSJ, developers are looking to build thriving communities around railroads:
This transit-oriented development, as it's known, is being promoted by local officials and developers as a way to counter sprawl, reduce traffic on the roads and revitalize struggling urban neighborhoods. By some estimates, there are about 100 such developments in the U.S., with 100 more in the pipeline. Reconnecting America, a national nonprofit group that works to spur development around transit stops, forecasts that by 2030 the number of households near transit stations will rise to 16 million, from six million today.
- 2007-06-13
- Overheated housing markets cool down
- From CNNMoney.com, the number of overvalued homes has dropped since last year:
The latest price declines were mostly clustered in areas that had seen big price run-ups during the boom, with California, Florida, New York and Massachusetts taking hits.
- 2007-06-16
- Most Expensive Homes In The West
- Forbes.com has found the top 10 most expensive homes for sale in the west topping out at $135 million:
California's trophy-property market is booming. Eight out of the top 10 most expensive homes in the West are located in the Golden State. And even the tenth most expensive property on our list--a $52 million five-acre Pasadena palace with expansive European-style gardens, koi ponds, stained-glass domed pavilions and a 35,000-square-foot house-- would have ranked first in the Midwest, second in the South and sixth in the Northeast.
See it in pictures.
- 2007-06-18
- Housing index hits lowest level since 1991
- From the Associated Press, stricter lending standards for mortgages means people have less to spend on a home:
The index has been sliding since March as demand for new housing slumped amid a rise in defaults for borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit.
- 2007-06-18
- Kitchen face-lifts for the frugal
- From Money Magazine, ideas from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to fix up your kitchen:
If your kitchen has a single ceiling light, it probably casts an annoying shadow over the food whenever you cook. An electrician can add a few recessed ceiling lights ($300 to $500) to brighten the entire room and under-cabinet lights ($200 to $400) to illuminate the work surfaces.
- 2007-06-21
- Top Home Sellers' Markets
- From Forbes.com, sellers in Raleigh and Austin are in a good position to be selling their homes:
Strong in-migration stemming from local economic strength is another good way to keep up demand here. New houses being built isn't a problem if there are new people moving to town.
- 2007-06-23
- Out of touch with realty reality
- From CNNMoney.com, most Americans are confident there homes increased in value over the last year:
The overconfidence of homeowners doesn't jibe with the findings of most home-price indices, which point to lower median single-family house prices of about 2 percent nationwide.
- 2007-06-23
- TOP 5 TINIEST PREFAB HOMES
- From Inhabitat, super small homes that are low cost and have a low impact on the environment:
As prefab housing takes hold as a viable, sustainable, contemporary building technique, one of the lessons we are learning is that bigger does not necessarily equal better. In fact, when is comes to simplifying your life and trying to tread lightly on the planet, we would argue that smaller is most certainly better.
- 2007-06-23
- No sign yet that housing market has hit bottom
- From MSNBC, the sales and prices continue to fall in May as lending standards go up:
The Realtors' report Monday also showed another reason for weakening demand: a big slowdown in household formations. With fewer new households in the market for a home, it will take that much longer to sell off the backlog of unsold houses.
- 2007-06-25
- A Fairway View, but the Window Is Often Broken
- From the New York Times, technology is allowing golfers to hit the ball further—sometimes into peoples' homes:
Some people have become virtual prisoners in their homes. Earla Smith lives at Lookout Mountain Golf Club in Phoenix. Look out, indeed.
- 2007-06-25
- Top First-Time Home Buyer Tips
- From Forbes.com, first time buyers have the upper hand in today's market, but should still do their research:
Walk a five-block radius and count the "for sale" signs to get a sense of whether there is a glut of available housing. Have your agent look up how much time other neighborhood houses have been on the market and how different the current asking price is from what it was at first listed.
Also in pictures
- 2007-06-26
- Where the housing boom goes on
- From CNNMoney.com, places like Albuquerque and San Antonio are bucking the trend and still gaining:
In Seattle, for example, the median home sale price was $380,200 during the first three months of 2007, according to the latest stats from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That's a 12.3 percent year-over-year increase.
- 2007-06-26
- New-Home Sales, Prices Decrease As Builders Lose Confidence
- From Real Estate Journal, new home sales are down for May, but varies greatly by location:
Regionally last month, new-home sales fell 11% in the Northeast, 1.9% in the West, and 7.3% in the South. Demand rose 31% in the Midwest.
- 2007-06-26
- Ten Trophy Home Must-Haves
- From Forbes.com, need to fill some space around the home? Try a hand made copper bath tub or a bat cave for your car:
Los Angeles-based Strategically Armored and Fortified Environments, a leader in high-end security systems, was recently commissioned to design a "bat cave" for one of its top-tier clients to store his collection of modern automobiles.
See it in pictures.
- 2007-06-27
- Will Going Green Help You Beat the Slow Housing Market?
- From The Daily Green, buyers are looking for green homes:
Owners of green homes tend to be happier than when they lived in more conventional digs, according to a recent NAHB/McGraw-Hill Construction survey. Perhaps another telling sign of the green shift in the building trades is the fact that almost 40 percent of Americans who recently renovated their dwellings did so with at least some green products.
- 2007-06-27