Certain amenities that home buyers now consider “nice-to-have” may soon move into the “must-have” category in the coming years. Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate on its Clean Slate blog post recently featured three amenities that are likely to grow in demand among home shoppers.
Sure, buyers may like the house they’re considering, but do their pets? It’s a question that’s coming up more frequently, and it’s causing builders to put the needs their clients’ four-legged friends front and center.
From designing homes with amenities including ‘smart’ pet doors and elaborate washing and grooming areas, to creating separate living spaces for pets, it’s clear that pets are an important factor when helping clients buy or remodel a home.
Home inspectors are hired to perform an objective evaluation of a home’s condition, but at times, their discoveries can prompt the buyer to terminate a sale contract.
Dylan Chalk, owner of Seattle-based Orca Inspection Services LLC, writes that, in his experience, the following three issues kill the most deals…
Low mortgage rates, declining home prices, and homes that are lingering on the market longer are three main reasons why the next three months could be the best time to buy so far this year, says Jonathan Smoke, Realtor.com®’s chief economist.
“The spring and summer home-buying seasons were especially tough on potential buyers this year with increasing prices and limited supply,” Smoke says. “Buyers who are open to a fall or winter purchase should find some relief with lower prices and less competition from other buyers.”
RealtyTrac recently released its Q3 Zombie Foreclosure and Vacant Property Report, which shows 20,050 residential properties in the foreclosure process – but not yet repossessed – were vacant “zombie” homes as of the end of the third quarter of 2015, down 27 percent from the previous quarter and down 43 percent from a year ago. Vacant residential properties in the foreclosure process accounted for 1.3 percent of all vacant residential properties, with bank-owned homes (REO) accounting for another 1.9 percent of all vacant properties as of the end of the third quarter. The report shows a total of 1.5 million vacant U.S. residential properties, 1.8 percent of all 84.7 million U.S. residential properties.
Home prices are rising rapidly, but economists are deflating concerns that another “housing bubble” is brewing.
A recent report from CoreLogic shows that twice as many metro markets are considered “overvalued” – prices are inflated relative to incomes — in the second quarter of this year compared to the first three months of the year. But economists say it’s not a housing bubble because bubbles eventually burst and home prices this time around aren’t likely to fall.
A survey conducted exclusively among millennial as part of the Responsive Home project – a venture between Builder magazine and Pardee Homes to design, build and sell the ideal home for the 21st century buyers – identifies the driving factors behind new age home buying habits and de-bunks millennial home buying myths.
Foreclosures are falling fast. Since reaching a peak in September 2010, the number of foreclosures has plunged 68 percent – from 117,225 nationwide to 38,000 as of July, according to CoreLogic’s July 2015 National Foreclosure Report, released recently.
In the past year alone, foreclosure inventory has fallen by nearly 28 percent and completed foreclosures have dropped about 24 percent. Completed foreclosures are the total number of homes actually lost to foreclosure.
It’s getting easier to get approved for a mortgage. Fannie Mae has reduced the mandatory waiting period for a mortgage after bankruptcy, short sale, or pre-foreclosure. Borrowers no longer need to wait 4 years before re-applying to get a mortgage. Borrowers can now re-apply for a loan just 2 years after a bankruptcy, short sale or pre-foreclosure.
Mortgage rates fell to their lowest levels in more than a week on Friday, following the release of August’s official employment figures. While the headline job creation was weaker than expected, several components of the report offset the weakness. Previous months were revised to show better job creation, the unemployment rate fell to 5.1, and wages grew slightly faster than expected.
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