Real estate pros often anxiously await for the spring selling season, a time known for an uptick in home sales. But will spring be as hot for the housing market this year as it has been in the past?Since the end of last year, home sales have slowed (a decline of 10 percent in December compared to a year prior), and properties have been sitting on the market for longer (46 days compared to 30 days a year ago).Nevertheless, Lawrence Yun, chief
Home staging is key to attracting home shoppers, and maybe even more so in an era where consumers are used to watching TV home-makeover shows, according to the newly released 2019 Profile of Home Staging report from the National Association of REALTORS®.Eighty-three percent of buyers’ agents say that staging a home makes it easier for buyers to visualize a property as their future home. More than half of sellers’ agents say th
Painting a room can be one of the most budget-friendly ways to makeover a space. But some commonly held myths about choosing the right paint may prevent some homeowners from finding the truly perfect hue to enhance their space.Realtor.com® recently spoke with painting experts to address some of these common myths about painting a home. Some of those include:Dark paint colors make a room look small.In fact, it’s just the opposite in many cases,
Just how critical are pollinators to the success of a garden? Very, since butterflies, birds, bees, and bats all help maintain habitats. But pollinators are in danger, and that poses a major risk for everybody. One out of every three bites of food we consume is attributed to the help of pollinators. Honeybees usually get the greatest attention; their population has been on the decline since the late 1990s and one-third of our food supply depends
More consumers are buying their products online and then picking them up at a store. These “click-and-collect” buyers are helping to boost in-store sales, which could bode well for the commercial real estate market.More than 50 percent of adults use click-and-collect buying methods. In fact, 61 percent say they use it frequently (at least once per month), according to a new survey of about 1,000 consumers conducted by ICSC, a global resource&
Homes are increasingly flooding, not from weather-related events but from old pipes and valves, worn-out hoses on second-story washing machines, and faulty connections from appliances that use water, The Wall Street Journal reports.The uptick has sparked an increase in extensive water damage to homes that has been reported to insurers. One in 50 homeowners filed a water damage claim each year between 2013 and 2017, according to Verisk A
Complaints about the condition of homes on military bases, including lead poisoning, mold, and poor construction, have grown worse since the problems were first revealed in a Reuters investigation last August. NBC News did a follow-up piece Friday looking at whether there has been any improvement but found that the number of complaints by military families has increased, now getting the attention of lawmakers.Seventy-three percent of homeowners
The majority of Americans—79 percent recently surveyed—still believe that owning a home is a vital component of achieving the American dream, according to a Bankrate.com survey of more than 2,000 consumers. Americans placed achieving homeownership ahead of retirement (68 percent), having a successful career (63 percent), and owning an automobile (58 percent), according to the survey.While the majority of respondents rated ownership high, they
Buyers financing their home purchase can save hundreds of dollars in their first year of owning just by shopping around for a mortgage, according to new study from NerdWallet, a personal finance website.Home shoppers who compare interest rates between five different lenders can pocket $430 in savings in their first year alone, according to NerdWallet’s analysis using a 30-year fixed-rate, $260,000 mortgage.“That savings would accumulate and c
The number one way younger millennials and Generation Zers learn about brands is from friends and family, outpacing Google, social media, Amazon, retail stores, and television in descending order, according to a recently study of 18- to 29-year-olds by Swift Prepaid Solutions, a payments technology provider.As digital natives, members of this group of emerging buyers are highly tech-savvy, and, like their older counterparts, prefer
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