As the Trump administration unveils its plan to reform the U.S. income tax system, NAR President-elect Elizabeth Mendenhall visited key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle yesterday to remind them of the central role the mortgage interest deduction and other tax code provisions have long played in incentivizing Americans to become homeowners. Removing or diluting those incentives, which make it possible for millions of Americans to own a home, w
It's important to thank your customers for their business, and that couldn't be easier with the rise of social media as a mass communications method. Gratitude should be at the core of a marketer’s brand, says Bardi Toto Drake, author of “The Power of Asking.” She encourages marketers to avoid “bragging and selling” strategies but instead find ways to show gratitude to increase business. She offers some of the following tips on how in a
Sales of newly built single-family homes increased for the third consecutive month, posting a strong showing to the spring selling season, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Single-family new-home sales rose 5.8 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 621,000 units.“The March sales numbers are the second highest on record since the Great Recession, which is especially encouraging considering the poor weather conditions t
Results from the composite of single-family home price indices calculated every monthKey Takeaways The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price NSA Index, covering all nine U.S. census divisions, reported a 5.8 percent annual gain in February, up from 5.6 percent last month and setting a 32-month high.February’s S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index numbers set a fourth consecutive all-time high — the highest HPI seen in a wh
Amid a surge in new supply, vacancy increases in many major U.S. office markets are slowing price hikes, according to Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate services firm. Nationally, average asking rents for office space rose 1.8 percent between the first quarter of 2016 and the same time period in 2017, the slowest annual rate of growth since 2011, according to data firm Reis Inc.The office market is not expanding at a rate in line with the res
With adjustable-rate mortgages resetting to a lower rate, homeowners with these loans are seeing more money in their pocket and are increasing their overall spending, according to a newly released report by JPMorgan Chase Institute. Borrowers with ARMs have increased their spending by 15 percent relative to their baseline, which equates to about $488 per month, according to the report.Further, these homeowners spent 9 percent more ahead of the ex
Move over, Silicon Valley, because there are some new tech hubs gaining clout. And where the technology industry goes, real estate booms are sure to follow.The tech boom in Silicon Valley has prompted more U.S. cities to focus on attracting new jobs in the industry, but these are places where most Americans can also afford to live comfortably, according to realtor.com®. The number of people moving to Silicon Valley has dropped by 27 percent betw
Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults believe home prices in their local area will rise over the next 12 months, the highest percentage since Gallup began collecting such data in 2005. That also marks a big difference between 2008 and 2012, when no more than one-third of Americans believed home prices would increase.Residents in the western region of the U.S. are the most optimistic, with nearly three-quarters of residents saying they expect price inc
The inventory squeeze has left home buyers with fewer options on the market than they've seen in decades. While that's bad news for them, the continuously high demand means it's one of the best times to be a seller—ever."I've been selling real estate for 25 years, and this is the strongest seller's market I have ever seen in my entire real estate career," David Fogg, a sales associate with Keller Williams Realty World Media Center in Burbank, C
You just landed a smaller-than-average listing. Now you have to figure out how to capitalize on the square footage to help the house stand out in your marketing. Desare Kohn-Laski, broker-owner of Skye Louis Realty in Coconut Creek, Fla., offers these three ideas that both agents and brokers can use to make a small home a hot sell. Identify the target market. There is a segment of buyers who are attracted to smaller homes. With millennials enteri
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