Fewer new homes are in the works, and economists say recent hurricanes that struck the South brought down the latest numbers.Housing starts dropped 4.7 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.13 million units, the Commerce Department reported this week. Broken out, single-family production fell 4.6 percent month over month to 829,000 units, with the bulk of the decline occurring in the hurricane-ravaged South. The South pos
The ability to network and be a people person may be your biggest ally toward building a strong real estate career. REALTORS® identified strong people skills as the most important trait to being successful in residential sales, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ newly released report, “Choosing a Career in Real Estate: A Perspective on Gender, Race, and Ethnicity.” Self-motivation and negotiation skills also ranked amon
For the second consecutive year, Watauga, Texas, is the hottest ZIP code in the U.S., according to realtor.com®’s 2017 Hottest ZIP Codes list. Livonia, Mich., and Kentwood, Mich., landed second and third, respectively, on the annual list.Realtor.com® analyzed 32,000 ZIP codes based on factors like the time it takes properties to sell and how frequently homes are viewed in each ZIP code. The markets on this year’s top 10 list are seeing home
Baby boomers looking to retire, downsize, or cash in are growing concerned that they’ll be unable to sell their big suburban homes as the younger generation shows different preferences in homes.First-time home buyers are “hungry for starter homes and efficient layouts,” says Javier Vivas, manager of economic research at realtor.com®.Large single-family homes are lingering on the market. Realtor.com® defines “large single-family homes”
A senior homeowner and her son were found dead last week by an agent who entered the house to preview it.Residents Margaret Montgomery Gibson, 86, and Eric Dana Gibson, 53, a mother and son, were found by an agent who called 911, according to WRAL-TV news.In the released 911 call, the unidentified real estate professional tells police, "I just walked in this house to preview it for a client and there's a dead person in the bathroom. There's bloo
A slight decrease in mortgage rates brought refinancers and home shoppers back to lenders last week.Total mortgage application volume for refinancings and home purchases rose 3.6 percent week-over-week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. However, the volume still is nearly 19 percent below the same week a year ago. Interest rates were lower a year ago.Home purchase applications increased 4 percent
Airbnb, a short-term rental startup, plans to overcome its disputes with cities over short-term leasing by building its own apartment buildings.The company plans to build a 324-unit apartment building near Walt Disney World Resorts in Kissimmee, Fla., and says it plans to build more in the near future.The first building in Florida will be called Niido Powered by Airbnb and will open in early 2018.Tenants will be able to rent out their units for u
Quicken Loans is commanding the largest share of the mortgage market, according to 2016 data recently released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. But Wells Fargo boasts the highest origination dollar volume at $126 billion in 2016, compared to Quicken Loans’ $90.6 billion.iEmergent, which compiled the data, calculated the top mortgage lenders by looking at the number of purchase and refinance loans originated. The follow
A new study finds that properties that contain certain words in their listing comments tend to sell for higher prices.CoreLogic researchers analyzed more than 1 million single-family transactions that closed in the first half of 2017. Every property analyzed had public remarks and comments from which researchers extracted word pairs. Prices can vary geographically on how much weight certain words may have.But one house feature that stood out was
Real estate community assesses the long road to recoveryKey Takeaways Northern California agents roll up their sleeves and do anything they can to help their community, which may or may not have to do with real estate.It’s been just over a week since thousands of Northern California residents frantically left their homes in the early hours of the morning as fires raged into wine country’s highly populated areas.More than 100,000 people hav
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