Rising incomes are helping to offset recent increases in mortgage rates and gave a boost to housing affordability in the first quarter of this year, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index shows.The index showed that 61.6 percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of January and the end of March were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $71,900. That does mark an increa
Negotiation is a crucial form of communication, no matter how much people hate doing it. Whether it happens in a workplace or during a transaction, a negotiation does not always equal a conflict. Embrace the fact that the conversation is about communicating needs, writes Sara Lindberg in a recent Business Insider article.Those negotiating must be open to compromising and saying no if they don’t like the offer—for a higher chance of success, L
Teacher salaries have been in the spotlight recently following a six-day teacher strike in Phoenix. Only 0.5 percent of the 14,406 homes for sale in Phoenix are affordable to the average local teacher’s annual salary of $45,965, according to a new report released by Redfin.Last week, Arizona lawmakers approved a 20 percent wage increase for teachers across the state. The share of homes affordable to Phoenix teachers will then double to 1.1 perc
Regardless of its size, a home's outdoor space should be a showpiece in a listing.“This year it’s really about making your outdoor space function like an interior space for all things fun, lounging, and entertaining,” Gretchen Kennelly, a San Diego interior designer, told realtor.com®.Designers offered up some of their trend insights to realtor.com® for homeowners or sellers trying to maximize a home’s outdoor potential, including:Al
Fair housing is still an ongoing effort. In 2017, nearly 30,000 housing discrimination complaints were filed, a slight increase from 2016, according to the 2018 Fair Housing Trends Report: Making Every Neighborhood a Place of Opportunity. The report was released by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The NFHA asserts there are many more cases that are unaccounted for and estimates the number of offenses is around 3.7 million annually.More than h
High demand for homes for sale mixed with low inventories is prompting bidding wars. Thirty-seven percent of properties that closed in March sold at or above the list price, according to the March 2018 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey. That's higher than a year ago, when 35 percent of properties sold at or above the list price.“Buyer demand continues to outpace the supply of homes being listed for sale in the market, sustaining the upward p
Civil rights advocates have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, accusing the agency of not following a rule intended to prevent segregation. The federal lawsuit names HUD Secretary Ben Carson.In January, HUD postponed an Obama administration rule—the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule—that required communities that receive funding from the agency to submit fair housing assessments. Those assessment
Homeowners are less likely to get a rude awakening when going through the mortgage process, according to the latest Quicken Loans Home Price Perception Index. Owners’ perception of home values are now the closest to being in line with appraisers’ than in more than three years.In April, appraised values were just 0.33 percent lower than what homeowners expected. Further, only five of the 27 metro areas analyzed in the index had appraisals lowe
Remodelers report that growing labor shortages are delaying projects and increasing the amount they have to charge homeowners, according to the National Association of Home Builder’s Remodeling Market Index survey for the third quarter of 2017. Those needing a carpenter may find the most trouble; 91 percent of remodelers reported shortages of labor in carpentry work.More than half of remodelers surveyed reported shortages in 12 of the 15 remode
Millennials who delayed homeownership following the Great Recession are now finally entering the market in bigger numbers. They comprised 36 percent of home buyers last year, up from 32 percent in 2013, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. But they’re trying to make up for lost time by skipping over the starter, entry-level home and heading right into buying larger, pricier homes that they plan to stay in longer, USA Today rep
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