Forget the Open Floor Plan--It's Time to Bring Back Walls

1.   Bad landscaping 2.   Non neutral paint colors 3.   Popcorn ceilings 4.   Your pets 5.   Wall to wall carpeting 6.   Bathroom carpeting 7.   Wall paneling and/or wallpaper 8.   Brass fixtures 9.   Faux crystal faucet handles  10. Vanity light strips 11.  Clutter & dirt 12.  Bugs & critters 13.  Unpleasant odors 14.  Dark rooms 15.  Messy neighbors

Anyone who has ever worked with a good real estate agent knows how invaluable they are when it comes to buying or selling a home. However, these days it seems more companies are trying to spin the role of a real estate agent as “problematic,” while offering cheaper and quicker “solutions.” Enter the iBuyer, a platform where the transaction takes place online — and in my opinion, is impersonal as well as a detriment to homeowners and real estate agents alike. Consumers likely won’t empathize with the fact that as a real estate broker overseeing hundreds of agents, I see every day how hard they work to make a living off transaction commissions. Therefore, I’ll take the bottom line approach: IBuyers purport to make selling a home more seamless and cost-effective for sellers, when in reality, these companies often undervalue properties and swipe profits from sellers. What Is An IBuyer? As one  definition  states, iBuyers are online real estate investors who aim to reduce th...

Although the nation’s  employment rate  has risen to new highs within the last couple of years,  wages haven't kept pace  with home-price growth, leaving many homeowners struggling to afford housing. So, how are these Americans making ends meet? LendingTree’s latest analysis revealed that there is a direct correlation between the rising cost of living and the increasing number of workers per household. “As the cost of living rises, people are finding new ways to help make ends meet. For families, this could mean that both parents have to work jobs outside of the home,” LendingTree writes. “For single people, it could mean cohabitating with a roommate or a parent well into adulthood. Regardless of what it looks like for a specific household, the growing cost of living means that there are more workers per household than there have been over the past few decades.” In order to determine this, the company focused on the one factor that contri...

You need a lot of confidence to buy a big-ticket item like a home. And, Americans are brimming with assurance about the economy and the labor market, according to the  Conference Board ’s  index  released on Tuesday. The gauge of present conditions jumped to 177.2 in August, the highest reading in almost 19 years. That level of optimism left a lot of economists scratching their heads. The U.S.  trade war  with China seemed at times to be escalating out of control in August, the stock markets posted their biggest losses of the year and the bond markets flashed recession signals. “We were braced for a different kind of report,” Tim Quinlan, a senior economist for  Wells Fargo Securities  wrote in a note to clients. “Given the financial market instability during the month and constant headlines about the trade war, a more substantial decline in today’s measure from the Conference Board would not have raised many eyebrows.” But, he warned, th...

The profile of first-time homebuyers in the U.S. is changing, according to researchers at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at  Harvard University . In a  paper  titled “The Shifting Profile of First-Time Homebuyers: 1997-2017,” researchers found that in the past 20 years, there has been a significant shift from married households to never-married households among first-time homebuyers. To examine trends in this group of homebuyers, researchers used  the 1997-2017  American Housing Surveys .  The 2017 AHS suggests that first-time homebuyers purchased approximately 1.8 million housing units in 2016, making up approximately 1.5% of U.S. households that year.  “ While discussions of first-time home buying often tie homeownership entry to life-stage changes like marriage and the birth of a first child, a growing share of first-time homebuyers do not fit this profile,” the paper stated.  According to AHS, 35% of first-time homebuyers in 2...

The economy today is thriving with economic expansion entering its 11th year and becoming the longest on record, said  Federal Reserve  Chair Jerome Powell as he explained that this is despite significant risks. At the Federal Reserve symposium entitled Challenges for Monetary Policy, Powell spoke about the state of the economy, and what the future could hold. He cited the falling unemployment rate and rising labor force participation. Powell reminded the U.S. that African Americans are seeing the lowest unemployment since the government began tracking in 1972 – 6%. “Our challenge now is to do what monetary policy can do to sustain the expansion so that the benefits of the strong jobs market extend to more of those still left behind, and so that inflation is centered firmly around 2%,” Powell said in his prepared remarks. This speech comes just days after the Federal Open Markets Committee released its minutes from its July meeting, showing more  rate cuts a...

Even as  Millennials  enter  the homebuying market, many Baby Boomers indicate they plan to stay in their homes throughout their retirements,  according to a new study from  PropertyShark . The study showed that almost a third of adults over the age of 45 say they struggle with the cost of housing and a third also say they don’t plan on ever fully retiring. Beyond that, the study showed that more than half of Baby Boomers (56% to be exact) said they want to age in place and stay in the home they're in now. A situation like that could have negative impact on the housing availability for younger buyers, with fewer homes coming on the market, but a positive impact on the reverse mortgage market as many older homeowners are already indicating that they are struggling with housing costs now. Of those with a yearly income of $20,000 to $40,000, 42% said they struggle with housing costs. And as recent data from  CoreLogic  showed, h ome prices...

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Based on the largest percentage of income to afford a house, courtesy of U.S. News' Best Places to Live report for 2019, these are the top 25 costliest places to live:  San Juan, Puerto Rico Miami, Florida Los Angeles, California New York, New York San Diego, California Santa Barbara, California Salinas, California Honolulu, Hawaii Santa Rosa, California Daytona Beach, Florida Port St. Lucie, Florida Stockton, California Modesto, California Fresno, California San Francisco, California Orlando, Florida Sacramento, California Fort Myers, Florida New Haven, Connecticut McAllen, Texas San Jose, California Brownsville, Texas

Low interest rates are driving an origination boom that seemed unlikely at the start of the year, and it doesn’t look like it will slow down anytime soon. The MBA predicts that lenders will continue to see higher volume for the rest of 2019 with a 15% increase in originations compared to 2018

1. Do You Have Enough Space? How much space is enough to share is ultimately up to you and your family; the important thing is to be honest about your needs from the beginning. You may discover that your parent is the one who wants to have more space than you currently have available to share — or that you both feel that way. In this case, you could look into building an in-law cottage,  adding on  or (if those aren’t feasible options) helping prepare your parent to  age in place  instead. Anouck Barcat Paysagiste 2. Are You Equipped to Handle Health Concerns? There’s a world of difference between moving in an aging parent who is healthy and active (they may even be able to help care for grandkids!) and sharing your home with a parent with dementia or other serious health issues. If you’re unsure which, if any, health issues your parents are facing, it’s important to have a conversation about it before you decide to live together. If there ar...