A Kansas City, Mo., couple lost their entire $130,000 down payment on a home purchase from a money wire scam that has been increasingly targeting real estate transactions.Ross and Melinda Fulton were purchasing a home to live closer to their daughters and new granddaughter in the Kansas City area. Ross, a retired pastor of 46 years, and Melinda found the perfect home in Independence, Mo., and were planning to pay for it with cash.They receiv
Millennials are choosing to plant roots in Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh at higher rates than in any other of the nation’s 50 largest metro areas, according to a new report by online marketplace LendingTree, which analyzed mortgage requests from January to November. “While millennials are often stereotyped as adolescents, the reality is that this generation is well into adulthood, with most between their early 20s and mid-30s,
Get inspiration for decorating and staging listings at the most wonderful time of year When staging a property, brokers want to evoke a sense of what life is like inside the home. Buyers who come through should be able to imagine their own lives in the space — including entertaining and family gatherings.If part of your staging efforts include decorating a home during the holidays, you can look for inspiration in many places. The architectural
When that dream home arises on the market, it's hard to walk away. But if you haven't completed these three tasks, you aren't ready to be a homeowner. Buying a house is one of life's most exciting milestones. You get to decorate, make the home your own, and set down roots -- all while building equity and, ideally, increasing your net worth. But buying a house is also a really big financial decision, and if you don't hit some money miles
Programs important to real estate will be affected in the event of a partial federal government shutdown that could start at midnight tonight if lawmakers fail to pass short-term budget legislation.The National Association of REALTORS® is in regular communication with congressional leaders and the White House and is working with other organizations to ensure lawmakers are aware of the importance of keeping programs critical to communities
Many homeowners are decking their interiors and exteriors with boughs of holly and other festive accoutrement—but how much is too much? Some homeowners say they’ve confronted their neighbors about what they consider to be “obnoxious” holiday decorations, according to a new survey by furniture retailer Joybird.Those who live in the West are most likely—at 13 percent—to have a confrontation with neighbors over holiday decorations, compa
The biggest pest of 2018? Bedbugs.The second annual Terminix Entomologists’ Almanac took a look at the biggest pest trends from the past year based on social media chatter and internet queries. Bedbugs clinched the title for the second year in a row.Americans searched for information about bedbugs more than 6.7 million times this year—more so than any other pest. Terminix, a national pest control company, says it has seen a steady increase
There are about 7.4 million vacation and second homes in the U.S., or about 5.6 percent of the total housing stock, according to a recent National Association of Home Builders analysis of 2016 national census data. Florida has the largest stock of second homes—1.1 million properties—followed by California, New York, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona, and Pennsylvania.“The concentration of second homes is not simply restricted to conv
Nine out of 10 millennial renters say they want to purchase a home, but few are planning to do so in the near term, according to a new survey by rental website Apartment List. The chief reasons keeping them from homeownership are affordability (72 percent) and lack of savings for a down payment (62 percent), the survey of 6,400 young adult renters shows. Nearly 50 percent of respondents say they have zero savings, while only 11 percent have saved
Homeowners are still finding plenty of equity in their homes, but the gains are slowing. Homeowners with a mortgage saw their equity rise by 9.4 percent over the past year, according to CoreLogic’s latest Home Equity Report. The average homeowner gained $12,400 in home equity between the third quarter of 2017 and the third quarter of 2018. That is lower than the more than $16,000 year-over-year gain in equity reported in the second quarter, Cor
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