Just this weekend I realized that we’ve updated much of our lighting over the past year and it’s made a huge visual difference. Lighting is a great way to fully show off your personal style, keep your home feeling current, and you have to have light to see so it’s super functional. In the past … Read More “One Simple Way to Upgrade and Add Value to Your Home” »
Category: Real Estate News & Tips
A good home alarm system will spot intruders and deter them from breaking in, or at least scare them away before they take anything. According to a study by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, security systems are effective at deterring crime. Among other things, the study determined that many intruders will leave a building … Read More “Should I Get a Home Security System?” »
More consumers are shopping for properties online. Realtor.com®’s monthly traffic surged to an all-time high of 86 million unique users in June, which topped May’s record of 85 million unique users. Also, on June 25, realtor.com®’s traffic reported a record high of 7 million unique users on a single day. But home shoppers have fewer … Read More “Realtor.com® Reports Record-Breaking Traffic on Listings” »
By Claudia Newcorn Covid-19 is redefining the real estate playing field – both for real estate agents and buyers. We spoke with expert realtors Nellie and John Lazar of Century 21 M&M Associates in Turlock to hear their perspectives on the “new normal” of home selling. The Lazars have ridden many ups and downs in the industry. … Read More “Real Estate in the “New Normal” : What You Need to Know” »
But you won’t hear them complaining There is nothing normal about this July Fourth holiday. With COVID-19 cases spiking in the biggest states, the slow creep back to normal has been put on hold in many places, and the usual Independence Day celebrations are few and far between. But, if you work in real estate or … Read More “With record-low mortgage rates, originators and real estate agents aren’t taking a holiday anytime soon” »
Can you remember three months ago? In just 90 days, things have changed dramatically. Just 90 days. Yet, in that short amount of time, the way we think about where we live and how we live has completely changed. In the latter part of those 90 days, I have heard from many people that the … Read More “Working From Home Is Changing The Way We Think About Where We Live” »
Your home is likely one of the biggest financial investments you’ll ever make. While experts disagree on whether or not it’s an investment, you want to get the best price for it you can when it’s time to sell. Though a home can be expected to increase in price in the long-term, there are a … Read More “The Most Common Reasons Homes Lose Value” »
Anyone who’s planning to buy a home, or thinking about refinancing the loan on their current abode, has probably been giving mortgage interest rates a lot of attention—and getting frustrated as they fluctuate up and down. The average interest rate for the most common type of loan hit a new all-time low of 2.94% on … Read More “Mortgage Rates Were Rising, Then Hit a Record Low of 2.9 Percent” »
…as the economy picked up jobs as states reopened. In a surprising turnaround, 2.5 million jobs added as the economy shows signs of stabilizing. The federal unemployment rate declined to 13.3 percent in May from 14.7 percent in April, the Labor Department said Friday, a surprising turnaround after months of job losses that was hailed … Read More “Unemployment rate drops to 13.3 percent…” »
The housing market started showing signs of strengthening in May as states started to reopen after being on lockdown from the COVID-19 pandemic, realtor.com®’s latest May Monthly Housing Trends report shows. More listings are coming on the market and home prices are standing firm. The national median listing price reached a new record high of … Read More “List Prices Hit a New High, Inventory Shortages Abound” »