General News - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Marijuana Becomes Growing Issue in Real Estate

As more states move to legalize recreational and medical marijuana, the real estate industry is increasingly being impacted. For one, commercial practitioners are finding increased demand for land, warehouses, and storefronts used for growing and selling marijuana. Real estate pros are also reporting an uptick in cannabis being consumed in rental properties as well as homeowner associations that are grappling with creating rules around

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Many Americans are Tempted to Move for Love

Consumers are willing to move—even more than 500 miles--in order to be with a significant other. And the move tends to be worth it, according to a survey by Bellhops, a professional moving company. Bellhops analyzed nearly 2 million online conversations in the U.S. from June 2018 to March 2019 to find themes in moving. “Moving for love” was among those themes they found.Sixty percent of the people whose conversations involved moving for lov

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Industry Backlash Prompts NY to Pause Brokers’ Rental Fee Ban

After a real estate groups’ lawsuit, a New York judge has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent new rules taking effect that banned brokers from receiving fees on rentals in the state. The short-term reprieve was in response to the Real Estate Board of New York, the New York Association of REALTORS®, and other brokerages suing the Department of State over its broker ban fee ruling that they called “unlawful”and having

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Borrowers Save Big by Shopping for Mortgages

As interest rates move lower, borrowers can unlock some serious savings by gathering more than one quote from a mortgage lender. It may be worth the extra time to gather up to three quotes from mortgage lenders. The average borrower could save $44,500 over the life of their loan by comparison shopping for a mortgage, a new study by LendingTree finds.In some metro areas, particularly among the nation’s priciest areas, the savings could be even g

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Top Reasons for a Mortgage Denial

Low mortgage rates continue to push borrowing costs lower this year, but not every consumer is able to qualify. About a quarter of mortgage refinance applications are getting denied, according to a study from LendingTree of more than 10 million mortgage applications.The top four reasons why applications were denied were debt-to-income ratio, credit history, incomplete application, and insufficient collateral.Debt-to-income ratios c

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Metro Areas where Owners are Most Likely to be Equity-Rich

One in four homes with a mortgage in the U.S. were considered equity rich in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to newly released data from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm. That means the loans on those properties are 50% or less of the home’s estimated market value.The Northeast and West saw the highest amounts of equity among homeowners. California led, with 42.8% of its homeowners considered equity rich, followed by Ver

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Housing Inventory Falls to Record Low

Housing shortages abound in markets across the country and that could set home shoppers up for a challenging spring. The nation’s housing supply saw the steepest year-over-year decrease in January in more than four years, dropping 13.6% annually, realtor.com® reports. The supply for homes for sale is now at its lowest level since realtor.com® began tracking such data in 2012.The housing shortage shows no signs of easing in the coming months e

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Housing Market is Feeling Effects of Coronavirus Outbreak

The U.S. housing market is feeling the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak from China. Mortgage interest rates have dropped because of it, and the luxury sector has seen Chinese buyers, who had been propelling that market, quickly vanish from it.“China has been the most important source of foreign demand for real estate,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, told realtor.com®. “The upper-end market ca

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Co-Living Trend is Going Mainstream

Co-living is breaking out from being a niche real estate fad and becoming more mainstream, CNBC reports. The practice is serving as a way to get young adults out of their parents’ house and branch out on their own.“Many of us thought that during the recovery, as the job market improved, the share living with their parents would peak and start falling,” says Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew Research Center. “That has not happen

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Gas Stoves are Increasingly Coming Under Fire

The gas stove is increasingly coming under attack by some cities who are seeking more ways to fight climate change. A rising number of municipalities want to eliminate natural gas lines from homes and move solely to electricity. That would include swapping out popular appliances that run on gas for cooking and heating.California started the movement. In July, Berkeley became the first municipality to sign a law banning the installation of na

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