Holiday decorating is in full swing, and as homeowners deck their halls, they may want to also use the festivities as an excuse to inspect several out-of-sight ares of their home.Groundworks, a basement and foundations firm, offers up tips to spot needed repairs in the home while also hanging your holiday decor. Here are the top seven home issues they suggest looking for:Electrical outletsIs a plug no longer working? Outdoor outlets are exposed t
Glass is joining the list of building materials in short supply. A range of industries, including shower door manufacturers and window installers, are reporting glass shortages.Nearly two-thirds of home builders said that windows are their biggest material shortage, according to a recent survey from John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Rounding out the top four in additional shortages are umber, engineered wood products, and concrete, according to
The pandemic has prompted more Americans to want to supersize their homes. The median single-family square floor area as increased to 2,337 square feet as of the third quarter, while the average (mean) square footage of new single-family homes rose to 2,541, according to the latest Census Bureau data, as reported by the National Association of Home Builders.The average size of new single-family homes is 6.2% bigger since the lows reached dur
The “Great Resignation” is not the only major workforce movement taking place. Realtor.com® also notes the “Great Reshuffle,” as an increasing number of Americans quit their jobs and take new roles—often moving to new locations in the process because they may not need to be near their new office.Realtor.com®’s research team examined workforce migration data from LinkedIn to identify the areas where job seekers are most often heading
Investors are seeing early benefits to their opportunity zone investments: Median single-family and condo prices are increasing in the majority of nationwide opportunity zones—by 62%, according to a third-quarter report released by ATTOM Data Solutions. Prices increased by at least 20% annually in nearly half of the zones.Opportunity zones, established by Congress in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, were created to help revitalize low-income
House hunters will likely wonder about the age and upkeep of certain big-ticket features in a home like the roof and HVAC system. But they will also likely be interested in just how move-in ready the home is. Sellers can take on some prep work to get their house move-in ready to appeal to the largest buyer pool.HomeLight, a real estate referral company, recently interviewed real estate agents to list some of the top remodeling projects before sel
Existing-home sales fared strongly in October even as buyers continued to complain there aren’t enough homes on the market. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions for single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops, increased by 0.8% in October compared to September, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Monday. Compared to a year ago, however, sales are down 5.8%.Meanwhile, the inventory of unsold homes fell by 12%
As home buyers continue their searches in an active and competitive fall season, the nation’s top-performing markets in October are all affordable alternatives to their nearby big-city counterparts.Topping realtor.com®’s October list was Manchester, N.H., about an hour northwest of Boston. Homes in Manchester are selling in under 24 days—about 21 days faster than the overall housing market. Properties there are receiving about 2.8 times as
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was back above 3% this week, and economists believe rates will continue to increase over the next few months.“The combination of rising inflation and consumer spending is driving mortgage rates higher,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Shoppers looking to buy a home are fueling a strong demand while ongoing inventory shortages are not improving in the presence of higher home prices. This rea
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the average FICO credit score has increased by eight points to reach 716, according to Fair Isaac Corp. Pandemic-related relief programs and a decrease in consumer spending early in the pandemic may have helped Americans improve their credit histories by paying existing debts and curtailing new debt.The increase has largely been driven by consumers who started with a credit score below 600. FICO usually consid
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