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Fifty percent of all homes sold in the U.S. during the year are sold during the summer, according to the nation’s Realtors. If you’re one of the many homeowners who will be putting your home up for sale in the coming months, this article from U.S. News offers some helpful advice on steps you should be taking to have a successful open house.
There are steps that can be taken to make sure as many people as possible see your home, increasing its chances of selling quickly for a better price. While technology has changed some aspects of open houses, others – such as the importance of making a good first impression – remain the same.
According to 2014 data from the National Association of Realtors, 92% of homebuyers use the Internet in their search, and that makes listing your open house online important.
“Home sellers today are missing the boat if they’re not promoting their homes online,” says P.J. Mitchell, CEO of Fizber.com. “It doesn’t really matter how prepared you are or how beautiful your house is if you don’t tell people about it,” Mitchell says.
He advises sellers to share their listings and open house dates through all their social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Friends, neighbors, colleagues and relatives could know someone who is looking, plus you never know who outside your direct network might stumble across your tweet or Facebook post.
On Tuesday of this week, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its report on sales of newly-constructed single-family homes for the month of April. This Forbes article highlights the results, including a 6.8% increase in new home sales for the month, and an impressive 26% year-over-year jump.
What a difference a month – and a change in weather – can make: after plunging 11.4% in March, new home sales rebounded in April, rising nearly 7% in the first full month of spring and jumping 26% over sales reported in April of last year.
Sales of newly-constructed single-family homes reached an annual rate of 517,000 in April, and grew 26% over the 410,000 rate reported for April of 2014.
The Commerce Department report also revealed that the median sales price of new homes sold in April 2015 was $297,300, while the average sales price was $341,500.
“Shining Cities,” a recent report by Environment America, ranked the 65 largest U.S. cities based on the total amount of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity installed within the geographic limits of each city. This article from Forbes compiles a list of the 16 U.S. cities with the most solar PV installed per capita, including San Jose, San Diego, Denver, Phoenix, San Antonio, Raleigh, Sacramento, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The solar power industry is in the middle of a spectacular growth spurt in the United States, especially in densely populated areas. Last year, 20 cities – representing only about 0.1% of U.S. land area – accounted for a stunning 6.5% of U.S. solar photovoltaic capacity.
The accelerated deployment of solar PV in recent years has been driven by improvements in technology, price reductions and the development of creative business models that have spurred investment in residential solar systems. As impressive as recent growth rates may seem, future growth rates are likely to be even steeper.
According to new population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, several cities are seeing sizeable population growth. And it’s not just New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. This article from CityLab reports that many cities in the Sunbelt are overtaking those popular urban destinations.
Of the cities that are comparable in size and population to San Francisco, 11 cities actually showed more growth – both in raw population number and percentage change – from 2013 to 2014: Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Phoenix, San Diego, Dallas, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Denver, Seattle and Columbus.
The Sunbelt metros weren’t doing so well when the recession started, but in the last couple of years, this region has seen an expanding job market and an increase in affordable housing stock. Both factors have been drawing young people and minorities to the sunny south, explains Brookings’ demographer William Frey. Today’s Census data suggests that cities in states such as Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina have experienced massive growth spurts as a result.
It seems that just a year ago, my wife and I were decorating our kids’ rooms with princesses and bunny rabbit characters and little toy cars. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a year ago. It was fifteen years ago. Now, with our first one already off to college and our last two deciding which college they’ll be headed off to, it’s time to start reimagining what “home” means to us. Will we downsize to a new home? Or will we transform our current home into a home that’s just for us two? This new article from The Wall Street Journal highlights one way parents with college-aged kids are making the transition from full home to empty nest.
Forget bedrooms that are shrines to a childhood past. After the children head to college or move away, some empty nesters are quick to reclaim and repurpose their rooms into yoga studios, gift-wrapping rooms, workout areas, home offices and dream closets. Increasingly popular are “snore rooms,” an escape for when a sleeping bedmate reaches the decibel level of a leaf-blower.
Something important to keep in mind before you make the decision: repurposed bedrooms can affect resale value – positively and negatively.
“If you could make a grand master suite – with bigger bathrooms and closets – and have three bedrooms left over, that could add value,” said Ron Shuffield, president of EWM Realty International in Miami. But more personalized choices pose a marketing challenge.
Chris Christensen, owner of Regal Real Estate in Orlando, said he recently marketed a home in which the owner had removed bedroom closets to set up shelves for sports memorabilia.
“The majority of buyers cannot imagine what a room could be,” Mr. Christensen said, adding that remodelers should consider leaving closets intact so rooms can be staged as bedrooms when it comes time to sell.
There are several financial reasons why retirees should consider selling their current home and downsizing to a new one, according to this article from MarketWatch.
The most prevalent reason is to realize cost savings that result from a reduction in certain expenses, such as property maintenance, utilities, property taxes, and mortgage payments. Other considerations related to retaining or selling a large residential property include determining one’s financial or physical ability to maintain the property and one’s ability to negotiate stairs and perform other physical tasks into old age.
What you do with the capital you eventually unlock from your real estate will be a function of your wealth, income, desire to live in your current home, and estate plans. The best way to make a rational investment decision regarding all your retirement assets is to determine your probable lifestyle in retirement, the resultant retirement liability, and how each asset will help finance those future costs.
Following up on Tuesday’s news about the big increase in housing starts around the country, Metrostudy did some digging deeper into homebuilder activity metrics to highlight the markets with the largest increases in new home production.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, housing starts shot up 20.2% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million, hitting the fastest rate since late 2007.
Metrostudy’s new data, covering the first quarter 2015, adds further evidence that demand for new homes is gradually recovering, while developers and builders are investing billions to get ready for increased home production, with homesite development increasing 21.5% compared to a year ago.
The markets that are increasing home production the most include Northern California, Reno, Las Vegas, Naples-Ft. Myers, Tampa, Atlanta and Denver-Colorado Springs.
A new Commerce Department report, released today and highlighted in this article from Bloomberg, focuses on an increase in housing starts of 20.2% that was the biggest jump since February 1991.
New residential construction in the U.S. surged in April to the highest level in more than seven years, indicating the industry regained its footing after the soft patch at the beginning of the year.
Housing starts jumped 20.2% to a 1.14 million annualized rate, the most since November 2007, from a 944,000 pace in March. More permits, a proxy for future construction, were issued than at any time since June 2008.
An improving labor market and mortgage costs close to multi-year lows are reviving residential construction, a sign that the weakness in early 2015 was probably due to harsh winter weather.
“Housing demand is clearly picking up,” said David Sloan, a senior economist at 4Cast Inc. in New York. “Housing should show quite strong momentum over the next few quarters. Permits also suggest solid underlying demand.”
The surge in housing starts last month was paced by single-family projects in the West and multifamily in the Northeast, pointing to broad-based gains in the industry. Construction of single-family homes in all the U.S. jumped 16.7% to a 733,000 rate, the most since January 2008. Three of four regions showed gains, led by the Northeast and West.
An improving labor market will help sustain demand. Payrolls climbed by 223,000 in April after a 85,000 gain the prior month, according to Labor Department data. The jobless rate fell to 5.4%, the lowest since May 2008.
A new analysis from CoreLogic reveals that today’s healthiest new home sales markets are located primarily in the South. New home sales have totaled 441,000 over the last 12 months ending in January, up 3 percent from a year ago. While still below the 660,000 annual average of the last 50 years, the national and regional data available from the Census Bureau mask local pockets of strength.
Eight of the 10 fastest growing new home sales markets are in the South and the fastest growing new home sales market in the U.S. is Nashville, Tenn., where new sales grew by 17 percent over the prior year. Nashville is not only exhibiting strength over the last year, but it is one of only five markets that have higher new home sales in 2015 than in the very early 2000s when markets were more normal. The second fastest growing market is San Jose, Calif., where new sales grew 14 percent from a year earlier. It is also one of the five markets that is currently larger from a new sales volume perspective in comparison to the early 2000s. Atlanta, Ga. is the third fastest growing market, where new sales are up 10 percent from a year ago.
Of the 10 markets with the highest new sales share, seven are either in Texas or the Carolinas.
