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Dreaming big is back again, according to this article from The New York Times, which highlights how the improving economy is influencing people around the country to own the homes of their dreams.
After faltering slightly, luxury building is again booming in the traditionally high-end parts of the country, like South Florida and the Hamptons, as the economy continues to show healthy signs, architects and designers say. But even people with more modest homes in mind are turning their desires into reality. A study to be released next week from Liberty Mutual said that 44% of Americans were planning to move or renovate their homes this year.
The idea of building a dream home can captivate many people’s imaginations. It allows them to create spaces that are uniquely theirs.
For decades, Americans have moved to the suburbs in search of bigger homes and better schools. But through the recent downturn, this became much harder to do. Now, as the nation’s economic health continues to strengthen, migration trends are shifting back toward the nation’s suburbs. This article from The Wall Street Journal reports on an analysis of some of the new data from the Census Bureau by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.
The population of U.S. counties that represent the “urban cores” of large metropolitan areas – inner cities and dense, inner suburban areas – grew just 0.73% between July 2013 and July 2014, down from a growth rate of 0.90% the previous year. The year before, this growth rate also dropped, from 0.97%.
Suburbs of large metro areas, by contrast, are seeing their growth rates increase. The population of newer suburbs grew 1.20% last year, Mr. Frey’s analysis shows, up from 1.11% and 1.01% in the two prior years.
Perhaps most interesting: So-called exurbs – the peripheral parts of metro areas far from inner cities – saw population growth of 0.87% last year, up from 0.56% the previous year. This rate is now higher than the growth rate for inner cities.
Is it better to get a 15- or 30-year mortgage on a first home? In a reply to that question from a reader, Christine Romans of CNN Money offers some advice for millennials who are weighing their home options.
Assuming your finances are in good shape – you are gainfully employed, have six months of savings in the bank and money for a down payment – then the smartest money move you can make is buying a home now. Interest rates are rock bottom, but will start rising either late this year or next. Home prices are still well below their peaks of 2007.
Typically, for first-time buyers, a 30-year fixed rate mortgage offers the lowest payments and the most stability. Six months before you are ready to buy, check your credit history to give yourself time to fix any mistakes. The higher your credit score, the lower the interest rate you’ll pay.
Saving up money for a down payment on your first new home can take time. That’s why it’s a great idea to put a savings plan in place – from the moment you begin thinking about owning a new home of your own. This article from U.S. News highlights some important steps to take.
People 34 and younger are the largest group of homebuyers, according to a recent National Association of Realtors.
“The No. 1 reason they want to buy is just to own a home of their own,” says Jessica Lautz, director of survey research and communications at the National Association of Realtors. “Among first-time buyers, 28% save for six months or less, while 13% save for more than five years,” Lautz says.
The typical down payment for a home is generally 20%, but there are a variety of programs that can open the door to homeownership with as little as 3% or even no money down.
Also, start saving by setting up a special savings account and automatically transferring a set amount into it each month. Deposit any bonuses or gifts into this account as well.
Excellent news out today regarding the nation’s new home sales in February. This article from Bloomberg highlights some of the reasons for the strong new home sales numbers, and points to continued optimism heading into the busy Spring home buying season.
Purchases of new homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose in February to a seven-year high as stronger job gains helped bolster industry activity amid severe weather.
Sales climbed 7.8% to a 539,000 annualized pace, the most since February 2008, Commerce Department data showed Tuesday. The reading exceeded even the most optimistic forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Americans withstood weaker income gains and higher property prices, braving a chillier-than-usual February to go out and buy a home last month. Further healing in the labor market and a boost in inventory should provide stronger support to an industry entering its busiest sales season.
“You have solid job growth, income growth is a little bit soft but still positive, still very low mortgage rates, gradually easing access to credit,” Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, said before the report. “I would expect we’d see further gains over the course of this year.”
Are you truly prepared to be a homeowner? That’s one of the questions that first-time homebuyers should consider, according to this article from Bankrate.
First-time homebuyers should make sure they understand what’s involved. Ask yourself before buying if you have good spending habits. If possible, take a homebuyer class in person or online.
If you’re ready and buy responsibly, experts say homebuying can still be a wise financial move. But before diving into the housing market, ask yourself these five questions.
For example: What do you need in a neighborhood?
“I always sit down and say, ‘Give me your wish list,'” says Chris Pagano, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker in Chicago. “What are the must-haves?”
Pagano says the way you live is key. He asks buyers, “What do you do when you come home?” That can help buyers determine whether proximity to a gym, park or good restaurants matters.
He urges buyers to consider how they will get from home to other places. Walking three blocks to a bus stop when it’s 10 degrees can be bone-chilling. If you drive, try it before you buy. And check out potential neighborhoods at different times of day, Realtors emphasize.
Think of a what a man cave looks like in any home, and you might think of an old leather couch, a TV that’s always tuned into the sports channels, and perhaps the faint smell of beer in the air. But the image of the man cave is changing, especially in luxury homes, where a growing number of men are opting for anti-caves of a sort – male retreats with a sophisticated twist.
This article from The Wall Street Journal takes a look at some of the man cave’s latest forms.
Today, more men are investing in the spaces that used to be rarely seen by guests: the hobby room, the potting shed, the reading nook, the TV room.
Erinn Valencich, a Beverly Hills-based interior designer, says she has worked on many ultraluxury manly spaces, one of the most memorable being a recent tasting-room project that featured a glass wall looking onto the client’s wine cellar. “You could push a button and the glass went opaque and became a screen where you could watch a movie,” she says, adding that high-tech elements are popular.
A new article from Fast Co. takes a peek into the near future of home design, based on predictions by Marcus Engman, head of design for Ikea Sweden.
Traditionally, when people thought of their homes, they thought of them almost mathematically. A sofa + a television = a living room. A bed + a set of drawers = a bedroom. But in a constantly urbanizing world, where more people are living in smaller spaces, what makes one room a living room and another room a bedroom is becoming a lot more fluid.
Furniture is going to have to evolve to keep pace. In the past, a sofa was the most important piece of furniture in the living room, and consequently the home. But that’s already changing. The sofa isn’t just for socializing anymore: people eat on their sofa, and in small apartments, they might even use it as their bed. As for pointing your sofa at a television, in a cord-cutting world, there’s no need for that.
Engman predicts that the table – not the sofa – will soon become the most important piece of furniture in most people’s homes: a multi-use piece of furniture you can work, eat, play, and socialize around.
Selling your home is easier today than it ever has been, thanks to a variety of new apps and tech tools that are now available to help you during your home staging, marketing and selling processes. This new article from U.S. News highlights 12 tech tools that could help you sell your home faster.
According to data from the National Association of Realtors, 89 percent of buyers use online tools in their home searches. Rather than waiting for agents to send them listings, they go online and tell the agents which homes they’d like to see. That makes what appears online even more important.
With so much quality media online, the bar is high for real estate listings photos, videos and other material to make that impression, especially with younger homebuyers.
Among the tools that would-be homebuyers are using to scan their options before leaving their couches are professional photos, floor plans, 3-D walk-throughs and video.
What works is “any method of marketing the home that allows people to create an emotional connection and way to see the home,” says Alyssa Hellman, Go leader at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Go Realty in Cary, North Carolina.
