Ever wish you knew the best time to sell in your market? A tool from HomeLight, a real estate referral company, wants to reveal sellers’ best chances for getting top dollar or the quickest sale.Nationwide, the best months to list a home is in the spring, according to HomeLight’s data. March, April, and May tend to offer the best returns or fastest sales for home sellers. September is still one of the strongest performing months for sales as
Are home buyers favoring the Midwest? Home buyer activity is shifting from pricey California to affordable markets across the country. Nearly a third of the markets on realtor.com®’s latest hottest housing market list were in the Midwest, known for its affordable housing compared with many other parts of the country.“With the median home list price hovering at a record level, affordable markets are very attractive for buyers, which is contri
Borrowers had slightly more relief with mortgage rates again this week. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dipped again, averaging 4.53 percent, Freddie Mac reports.“The stability in borrowing costs comes despite the highest core inflation rates since 2008 and turbulence in the currency markets,” says Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Unfortunately, this pause in rates is not leading to increasing home sales.”Last week, mort
An overhaul in how several major credit reporting agencies factor in negative credit information is prompting millions of consumers’ credit scores to rise. Collection events were struck from 8 million consumers’ credit reports in the 12 months ending in June. The New York Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that consumers who had at least one collections account removed from their credit reports are seeing an 11-point increase to their scores.Cr
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is taking steps to scale back a fair housing rule that had sought to combat housing segregation. HUD Secretary Ben Carson says the 2015 rule is standing in the way of efforts to add more affordable housing.The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule required cities and towns to examine historic patterns of segregation, and then create plans to combat them. Those who didn’t comply risked l
The Big Apple pushes out San Francisco as the priciest place to live when you look at what buyers are paying per square foot, according to a new report released by NeighborhoodX, a real estate and data analytics firm. In Manhattan, the priciest property is fetching $10,054 per square foot.New York’s central area is more than twice as expensive as any other city in the U.S. on a per-square-foot basis, according to the report. Manhattan real esta
Wildfires are blazing throughout the state of California, with more than 10,000 people under mandatory evacuation as their homes remain under threat.But as firefighters work on the containment of at least 11 wildfires that continue to burn throughout the state, the California Department of Insurance is already warning homeowners about the insurance headaches they will likely face, even for those whose homes weren’t affected in the latest fire
The wave of foreclosures during the Great Recession was blamed on rising unemployment and subprime loans. But a new research study by Jacob W. Faber and Peter M. Rich suggests the foreclosure fallout may have been from something more: Homeowners who overextended themselves financially by paying for their children’s college education.“Our findings uncover a previously overlooked dimension of the foreclosure crisis, and highlight mortgage ins
One in four properties nationwide are “equity rich," according to a new report released by real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. To be considered as such, homeowners with financing must currently hold a mortgage that is 50 percent or less of the property’s estimated market value. As home prices keep setting records, the number of homeowners with equity in their homes is growing. More than 13.6 million properties were considered “equi
It’s a good time to be selling high-end real estate: The luxury market is posting a record number of sales, and 19 major areas also saw double-digit gains in July, according to realtor.com®’s 2018 Luxury Home Index. The index measures the entry-level luxury price tier, which is the top 5 percent of residential sales among 91 U.S. counties.In 49 of the 91 markets analyzed by realtor.com®, the luxury tier had an entry point of at least $1 mi
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