Buying a home is a lot easier in some areas of the country than others, where the inventory of affordable homes is greater and where their salaries can stretch further. Allentown, Pa.—boasting the highest homeownership rate in the nation in 2017, at 73.1 percent—is one such place. The median home list price in Allentown is $217,050, well below the national median of $274,900, according to realtor.com® data.The town, about an hour outside of
Contract signings posted a major setback in January, sinking to the lowest level in more than three years. But it’s not from a lack of interest. Buyer traffic is reportedly up in most areas of the country in January, according to the latest housing report released by the National Association of REALTORS® on Wednesday.NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index—a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings—dropped 4.7 percent to a reading of
Salt Lake City is quickly becoming one of the hottest housing markets in the country, and researchers note that home prices there are following a similar growth pattern as in Denver, where rapid increases began in early 2015. Realtor.com® projects that Salt Lake City will have one of the strongest housing markets in the nation this year. Home prices and sales are expected to surge 4.5 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively.Why is Salt Lake City b
Because millennials, Generation X members, and baby boomers are in different stages of their lives, they are seeking different types of real estate markets that meet their specific needs. Realtor.com® found the hottest locations for each age cohort based on migration data for each of the major U.S. metros, home-search activity on realtor.com®, and the percentage of positive change in homeownership for each city from 2016 to 2018. The research s
As students return to class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., more than a week after a gunman opened fire in the hallways, killing 17 people, two young girls who won’t reunite with their friends and teachers are the daughters of local REALTORS®.Jaime Guttenberg, 14, and Meadow Pollack, 17, were among the dead in the Valentine’s Day shooting. Guttenberg’s father, Fred Guttenberg, a sales associate at Charles Rutenb
Forty-eight percent of the country has recently been covered in snow, according to the National Weather Service. If the cloudy skies and muted winter landscape have your listing looking ho-hum, try some greenery to get potential buyers thinking about spring.According to a Harvard University study, seeing flowers first thing in the morning provides people with a boost of energy. Flowers can be used as a design tool to inspire emotion and connect
5G’s lightning-fast network speeds are coming, and many cities are hoping to be the first in line. Dallas; Waco, Texas; and Atlanta will be among the first cities to receive AT&T’s 5G mobile network, while Sacramento, Calif., is slated to be Verizon’s first pick to get the fifth-generation wireless technology.Just how fast is 5G? It’s said to be 100 times faster and five times more responsive than the current 4G and 4G LTE, the techno
A handyman and co-defendant to a murder suspect pleaded guilty to hiding the body of a real estate agent who disappeared two years ago after showing a property in a remote area outside Kingman, Ariz.William Glen Sanders, 55, pleaded guilty on Friday to concealing a dead body, entering his plea in Mohave County Superior Court. He will be sentenced after the trial of his handyman coworker Alfredo Gerardo Blanco, who faces first-degree murder char
Accessibility advocates could get better enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act while small commercial property owners could see fewer lawsuits threatened against them under a bill that passed the House yesterday.The ADA Education and Reform Act, H.R. 620, which passed the House with both Republican and Democratic votes, would require plaintiffs who alert property owners to a potential accessibility violation under the Americans with
First-time home buyers are entering the market under tight inventory conditions and rising home prices. But not all cities are posing a challenge for those looking to break in to homeownership.A new study by LendingTree ranks the top cities for first-time home buyers in the nation’s 100 largest cities. They factored in average down payment amounts, the share of buyers using an FHA mortgage, the share of homes sold that the median income family
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