New Zealand officials say they are banning foreigners from buying existing homes in the country in response to growing affordability problems in its residential housing sector.“Our goal and commitment is to ban foreign buyers from the existing housing market,” Prime Minister–elect Jacinda Ardern told local media this week. The ban only applies to nonresidents.New Zealand officials are blaming its “affordability crisis” on low interest r
More than 41 million children in the U.S. go trick-or-treating every Halloween, bopping from door to door collecting candy. Some real estate pros are seizing the day for their marketing. Realtor.com® recently featured a few ideas of how real estate professionals are using Halloween to drum up more business.Some agents are throwing a Halloween-themed open house, complete with kid-friendly activities like bobbing for apples and pumpkin painting
Improved educational performance, higher civic participation, lower crime rates, and improved health remain the biggest social benefits linked to homeownership, according to a new research paper by NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun and research economist Nadia Evangelou, which appears in The Journal of the Center for Real Estate Studies. Some findings from the latest research cited in the paper include:Health. Children of homeowners tend to b
Let’s say it costs $3,000 to make old hardwood floors look new again. That’s a lot of money, especially if your client is just getting the house ready to list. But of all the remodeling projects homeowners can do to increase the resale value of their property, refinishing the floors is at the top.Of course, no one can predict with certainty whether the investment will pay off, but recent research suggests it will have a big ROI—most likely
Vinyl is the most common primary exterior wall material on single-family homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction data from 2016.Vinyl tops the list at 27 percent, followed by stucco at 24 percent, brick or brick veneer at nearly 22 percent, and fiber cement siding at 20 percent. Wood or wood products comprised just 4 percent, and stone, rock, or other stone materials make up only 1 percent of exteriors nationwide. Ho
Mortgage applications reversed course last week after a brief rebound the week before. Total volume for refinancings and home purchases plunged 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted week-over-week basis, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The index is now 19 percent lower than the same week a year ago.Home purchase applications faced the biggest drops last week, falling 6 percent week over week, the MBA reports. Economists say t
Sales of newly built single-family homes rose 18.9 percent last month, according to data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. This represented the highest sales rate since October 2007, with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 667,000 units, after an upwardly revised August reading. Compared to last year, new-home sales are 8.6 percent above their level during the same period in 2016."New-home sal
The home-sharing service Airbnb may increase home prices and rental rates, The Wall Street Journal reports from an as-yet unpublished working paper.Between 2012 and 2016, researchers analyzed rents and home prices in the 100 largest metro areas. They found that a 10 percent increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.39 percent increase in rents and a 0.64 percent increase in home prices."That may sound minuscule, but between 2012 and 2016, rents
A Victorian home's mansard roof, gables, and ornate pillars poised under moonlight may give some people the chills. After all, the dilapidated Victorian home has become the hallmark of all things spooky, often used in tales to set an eerie mood. From movies like "The Addams Family" to "Psycho," the Victorian has played a prominent role in creeping us out. But why has this architecture earned a haunted reputation?Victorians draw some of their dr
Painting can be one of the most cost-effective ways to spruce up a listing. But homeowners can also make a lot of mistakes with this common DIY job. Realtor.com® recently spoke with staging and color experts to find out some of the most obvious mistakes that they see most often.1. Choosing the wrong finish.Homeowners need to select a paint finish that correlates with the room’s purpose. "Many homeowners are nervous about using shiny semigloss
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