While the overall market for new homes is poised to expand, townhome construction is slowing down. Townhouse starts totaled 94,000 over the last four quarters, 5 percent lower than the previous four-quarter period, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Townhouses—or single-family attached housing—comprised 25,000 starts during the second quarter of this year alone, which is 14 percent lower than a year ago.The market share o
About 15 percent of people ages 25 to 35 were living with their parents in 2016, according to Pew Research data. Many millennials came of age during the last recession, “so it’s taking them longer to financially recover,” says Jason Dorsey, president of the Center for Generational Kinetics, a research firm in Austin, Texas. “They had a tough job market from the start, and there’s been quite a lot of wage stagnation. … It’s more soci
Open floor plans, which typically combine the kitchen, living room, and dining room in one large, open area, have dominated home design trends in recent years. But now, buyers may be starting to shun this type of layout, The Wall Street Journal reports.“While [the open floor plan] was successful in allowing multiple generations to congregate, it also led to consolidated visual chaos,” New York-based designer Phillip Thomas told the Journal
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac has announced a new program allowing some home buyers to skip a traditional appraisal, which could lower the fees the buyers pay and speed up the closing process. Freddie’s Automated Collateral Evaluation (or ACE) will determine a property’s collateral risk by culling data from multiple listing services, public records, and historical home values, and then assess whether a buyer needs a traditional appraisal or an a
The boom in prices will impact middle-class families whose income can't keep paceSince 2014, the U.S. has gained 346 new $1 million neighborhoods, which can be a good thing — or a not-so-good thing, depending on how you look at it.According to Zillow, nearly one in 20 residential ZIP codes fall into this category because 10 percent of the homes in the area are worth $1 million or more.On one hand, the upshot of highly valued homes is due to t
Those words: “Can my buyers back out of a house if they don’t like it?” shouldn’t be uttered. Peter Lorimer of PLG Estatesdelves into why.There has to be a real reason for buyers to back out other than, they don’t like it.New real estate agents: If your buyers do want to back out for whatever reason, don’t say that they changed their minds.If buyers change their mind, there has to be a legitimate reason to back out of a deal, so it m
Effective lead-generation strategies require agents to reach the right people with the right messageKey Takeaways Look for life-changing events on Facebook, and market to those people in your sphere. Create valuable content to attract buyers and position yourself as a local expert. Utilize Facebook’s targeting features to create highly effective and inexpensive ads.For many Facebook users, it’s not unusual to spend a significant portion of th
Use past performance, analytics and market insights to focus prospect targeting methodsKey Takeaways Digital and traditional prospecting methods build on each other. Combining your boots-on-the-ground knowledge with data should give you all sorts of great ideas for prospecting. Find creative ways to participate in the community, and get to know your neighbors.You’ve held open houses, sent direct mail newsletters and made the dreaded cold ca
The factors involved in helping empty nest baby boomers sell their longtime family home are quite different from assisting millennials moving out of their starter home. They may desire different marketing tactics, channels of communication, or types of statistics and information, according to Andrey Nokhrin, founder and CEO of Flipt, a predictive technology firm.Whether you’re working with Generation Y, Generation X, baby boomers, late boomers
Developers are turning to wood framing as a more affordable building material, but officials are warning of some dangers after reports of several wood-frame buildings catching fire across the country.Wood framing is increasingly being used in apartment construction and is largely considered safe once construction is completed. But wood framing can be vulnerable to fires before the interior wallboard and other safety features—like sprinklers and
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