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
House hunters who are actively seeking a home to buy are spending significant amounts of time looking for that perfect space, according to a new poll by the National Association of Home Builders. More than half of prospective buyers surveyed in the second quarter said they’d been trying to find the right home for three months or longer.The two chief reasons why home buyers said their search was taking so long was not being able to find a home
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
How can you spot a town that is an outdoor haven? “If you see a lot of rugged vehicles with bike racks and hauling kayaks, that’s a telltale sign at the ground level that you’re in one of these places,” Chris Chesak, a travel consultant based in Cincinnati, told realtor.com®. “In an outdoors city, [residents will] meet up for a hike. The primary focus isn’t sitting around—it’s being outside.”Realtor.com®’s research team scou
Rising sea levels may be prompting affluent home buyers to rethink purchasing waterfront vacation properties along the country's coasts. Cities and homeowners in wealthy oceanside enclaves on the eastern and western seaboards are fighting to keep erosion and high tides from damaging homes, The Washington Post reports.“I plan to stay and fight as long as I can,” homeowner Justine Kenney told the Post about trying to save her 1940s home in
The median age of owner-occupied homes in the U.S. is 37, indicating that more properties may become pricier to maintain as they grow older and vulnerable to disrepair, according to the 2016 American Community Survey.But builders view the aging housing stock as an opportunity. Rising home prices may prompt more households to spend more on home improvement, the National Association of Home Builders notes on its Eye on Housing blog. Further, “thi
The National Association of REALTORS® is helping to foster ethical practices on a global scale, signing an accord last week with a coalition of Central and South American nations to reaffirm a commitment to the Code of Ethics in the region.The move came during the III Latin American Real Estate Congress, a meeting of the Confederación Inmobiliaria Latinoamericana (CILA) and the Costa Rica Chamber of Real Estate Brokers, in San Jose, Costa Rica,
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
More than 43 percent of renters say they’ve found online rental listings that seemed fraudulent, and more than 5 million say they’ve actually been scammed—sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars—according to a new report released by rental website ApartmentList.com.Renters may be less diligent in researching apartments when feeling the urgency to move, says Igor Popov, chief economist at Apartment List. “There are lots of cases wh
The trend of slow-to-launch millennials staying at home with mom and dad has led to about 2.4 million fewer households forming, according to a National Association of Home Builders analysis. The rise in housing costs and personal debt are the chief factors keeping millennials at home, economists say.The number of young adults who are living with their parents or other relatives has increased from 15.3 percent in 2000 to 26.3 percent in 2016, acc
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