Commercial real estate practitioners stand to benefit from a Supreme Court ruling Thursday giving states the authority to make online retailers collect sales tax. The decision, stemming from online retailer Wayfair Inc.’s lawsuit against South Dakota over such a state law, potentially erases internet sellers’ advantage over brick-and-mortar stores, which are legally required to charge sales tax to customers. Without this advantage, both conve
The number of Americans considered to be “cost-burdened” by rising housing costs has grown by nearly 14 million households over the last 30 years, according to the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies’ 2018 State of the Nation’s Housing report. Nearly a third of all households—or 38.1 million—paid more than 30 percent of their incomes for housing in 2016, which financial experts say is too much.Renters, in particular, are facing h
Home prices are climbing across the country, and that has made homeowners more bullish when it comes to the prospects of selling. Seventy-five percent of more than 2,700 households recently surveyed say it’s a good time to sell a house; 68 percent say it’s a good time to buy, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ second quarter Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) survey.“Hopefully this strong seller optimism
Homeowners and appraisers continue to close the gap between perceptions over home values in their area. Quicken Loans’ National Home Price Perception Index shows that appraised values were just 0.34 percent lower than what homeowners expected in May. A year ago, the gap between the appraiser and owner’s home price opinions was five times larger.Still, home value perceptions vary quite a bit from city to city. Homeowners in San Jose, Calif.,
An audit from the Office of the Inspector General shows that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had inadequate oversight of lead-based paint reporting and remediation in its public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs.The OIG audit accused HUD of failing to make sure that public housing agencies completed required lead-based paint inspections. For homes built after 1977, the OIG says HUD did not require public housing age
Homebuilders report that some of their attempts to add new homes are being blocked by local zoning boards and neighboring owners who are trying to stop new development.“A lot of cities are reaching a crisis of affordability and supply of housing,” Rachel Meltzer, an urban policy professor at The New School in New York, told realtor.com®. “But cities can really use [zoning] to direct how housing is built.”Growing groups of neighborhood ac
As a real estate professional, you likely know a lot about universal design in homes, a tenet that provides property accessibility for people with special needs and the ability to age in place. But what about "inclusive design" for your real estate website and e-marketing? Similar to the purpose of universal design for homeowners, inclusive design allows all home shoppers, regardless of disabilities or assistive devices, to take advantage of
Home buyers can expect to pay more for a home this summer. The median existing-home price for all housing types reached an all-time high in May at $264,800, according to the latest housing report released by the National Association of REALTORS®.Many markets continue to see a flood of buyers but not enough homes for sale, which is prompting prices to rise and also limiting the number of sales. For the second consecutive month, existing-home sal
More new homes entered the pipeline in May than any other month since the end of the Great Recession. Total housing starts increased 5 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate pace of 1.35 million units, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That marks the highest housing starts since July 2007.Broken out, single-family starts rose 3.9 percent to 939,000 units in May—the second-highest reading since the Great Recession. The multi
The majority of renters aren’t happy with the location of where they live, according to a new survey by RentCafe of more than 2,000 renters. Eighty-three percent of renters say they live in less than their ideal location, but cost of rent was their number one concern in moving. Sixty percent of the renters surveyed say they are not able to pay anything more than the actual rent or a maximum of $100 more to live in their preferred location.The n
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