General News - Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips

Single-Family Rents Continue Breaking Records

Single-family rentals remain a hot commodity. Rent prices continued their double-digit climb in February, rising 13.1% overall compared to a year earlier. It marked another record for single-family rents, according to CoreLogic’s Single-Family Rental Index.A shortage of available rentals is leading to a run-up in prices. Also, double-digit gains in home prices are pricing out some would-be home buyers and prompting them to rent instead.“Singl

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REALTORS: Use ‘Closing Guarantees’ to Help Buyers Win Advantage

In multiple-offer situations, a closing guarantee may help buyers’ offers stand out. Written into a contract, these guarantees outline that if the transaction doesn’t close by a specified closing date, the affected party will be compensated.Such a guarantee could offer home sellers greater assurance that a particular offer will close over others they received in a bidding war.The lender typically decides what the guarantee amount will be, Apa

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New-Home Construction Rising

Montana’s new-home construction is booming. The state had the highest growth rate nationwide annually in February, with residential housing permits surging 121%, the National Association of Home Builders reports.Overall, single-family permits nationwide—a gauge of future construction—has increased by 3.5% year over year in February. Between February 2021 and February 2022, 28 states and the District of Columbia posted growth in single-famil

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Mortgage Rates Hit 5% for First Time Since 2011

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped to a 5% average this week, the first time it’s been that high since 2011. Since the beginning of the year, mortgage rates have jumped by 1.8 percentage points and added about $400 to the average monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home, Nadia Evangelou, senior economist and director of forecasting at the National Association of REALTORS®, writes for the association’s blog.Also, with inflation a

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Property Taxes Rising at Slower Pace

The average property tax on a single-family home in 2021 rose at the smallest pace in five years. Taxes rose by 1.8% last year, from $3,719 in 2020 to $3,785 in 2021 nationwide, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, a real estate data firm.“It’s hardly a surprise that property taxes increased in 2021, a year when home prices across the country rose by 16%,” says Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at

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Rent Jumps by Nearly 20% in 2 Years

Rental prices are rising fast and, as leases come up for renewal, tenants may be shocked by just how much. A new report from realtor.com® shows that rental prices rose by nearly 20% from March 2020 to 2022.Sun Belt metros topped the list of fastest-growing rental markets over the past two years, led by Miami, Riverside, Calif., and Tampa, Fla. On the other hand, major tech hubs that have in the past served as rental leaders lately have seen many

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Building Materials Rise, but Lumber Prices Ease

New-home costs likely will continue to increase as rising building material costs squeeze construction budgets. The prices of goods used in residential construction rose again in March and are up 8% since the start of 2022, the National Association of Home Builders reports citing Bureau of Labor Statistics data.Year over year, building material prices have increased 20.4% and have risen 33% since the beginning of the pandemic, the NAHB reports.Th

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7 Cities With the Most Affordable Rents

Just as home prices reach new heights, renters are now paying more for their leases too. Rents for studios to two-bedroom units increased by 17.1% in February, and rents nationwide reached a new high of $1,792 per month, according to realtor.com®.Rental prices are soaring in many of the nation’s largest coastal cities. For example, in Miami, rental prices rose by more than 50% in the past year, realtor.com® reports.But affordable rental haven

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Inflation Edges Higher, Affecting Housing

The rate of inflation reached 8.5% in March, continuing at a 40-year high and showing few signs of relief for consumers. Higher gas prices, food, and housing costs fueled the consumer price index’s jump.“Aggressive inflation will force the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates multiple rounds this year and actively pursue quantitative tightening,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS®. “T

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