Realty Associated: May 2015

Thursday, May 28, 2015

RealtyTrac: Top 10 buyer and seller markets

The housing market is all over the place this year. While in some markets houses are selling for more than 100% of the asking price, other houses are being sold for less than 80% of the asking price. It's a mixed market that depends heavily on the local environment. As a result, RealtyTrac decided to identify the nation's hottest seller's markets and the best buyer's markets.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Do renovations pay off during retirement?

Homeowners who are retired or nearing retirement often face some difficult questions: Should they remodel their homes? Will they recoup the cost? Or are they better off saving their money?

This issue is "a pretty common conundrum," says Atlanta-based certified financial planner Wes Moss, author of You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think.

Phoenix to be 'epicenter' for college title game festivities

Downtown Phoenix will play a central role in hosting the college football championship that will be played in Glendale in January.

The Arizona Organizing Committee and College Football Playoff organization announced Tuesday that downtown Phoenix will a host a weekend fan festival, concert series and the ESPN broadcast set leading up to the College Football Playoff National Championship on Jan. 11.

Good-bye keys: ‘Smart locks’ let you in without them

When Christy and Joe Affrunti bought their Long Island, New York, house last year, one of their first projects was replacing the traditional front-door lock with one that opens using a pass code. They were tired of the hassle of "jiggling with a key."

Now, when they need to give someone like a repairman temporary access, they give a temporary code to get in. They share their permanent code with friends; those who arrive at the house before they do, for instance, can "come in and be comfortable instead of sitting in their car," Christy Affrunti says.

Building tiny houses into big help for Los Angeles' homeless

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shortly after Elvis Summers befriended Irene McGhee, he learned she was sleeping on the streets of South Los Angeles.

So the man with the blue mohawk and wraparound shades decided to build the grandmother nicknamed "Smokie" a tiny house on wheels. Summers estimates he spent less than $500 on plywood, shingles, a window and a door for the 8-foot-long structure that can be moved around by one person.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Purchase Loans Now Outpacing Refis

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Groups Ask Congress for "Breathing Room" on TRID

There was an unusual degree of consensus at a Congressional hearing on implementation of the new Truth-in-Lending (TILA) and RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule (TRID). All four individuals testifying on behalf of different housing industry interests overwhelmingly agreed that, while implementation of TRID should continue as scheduled on August 1, there should be a grace period for enforcement.

TRID was developed over several years and several incarnations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and while each witnesses at the House Financial Services subcommittee hearing were generally complementary of the agency's work, all encouraged the committee to insist that a five month "hold harmless" period be put in place and that CFPB should not begin enforcement of the TRID rule until January 1, 2016.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Applications for new home purchases ticked up in April

Mortgage applications for new home purchases increased by 0.3% relative to the previous month, the Mortgage Bankers Association Builder Application Survey data for April 2015 shows.

This change does not include any adjustment for typical seasonal patterns.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Survey: More Millennials Say No to Credit Cards

Twenty-seven-year-old Omaha, Nebraska, resident Erin Duffy has never had -- or even wanted -- a credit card.

"I've been able to get along without it," she says, attributing the choice to ambivalence and a wariness of plastic her parents fostered in her during her formative years. "I've liked being able to pay for things as I go, not having to worry about missing a bill."

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Top 5 Ways to Boost the Value of Your Home

This is a great time to be selling a house—or buying one. With housing prices at recent highs (in some neighborhoods they're exceeding pre-2008 valuations), it's no wonder about 5.3 million homes are expected to change hands in 2015, up about 30 percent from the bottom of the crash, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Baby Boomers value space, proximity to venues

Carol Lewis knows a lot about what Baby Boomers want in their homes and their lifestyles these days.

The associate broker with DPR Realty in Mesa is herself a Boomer, that generation whose births occurred between 1946 and 1965, and temporarily bumped up the national birth rate after World War II.

For Tech Titans, Sharing Has Its Limits

There are all sorts of activities required of the people who remodel the homes of tech titans in Silicon Valley. Laying reclaimed-wood flooring, installing ever-tinier bathroom tiles, wiring the network.

Add a new one: Signing a domestic nondisclosure agreement.

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