Posts with tag 'real estate market'

As a seller, you'll want to do everything you can to make your home more appealing to buyers. And like other sellers, you'll be doing some prep work to get your home ready to sell. That means fresh paint, increased curb appeal, and sometimes even renovations. Many sellers struggle with deciding exactly where to spend their home improvement budget, and it can be tough to know what buyers want. Hopefully, you're lucky enough to have a few of these upgrades already in your home. If not, adding one or more of these suggestions can help your home get noticed and stand out in the minds of buyers.

1. Laundry room. According to the National Association of Home Builders, this topped the list of most desirable amenities with 92% of buyers wanting one. It keeps this everyday chore from piling u...

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Considering buying a home? There are the top two questions you need to ask yourself about home prices and mortgage rates as you make your decision. 

If you're thinking of buying a home,  chances are you're paying attention to just about everything you hear about the housing market. And you're getting your information from a variety of channels: the news, social media, your real estate agent, conversations with friends and loved ones, overhearing someone chatting at the local supermarket, the list goes on and on. Most likely, home prices and mortgage rates are coming up a lot. 

To help cut through the noise and give you the information you need most, take a look at what the data says:

1. Where Do I Think Home Prices Are Heading?

One reliable place you can turn to for that information is the Home Price Expectation Survey from Pulsenomics – a survey of a nation...

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Even though home prices  have moderated over the last year, many homeowners still have an incredible amount of equity. But what is equity? In the simplest terms, equity is the difference between the market value of your home and the amount you owe on your mortgage. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) explains how your equity grows over time:

"Housing wealth (home equity or net worth) gains are built up through price appreciation and by paying off the mortgage."

How Your Equity Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

The equity you build up over the years can be used to your advantage when you sell your current house and buy your next home.  If you no longer have the space you need, it might be time to move...

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There's been a lot of focus on higher mortgage rates and how they're creating affordability challenges for today's homebuyers. It's true that rates climbed dramatically since the record-low we saw during the pandemic. But home affordability is based on more than just mortgage rates – it's determined by a combination of mortgage rates, home prices, and wages.

Considering how each one of these factors is changing gives you the full picture of home affordability today. Here's the latest.

1. Mortgage Rates

While mortgage rates are higher than they were a year ago, they've hovered primarily between 6% and 7% for nearly eight months now (see graph below):

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The spring season appears to be warming up in housing as more and more buyers enter the market. And after rising mortgage rates sidelined so many buyers last year, that's a good sign for sellers. Realtor.com has the latest:

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