The downtown resurgence is reaching across the country. In the post-World War II era, Americans fled urban areas in favor of the suburbs. That left many downtowns to face some neglect, rising crime, and industrial decay, realtor.com® notes in a recent article. But it’s a new day for the American downtown.Redevelopment since the mid-1990s are putting more downtowns back on the map. Vacant office buildings are being transformed into loft apartme
Closing times were way down in February, falling from 51 days in January to 46 days for all loans last month, according to the latest Ellie Mae Origination Insight Report.Broken out, home purchase loans took an average of 45 days to close in February, down from 48 days in January. Refinanced loans took an average of 47 days to close in February, down from 53 days.Conventional loans commanded 63 percent of the market share, compared to 66 percent
Getting married and buying a home are two milestones that couples often try to achieve at the same time. But the finances involved in both of those feats can be daunting. The average wedding costs reached a record high in 2016: $35,329. That is about the equivalent of a 20 percent down payment on a $175,000 home."There are some people that can do both at the same time, but for most, you have to choose one [goal] and delay the other by a year or t
Scammers are now using utility bills to try to dupe customers.Scammers reportedly are making calls to customers posing as representatives from companies like ConEd, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, Consumers Energy, or a bogus utility company called General Electric, among others. They’ll threaten to shut off power or service if customers don’t pay immediately. They’ll offer an “energy assistance” or payment plan and ask for the customer’s
The Department of Housing and Urban Development would see its funding drop by 13 percent under President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal. The cuts, combined with others elsewhere in the federal government's discretionary budget, would offset proposed increases in defense and homeland security funding, including an increase of $54 billion for Department of Defense programs. The proposal, Trump said, "follows through on my promise to foc
About 32.7 million Americans—or 10.2 percent of the U.S. population—claimed Irish ancestry in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, do you know which U.S. city is the most Irish of all? Realtor.com® researchers scoured the data in the 300 largest U.S. cities to find the percentage of Irish-Americans living there.New England boasts the most Irish descendants in the nation, with Manchester, N.H., leading the
Single-family housing starts surged in February to their highest level since late 2007, the Commerce Department reports. Overall, nationwide housing starts, including for single-family and multifamily sectors, increased 3 percent in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.288 million units.Broken out, single-family production rose 6.5 percent in February to 872,000 units, the highest reading in nearly a decade. Multifamily starts, on t
Most appraisers today are satisfied with their work, but they’re worried about the rise of automated appraisals and they’re not happy with appraisal management companies.Those are findings from NAR research, released today, to provide a picture of the state of the appraisal field and to see if more needs to be done to bring new appraisers into the profession.“The work of an appraiser is indispensable to our industry,” said NAR President W
Builder confidence in the newly built single-family market soared to a 12-year high this month, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The index rose six points to a 71 reading, the highest level since June 2005.Builders are showing more confidence over current sales conditions, sales expectations over the next six months, and current buyer traffic.Also, "builders are buoyed by President Trump's a
A new phishing scam can display what looks like a Google sign-in page if users click on attachments, which could end up sending account names and passwords to hackers.Here’s how the latest scam works: A scammer will send an email to your Gmail account. The email likely will appear to be coming from one of your contacts and ask you to look at an attached file, such as a PDF or Word document. It may appear to be legitimate since it seems to be co
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