Real Estate, Updates, News & Tips - Willy Olsen - iPro Real Estate

10 Best and Worst States for Millennial Buyers

Millennials have it rough: They're being slapped with a trifecta of housing affordability, credit accessibility, and employment issues, all of which are hampering their ability to buy, according to new report by Bankrate.com. The toughest state of all for millennial buyers may be California, where affordability is low, inventory is severely limited, and workers ages 25 to 34 face high unemployment.Culling data from the National Association of REL

Read More

All-Cash Sales Falling Nationwide

All-cash sales are on the decline, accounting for 32.4 percent of total home sales in November 2016, down 4.5 percentage points year over year, according to CoreLogic's most recent housing data. That's a significant drop from January 2011, when cash sales were at their peak: a whopping 46.6 percent of all home sales nationally. CoreLogic experts predict cash sales will fall to a historical norm of about 25 percent by mid-2017.Cash sales are most

Read More

Are Transit Hubs the New Mall?

Developers are pouring billions of dollars into giving facelifts to some transit hubs across the country. These improvements are not for expanding traveler capacity but to make these hubs more eye-catching and give commuters a reason to hang out and not just pass through. They're mixing in dining, retail, event offerings, and even the chance to live there.Developers believe that traditional rail and light rail station segments can spur developmen

Read More

Luxury Sellers Aren’t Going to Like This

More high-end home sellers across the country are being forced to offer discounts as the luxury real estate market shows signs of softening, The Wall Street Journal reports."Buyers are very price sensitive," says Donna Olshan, a real estate professional based in Manhattan. "If it's not priced right it's going to sit until the cows come home."Real estate pros and sellers in the luxury market are having to adjust their expectations. In the third qu

Read More

MLS Says It's First to Offer Chinese Translation

MLSListings, a multiple listing service based in Silicon Valley, is staking claim to being the first real estate platform to offer Chinese translation. The MLS says the move was to help remove potential language barriers from the real estate process.MLSListings agents and their clients will now be able to switch between English and Chinese with a click of a button on the platform. Real estate agents also will be able to send translated reports an

Read More

Uneven Economic Recovery Has Real Estate Implications

Stagnant economic conditions for middle-class America continue to put some real estate markets on uneven ground.NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun, who presented his latest economic outlook at the 2017 REALTOR® Broker Summit in San Diego, said lifetime wealth is at an all-time high in the U.S. However, this wealth is highly concentrated in the top 10 percent, while middle-income earners’ wealth has seen relatively no gain over the past 16 ye

Read More

Parents May Need a New Mortgage Perspective

Parents are having a tough time saving money. Fifty-one percent of parents recently surveyed say their mortgage was having a “major impact” on their ability to save, according to Bankrate’s Money Pulse survey for February.“It’s probably not as much about the mortgage as it is that stage of life,” says Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist.Homeowners with children are likely to be in their early 30s to mid 50s and have many

Read More

Owners Are Spending More on Remodeling

Baby boomers may be sparking a remodeling boom. Homeowner spending on remodeling projects is expected to see steady growth through 2025, according to Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook, released by Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. Older owners are expected to make up the majority of those spending gains over the coming years too as they adapt their homes to be able to age in place.Expenditures by homeowners over age 55 are ex

Read More

Take Appreciation Lessons From Warren Buffett

Billionaire and renowned investor Warren Buffett has seen mammoth appreciation for a getaway home he owns in Laguna Beach, Calif. He purchased it in 1971 for $150,000. Now Buffett is selling the six-bedroom, 6.5-bath home for $11 million.Are there any lessons from Buffett’s savvy investment that others can draw from who are looking for high appreciation over time? Realtor.com® spotlights a few.Distinguish between price and value.Buffett first

Read More

Buyers Are Being Drawn to New Homes

Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased 3.7 percent last month, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 555,000 units, the Commerce Department reports."We can expect further growth in new home sales throughout the year, spurred on by employment gains and a rise in household formations," says Robert Dietz, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders. "As the supply of existing homes remains tight, more consumers

Read More

This website includes images sourced from third party websites including Adobe, Getty Images, and as otherwise noted.