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Luxury Real Estate Archive
RISMEDIA, October 29, 2010—Painfully aware of the fact that many homeowners are upside-down (or underwater) with their current mortgages, brokers now need to be careful in listing the upside-down home. In Holmes v. Summers (Oct. 2010), a California appellate court ruled
RISMEDIA, October 28, 2010—Home values continue to rise which is good news for central Ohio. The average sale price for the first nine months of the year is $161,204, up 7.4% from the beginning of 2010 according to the Columbus Board of Realtors®.
RISMEDIA, October 27, 2010—A new home may have freshly painted shutters, a picket fence around it, and rainbow-colored flower patches leading to the candy-red door. But if the air quality isn’t good inside, those exterior niceties become insignificant—and—quite simply, you could get sick. “Sick building syndrome” (a term typically reserved for office buildings, but often interchangeably used with the term “sick house syndrome” when referring to private homes) is a combination of physical ailments—symptoms often include headaches, loss of concentration, general malaise and breathing problems. The cause: poor indoor air quality.
RISMEDIA, October 25, 2010—Some homes across the country at various price points are selling above asking price, according to the Q3 2010 Home Hunter Report released by ZipRealty. The report reveals that in Q3 2010, California was home to five out of the country’s ten “hottest” zip codes, defined as those zip codes where the average home sale price is most above the average list price by percentage. This is down from California having seven of the top ten hottest zip codes last quarter.
RISMEDIA, October 22, 2010—Lately, you've been thinking a lot about investing strategies. You have a small nest egg that needs to grow, but frankly you don't trust the stock market. And while real estate has been somewhat of a rocky road in recent years, it's still a solid long-term
RISMEDIA, October 22, 2010—(MCT)—When real estate agent Sarah Elles Boggs walks into one of downtown Miami's condo towers for a showing, she pulls out her Android smart phone, "checks in" on a GPS-powered Web platform called Foursquare, blasts her whereabouts on
RISMEDIA, October 21, 2010—Nationwide housing starts edged up 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 610,000 units in September, due entirely to a 4.4% gain in the single-family sector, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures. "Builders are cautiously responding to the small improvement they are seeing in interest among potential home buyers," noted Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "However, as consumer demand for new homes rises, a major limiting factor for a housing recovery continues to be builders' inability to access credit for new construction."
RISMEDIA, October 21, 2010—Real estate broker and agent outlook for the United States market declined by 8.42% in September 2010, versus August, on a seasonally adjusted basis. Continued weakness in confidence sent the U.S. Real Estate Confidence Index (RECI) to its lowest level
RISMEDIA, October 20, 2010—(MCT)—Home construction is one of those things that really hasn’t changed a whole lot for hundreds of years. For example, if you look at the houses in Colonial Williamsburg, they have pitched roofs with shingles, walls with siding or brick on the outside and plaster on the inside, wooden floors, casement windows and so on. Yes, a modern home has central heat and electrical wiring not found in the 1700s, but the structure and common features are remarkably similar.
RISMEDIA, October 19, 2010—Often, our first encounter with mold at home occurs in that infamous spot between the shower curtain and tub. It’s pretty disgusting, but it’s easy to wipe up. Unfortunately, in most homes, this isn’t the extent of the mold—the more problematic mold is the insidious kind, hiding behind walls and in floorboards, and potentially contributing to a range of allergies and other illnesses. In fact, a 1994 study by the Harvard University School of Public Health, which involved 10,000 homes in the U.S. and Canada, found that half of those homes had mold levels that participants said caused a 50-100% increase in distressing respiratory symptoms.
RISMEDIA, October 18, 2010—The Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America—two of the most recognized and influential consumer protection organizations in the nation—joined the Coalition to Stop Wall Street Home Resale Fees. Adding their voices to the diverse coalition of groups opposed to predatory private transfer fees is a major milestone in the growing momentum to stop these fees.
RISMEDIA, October 15, 2010—(MCT)—Ken and Linda Bolsch put their five-bedroom, five-year-old Mahwah, N.J., colonial on the market in January, sure that buyers would appreciate its low taxes, wooded lot, and impeccable decor and landscaping. But after nine months—and a price cut from $925,000 to $749,000—the house is still on the market, with the couple looking at a substantial loss at that price. "We fell in love with the house from the moment we saw it, and we don't know why other people aren't doing the same," Ken Bolsch said.
RISMEDIA, October 15, 2010—Nearly eight out of 10 respondents believe buying a home is a good financial decision, despite ongoing challenges with the economy and housing market. That's according to the 2010 National Housing Pulse Survey, an annual report released by the National Association of Realtors. The survey, which measures how affordable housing issues affect consumers, also found job security concerns to be the highest in eight years of sampling, with 70% of Americans saying that job layoffs and unemployment are a big problem in their area; eight in 10 cite these issues as a barrier to homeownership.
RISMEDIA, October 15, 2010—(MCT)—Jodie Mekled is looking forward to cheap utility bills this winter. The retail worker from Sterling Heights, Mich., could pay as little as $40 a month for natural gas thanks to energy-efficient home improvements made through Habitat for Humanity.
RISMEDIA, October 15, 2010—(MCT)—Ken and Linda Bolsch put their five-bedroom, five-year-old Mahwah, N.J., colonial on the market in January, sure that buyers would appreciate its low taxes, wooded lot, and impeccable decor and landscaping. But after nine months—and a price cut from $925,000 to $749,000—the house is still on the market, with the couple looking at a substantial loss at that price. "We fell in love with the house from the moment we saw it, and we don't know why other people aren't doing the same," Ken Bolsch said.
