Pending home and condo sales grow in July
Pending home sales posted their 12 consecutive month of gains across Massachusetts, according to the latest monthly report from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. With 5,793 single-family sales under contract as of July 31, pending sales were up 9.4 percent...
Need a Mortgage Fast? You’re in Luck: The Home Closing Process Is Speeding Up
Once your offer on your dream home is accepted, it doesn’t mean you can just grab the keys and move in. If you need a mortgage, securing this home loan takes time. The good news is that it’s faster now than ever. According to a recent three-year study by LendingTree,...
U.S. Housing Starts Fell 4 Percent in July – #HomeBuying #NewConstruction #RealEstateAgent
WASHINGTON—Home building in the U.S. fell for a third straight month, showing that rising labor and material costs continue to dent the pace of home construction. Housing starts, a measure of new-home construction, fell 4% in July from the...
Condo Buyers Will Soon Have an Easier Time Scoring a Mortgage
Buyers are about to have an easier time scoring a mortgage to purchase a condo. A new policy announced this week should significantly expand the number of individual condo units as well as condo developments eligible for Federal Housing Administration financing. The...
How Touring Open Houses Helped Me See My Own Home in a Whole New Light
Want to learn how to sell your house? Simple: Put on your buyer hat and tour a bunch of homes for sale in your area. That’s what I did, and I learned a ton about how to sell my own place. I’d bought my cozy one-bedroom condo in Irvine, CA, three years ago; it was...
What Is Fair Market Value? How Much a Home Is Really Worth
Whether you’re buying or selling a home, one question that’s always front and center is the price: How much is a home worth? That’s a tricky question to answer, but probably the best starting point is to know a home’s fair market value, or FMV. A home’s fair market...
Consumer confidence on housing hits all-time high
American consumers haven’t been this confident in the housing market in years, according to the latest results of a monthly survey by Fannie Mae. The firm’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) for July rose 2.2 percent to 93.7, its highest reading since Fannie Mae...
Home prices in Boston Massachusetts see modest gains in Second Quarter
Single-family median home prices saw a positive second quarter this year in 91 percent of metro areas, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors, and Boston was no exception. A full 162 of 178 metropolitan statistical areas...
What Is Escrow? How It Keeps Home Buyers and Sellers Safe
What is escrow? In real estate, an escrow account is a secure holding area where important items (e.g., the earnest money check and contracts) are kept safe by an escrow company until the deal is closed and the house officially changes hands. Escrow is also a...
11 Questions to Ask Potential Roommates to Weed Out the Weirdos Fast
Picking roommates is a bit different from picking a spouse, a pet, or a nice couch—it’s a giant leap into the great unknown. What are some questions to ask potential roommates to help you separate the special someone you can happily live with from all of the freaks...
What Is a Tiny House? A Huge Trend Explained in Simple Terms
What is a tiny house? Unless you’ve been living in a sensory deprivation tank, you might have heard about the tiny-house movement. After all, it’s invading all corners of the U.S. If nothing else, you may have hit upon one of HGTV’s three—count ’em, three—ongoing...
The most popular interior design trend in Massachusetts
Every home is unique in its own way, especially when it comes to interior design. Homeowners often choose design styles that are inspired by what is popular in their part of the world. Joybird took a look at the styles most searched by state using Google Trends. The...
FREE Market Analysis
"*" indicates required fields