FRIDAY - on the weekend chase
- In recovering housing market, starter homes remain elusive
- What's your neighborhood score for aging in place?
- Buzzwords That Bump Up a Sales Price
- 'Dual Agency' Transactions Under Scrutiny in California Court Case
- Hacker houses are proliferating in the Bay Area
- 20 Ways to Store and Style Your Bike Inside
Enjoy!
In recovering housing market, starter homes remain elusive - Low interest rates and an improving job market have created a wave of prospective first-time home buyers, but they're being stymied by a dearth of available starter homes. Nationwide, the inventory of homes costing $250,000 or less fell more than 12 percent between June 2015 and June 2016. The shortage stems from higher labor, land and building permit costs that have caused construction companies to focus on higher-end homes that bring more profit. In addition, institutional investors are snapping up affordable homes by the thousands in select markets nationwide and converting them to rentals. The shrinking supply of affordable homes is one economic trend among many that is conspiring against younger workers and families in building wealth as their parents once did.
What's your neighborhood score for aging in place? - Many older adults say they want to stay put in their homes as they age. But how many older adults will actually be able to do so is another question. communities aren’t being built with the options that people need to age well. The idea of a livable community is one that has housing, transportation, and other options that allow people to stay and thrive in their homes, AARP said. The features that people want the most are bus stops, grocery stores, pharmacies, and parks, the AARP study found. "All of these things have a direct association to what a community can deliver to help independent living. The idea being that access to transportation gives mobility and access to grocery stores provides healthy foods and access to pharmacies provides medicine and access to parks would be for physical health. So all of it comes back to building a community with options that are not limited to your current status or lifestyle," the study said.
Buzzwords That Bump Up a Sales Price - Certain words included on the MLS public remarks section about a listing can help bring about a higher sales price than ads that don’t have any comments, according to real estate data firm CoreLogic. Researchers grouped the comments into three categories: location, condition, and design. They found that keywords related to great locations, such as “overlook,” “step” (as in, steps to the beach), “hill,” and “park” sell for a higher final price than those that do not list such positive location attributes. The study also found that in describing property condition words like “finish” and “best” tended to net higher sales prices. Also, in describing design, researchers found the following buzzwords: “slide,” “central” (central AC), “dual,” and “Spanish” (Spanish style) to result in higher sales prices.
'Dual Agency' Transactions Under Scrutiny in California Court Case - A case scheduled to come before the California Supreme Court Sept. 7 is set to re-examine the fiduciary responsibilities borne by real estate brokers who engage in "dual agency" representation -- the situation in which buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants are represented by brokers within the same real estate agency or brokerage, a commonplace practice in both residential and commercial property transactions.
Hacker houses are proliferating in the Bay Area - Making money from the housing crisis with hacker houses for some people comes naturally, even if it is not done legally. Times are little different now, than it was during the gold rush back in 1848, when people made their fortune by exploiting others. Shady characters are getting involved in the latest gold rush that has to do with making a fortune off of the housing crisis, and the landlords running the various hacker houses in the Bay Area, are making their fortunes.
20 Ways to Store and Style Your Bike Inside - Artfully placed bikes add a cool spin to room design. Some of my favorites:
