For the past several years, real estate professionals have been using social media channels to sell more homes faster by creatively leveraging the tools at their fingertips.Social media marketing is one of the more cost-efficient forms of local marketing for real estate pros. However, an effective social media presence in today’s real estate market is no longer simply defined as setting up a business page on Facebook and hoping your promotional
Wells Fargo & Company says its new initiative aims to help at least 250,000 African-Americans become homeowners over the next decade.The bank giant says its initiative is directly in response to the lower homeownership rates among the African-American community. Wells Fargo will devote $60 billion to qualified African-American consumers for home purchases by 2027. It also will devote $15 million to support several initiatives that promote fin
Workers over the age of 65 are staying active in the workforce, opting to push back retirement.In the year 2000, about 13 percent of Americans 65 and over reported being employed full or part time. But, by May 2016, that percentage had increased to 18.8 percent. As such, nearly 9 million Americans who are age 65 and over are employed. Further, over the next five years, that percentage is expected to rise to 32 percent of the workforce.“The cont
McAllen, Texas has seen the highest rental cost increases in the nation over the past year, according to a new report released by RentRage. Their researchers collected rental data on about 250,000 three-bedroom, single-family homes and then ranked the top 25 metro areas by average rental rate increases for single-family homes between the fourth quarter of 2016 and the same quarter in 2015.While rents remain persistently high in the Bay Area, San
Mortgage rates broke a month long holding pattern and inched lower this week."The 10-year Treasury yield remained relatively flat this week, while the 30-year mortgage rate fell 6 basis points to 4.1 percent,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Since the beginning of the year, the 10-year Treasury yield has covered a 22 basis point range. The range of movement for the 30-year has been half that, just 11 basis points."Freddi
The average American household spends $2,149 on property taxes for their homes each year, according to U.S. Census data. But depending on where you live, that can vary drastically.For the third consecutive year, New Jersey ranks as having the highest property taxes in the nation, according to a new report released by WalletHub. Its effective tax rate of 2.35 percent means homeowners there pay about $7,410 annually on a $316,000 home, the median s
The U.S. Senate today confirmed retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson to be the 17th secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The vote was 58 to 41. A simple majority of 51 votes was needed to confirm him.In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee last month, Carson took a number of positions that align with the market priorities of the National Association of REALTORS®. Among these, he said all Amer
Deed restrictions can bring nasty surprises to homeowners looking to remodel or even when buying a home. These restrictions can limit a number of property features, such as the number of bedrooms in your home, the building height, the type of vehicles in your driveway, the fencing permitted, the type and number of trees that can be removed from a property, and even the style and color of construction materials used in a renovation (which often is
REALTORS® expect modest price gains in home values over the next year. The median expected increase in home prices across the country is 3.5 percent, according to the REALTORS® Confidence Index January 2017 survey, based on the responses of more than 3,800 REALTORS® across the country.REALTORS® are most bullish about rising home price expectations in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. Real estate pros in those states believe they will see 4 to
You likely use your car a lot in the real estate business. If you want to keep your long-term operating costs low, you might want to consult the latest list from Kelley Blue Book of the cars and trucks with the lowest ownership costs.The following vehicles were ranked as having the lowest operating costs in their class: Subcompact car and overall lowest: Chevrolet Spark, estimated to cost an owner $27,577 over the first five years. Compact car: T
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