The following Field Guides have recently been updated in the Library: Credit Scoring Credit scoring has become a serious issue in the lending community and it can affect your ability to obtain or refinance your next mortgage. Credit scoring systems can gauge a mortgage applicant’s credit rating and assign an interest rate and risk value… Continue Reading New and Updated in the Library – September 2016
Photo by Westborough Design Center, Inc. – Discover traditional kitchen design ideas By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR(R) Magazine It’s all about that brass. But don’t expect to see that 1980s super shine. Today’s trendy brass is more of an antique brass, which is being used in light fixtures, mirrors, frames, and even furniture trims.… Continue Reading The ‘New’ Brass Is Back in Home Design
Zoning, paper, paper, HP, Halloween, excess, gas, cancer, brick and mortar, bargains, addiction, and the gender wage gap. Housing prices are displacing lower income families in Silicon Valley. Palo Alto’s tight housing market would have been made even tighter if Palo Alto’s Architectural Review Board had decided to approve Zuckerberg’s plans. What will it take… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: September 19-23
While local conditions vary, the REALTORS® buyer traffic and current conditions confidence indices remained above 50 in August 2016, indicating that more local markets were “strong” rather than “weak,” according to the August 2016 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey Report.[1] The buyer traffic index, an indicator of homebuying interest, stood at about the same level as… Continue Reading Highlights of the August 2016 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey
It’s common today for real estate brokerages to have systems in place for sending email alerts whenever there’s new or updated listings that customers might be interested in. it’s not new technology, and in fact the technology is arguably ubiquitous in the industry. Now imagine you get hit with a letter demanding you pay a… Continue Reading Maybe you haven’t tangled with a troll, but this patent victory is for you
Overwhelmingly, home buyers have purchased detached single-family homes more than any other type of home in the last 35 years. Since 1981, the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has collected data on the types of homes purchased throughout the three-and-a-half decades. Consistently, 74 to 88 percent of home buyers purchased single-family homes each year.… Continue Reading Single-Family Homes Are a Buyer’s Best Friend
In the monthly REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) asks members “How do you rate the past month’s traffic in the neighborhood(s) or area(s) where you make most of your sales?” NAR compiles the responses on buyer traffic into a REALTORS® Buyer Traffic Index and the responses on seller traffic into a… Continue Reading REALTORS® Reported “Weak” Supply Amid “Strong” Demand in August 2016
NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity slowed for the second month in a row. August’s existing-home sales slid to the 5.33 million seasonally adjusted annual rate and existing-home sales are modestly up 0.8 percent from a year ago. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was… Continue Reading August 2016 Existing-Home Sales
Repeat home buyers have the option of trading up for a bigger home, purchasing a home similar in size, and trading down to a smaller home. This change in home size often corresponds to life changes. For instance, empty nesters will often trade down to a smaller home when children leave and they want less… Continue Reading Trading Up and Trading Down: The Times Are A Changin’
Apple’s new operating system for the Mac — Sierra — has just been released. Siri is now part of the Mac OS, but that’s not the only big change. The Verge has a full review. Tired of hearing about drones? Yeah, us too, sometimes. But then you hear about how insurance companies are using them… Continue Reading macOS Sierra Reviewed; An Awesome Use for Drones; More in Five for Wednesday