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At the national level, housing affordability is up from a year ago for the fourth consecutive month. Mortgage rates dipped and stood at 3.76 this October but they are already higher for current home shoppers. Housing affordability increased from a year ago in October moving the index up 0.5 percent from 169.4 to 170.2. The… Continue Reading October 2016 Housing Affordability Index

#FlytheW, ceramics, offices, VR, agriculture, dessert, Pantone, bedding, and technology. Just a holiday reminder that the Cubs won the World Series. Nope. It’s cold in our office, but no where near as cold as the recommended office temp in the UK!  Joe deSousa/flickr/2015 How does Facebook top the list of tech companies to work? Its… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: December 5-9

By Melissa Dittmann Tracey, REALTOR® Magazine Adding nature, via plants, has always been a popular way to help spruce  up a home for sale. But Pantone’s 2017 choice for Color of the Year wants you using the color of nature in a bolder way in the new year. Pantone named Greenery its 2017 Color of… Continue Reading Pantone’s Nature-Inspired Pick for 2017 Color of the Year

Alexis Craig By Alexis Craig Why are so many digital marketing companies saying that prospecting over the phone is dead, while they try to sell you over a cold call? I don’t care that my mom likes to ignore my calls, prospecting on the phone isn’t dead. It can be an effective sales channel when… Continue Reading Top 3 Mistakes Agents Make on the Phone

Home buyer demographics change slightly from year to year due to macroeconomic forces from the health of the economy to inflation to the global trade on oil prices. The National Association of REALTORS® recently released its 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report and the trend of purchasing up in home size has continued… Continue Reading 2016 Home Buying Trend: Purchasing Larger Homes Continues

This week, in Five for Wednesday: If even just a few of these predictions for 2017 are accurate, next year will be pretty exciting, tech-wise. Google WiFi (which uses multiple routers to create a mesh network for your home or business’s WiFI) is getting great reviews. Here are two, from The Verge and CNET. While… Continue Reading Tech Trends for 2017, Google WiFi Reviews, Goodbye Pebble, Detroit’s “Agrihood,” & More Disappearing Headphone Jacks

When the temperature drops and words like “icy conditions” and “blizzard” start appearing in the weather forecast, keeping a house warm and cozy becomes even more important and even more difficult. There are several things homeowners can do to prepare their home for the cold ahead of time. Winterizing pipes, especially those in areas that… Continue Reading Story Ideas: Protect Your Home From the Cold

In the monthly REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, the National Association of REALTORS® asks members the characteristics of the most recent sale that closed in the reference month, including “Was the buyer a first-time buyer?” The share of first-time home buyers accounted for 33 percent of residential sales in October 2016 (34 percent in September 2016;… Continue Reading First-time Homebuyers: 33 Percent of Residential Sales in October 2016