Category: Real Estate
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This 79-year-old lost her home in the California wildfires. ‘I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt’
Remains of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, house after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires. Courtesy: Chelsea On the night of Jan. 7, Karen Bagnard sat in her Altadena, California, house in the dark. Forceful winds had caused her home to lose power, and she also had no running water, save for one…
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Homebuyer mortgage demand drops further, a troubling sign for the spring market
Homebuyers are seeing very little reason to get a jump on the all-important spring housing market, even with more listings coming up for sale. Mortgage rates haven’t moved much in the last few weeks, and home prices continue to rise. Mortgage applications to purchase a home last week dropped 4%, compared with the previous week,…
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New tariffs could raise home prices and sideline potential buyers
The U.S. housing market was already struggling under the weight of high mortgage interest rates, a low supply of existing homes for sale and historically high home prices. Now tariffs on building materials are adding even more pressure. Roughly 30% of softwood lumber consumed in the U.S. is imported, largely from Canada. Wallboard, known as…
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Renter affordability has improved — here’s what’s behind the trend
Vesnaandjic | E+ | Getty Images The cost to rent is coming down faster in some areas of the U.S. than others. Overall, rent affordability is improving thanks to a combination of factors, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin. One is, there’s more supply. “There are more apartments for rent now because there was…
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L.A. wildfire victims face financial anxiety amid recovery: ‘The uncertainty is very unsettling’
Homes burn above Pacific Coast Highway during the Palisades Fire on Jan. 8, 2025, in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images Alicia Kalvin awoke the morning of Jan. 7 to an urgent text from a friend: “There’s a fire on your street.” She hurried outside, alarmed to see…
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2025 is a ‘renter’s market,’ housing economist says — here’s how to take advantage
Vgajic | E+ | Getty Images If you’re a renter, the market may be shifting in your favor. As of December, the median asking rent price in the U.S. was $1,695, down 0.5% — or $8 — from November, according to a new report by Realtor.com. The latest rent price is 1.1% lower — or…
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New York City office demand is finally back to normal
In this article SLG Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT The Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building and One Vanderbilt are seen among other buildings in midtown Manhattan in New York City on Jan. 11, 2024. Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images Demand for New York City office space has finally returned to pre-pandemic…
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Pending home sales drop sharply in December as mortgage rates surge back over 7%
Signed contracts on existing homes dropped a sharp 5.5% in December from the previous month and fell 5% from the prior year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The drop followed four straight months of gains and is the index was at its lowest level since August. These so-called pending sales are an indicator…
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The Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady: Here’s what that means for your money
The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will leave interest rates unchanged as inflation continues to run above the Fed’s 2% mandate. The move comes after the central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point last year and in the wake of President Donald Trump‘s comment during his first week back in office that he’ll…
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After the wildfires: What a long rebuilding process will look like for Los Angeles homeowners
An aerial view of the sun rising above homes that burned in the Eaton Fire on January 21, 2025 in Altadena, California. Mario Tama | Getty Images A few weeks ago, the home of Dr. Damon Raskin in Los Angeles’ wildfire-stricken Pacific Palisades neighborhood burned to the ground. Yet even as he, his wife and…
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The Federal Reserve is likely to hold interest rates steady next week. Here’s what that means for your money
The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting next week, despite President Donald Trump’s comments on Thursday that he’ll “demand that interest rates drop immediately.” So far, the central bank has moved slowly to recalibrate policy after hiking its key benchmark 5.25 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in an…
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Looking for a new place in 2025? How to know if a rental listing is a scam, fraud experts say
Eleganza | E+ | Getty Images It’s exciting to find a new place to rent in your neighborhood or in a new city. That is, of course, unless you get duped. In so-called rental listing scams, scammers will make up listings that aren’t available for rent or simply do not exist in order to fraudulently…
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Here’s how climate change is reshaping home insurance costs in California — and the rest of the U.S.
Burned trees from the Palisades Fire and dust blown by winds are seen from Will Rogers State Park, with the City of Los Angeles in the background, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on Jan. 15, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Apu Gomes | Getty Images Insurance premiums were surging well before this year’s massive wildfires…
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Mortgage rates aren’t likely to fall any time soon — here’s why
The Good Brigade | Digitalvision | Getty Images Mortgage rates have risen in recent months, even as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates. While those opposing movements may seem counterintuitive, they’re due to market forces that seem unlikely to ease much in the near term, according to economists and other finance experts. That may…
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UK homeowners brace for higher mortgages as borrowing costs spike
Sunlight illuminates the front of a row of Victorian-era houses in a terraced street in Bristol, England. Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty Images LONDON — Hundreds of thousands of U.K. homeowners are facing the prospect of higher mortgage rates after a spike in U.K. borrowing costs. Major high street lender Virgin Money…
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5 cities with the lowest ‘barrier to homeownership’ — where saving a 20% down payment takes less than 4 years
Cofotoisme | E+ | Getty Images How long it takes you to save for a 20% down payment on a home depends in part on where you live. In a pricey area such as New York City, it could take the typical buyer roughly 10.85 years to save $173,000, which is 20% of the median…
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Mortgage demand is mixed, as interest rates hit highest level since May
A completed planned development is seen in Ashburn, Virginia, on Aug. 14, 2024. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images Mortgage demand started this year stronger than it did last year, even though interest rates are higher. Total mortgage application volume last week was 7% higher than the same week one year ago, according to…
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From giant Lego-style bricks to artificial reefs, how the construction industry is using tech to tackle climate change
The problem of stolen manhole covers in Turkey might seem an unlikely starting point for a new way for buildings to withstand earthquakes and tackle the construction industry’s environmental issues, but when a Turkish businessman heard about a new material that prevented the thefts, it sparked an idea. Cast iron is traditionally used to make…
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Mortgages, credit cards, auto loans: Expert predictions for interest rates in 2025
Interest rates moved lower near the end of 2024 as the Federal Reserve cut rates three times, shaving a full percentage point off the federal funds rate since September. In 2025, that trend is likely to continue. But with inflation still above the Fed’s 2% target, a strong labor market and a new administration, the central…
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Here are 7 steps homeowners and renters should take after a wildfire, experts say
Flames and smoke from the Palisades Fire surround a home (C) in the community of Topanga, California, on January 9, 2025. David Swanson | Afp | Getty Images Firefighters are still working to contain the record-breaking fires that have been raging for more than a week in Southern California. The fires in the Greater Los…