New-construction homes in the greater Pittsburgh area are selling rapidly, even as buyers openly complain about the build quality of some of the region’s largest homebuilders. That disconnect between persistent demand and known concerns raises a practical question for anyone shopping for a new build: if the market will not punish builders for cutting corners, ...
In most housing markets, buyers settle on a strategy and stick with it. Bid aggressively, or negotiate patiently. Move fast, or take your time. In the Washington, D.C., metro area right now, that single-strategy approach can cost you a home or cost you thousands in overpayment, because conditions on opposite sides of the Potomac are ...
A signed contract used to mark the point where Philadelphia home sellers could exhale. That assumption is breaking down. Buyers who have already signed agreements and put down deposits are backing out before closing, and Alona Richardson, a Realtor with OCF Realty LLC, the largest independent brokerage in Philadelphia, says economic anxiety is driving the ...
When insurance premiums double and the budget is already tight, some homeowners make a choice that would alarm any financial planner: they cancel their coverage and hope nothing goes wrong before the house sells. That is happening in parts of North Houston, according to Roze Swartz, a Redfin agent with 10 years of experience and ...
Demand in northern New Jersey does not soften evenly. It softens at the edges first, according to Julia Gaffney, team lead of Elevate Real Estate Group at Keller Williams Prosperity Realty. Counties closest to New York City remain fiercely competitive, but further out, in Sussex and western Passaic County, inventory is climbing, open houses are ...
Conventional wisdom says spring is when you sell a house. The flowers are blooming, the yard looks its best, and buyers are out in force. But in northern New Jersey, where inventory has been well below normal for years, waiting for April or May means walking into the heaviest competition of the year. Julia Gaffney, ...
Harris County, Texas, has roughly six months of housing inventory on the ground, and according to one 23-year Houston-area veteran, the slowdown feeding that surplus is not a brief dip. Sandra Marconi, a real estate agent and MAPS coach with Keller Williams in Houston, said the current environment could last far longer than most buyers ...
In Philadelphia’s residential market, the neighborhoods generating the most buzz are not necessarily the ones where buyers will see the strongest returns. Buyers willing to look past the most hyped areas and hold for at least five to seven years may do better in the less prominent blocks ringing Center City, according to Ariel Morgenstein, ...
The assumption that New York City homeownership requires seven figures or generational wealth is so entrenched that many buyers never bother to look. But in the outer boroughs, entry-level properties are closing right now at prices that contradict that narrative entirely. Jonathan Ettricks, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Laffey International Realty, works across Queens, ...
When people talk about what is holding back the luxury housing market in Los Angeles, they tend to focus on interest rates and economic uncertainty. Adam Brawer, a residential agent focused on the west side of Los Angeles, points to a different factor: a local transfer tax that has compounded the rate-lock problem for sellers ...
Across the outer suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth, new-construction builders are offering mortgage rates that start around five percent – well below what most buyers can get on the open market. The catch is that those homes sit in outlying communities where the drive to work, shopping, and services is significantly longer. For first-time buyers already ...
When a housing project costs $500,000 per unit, it looks like waste – unless half that money goes into building roads, water lines, and power infrastructure that most American communities already have. That distinction is at the heart of a funding dispute in southern Arizona, where the state denied a tribal housing authority’s tax credit ...
Below the luxury tier, Manhattan’s condo and co-op market has a mismatch problem. Buyers under $2 million overwhelmingly want units that are updated, low-cost to maintain, and ready to occupy on day one. But a large share of available inventory needs renovation – and sellers who have not adjusted prices for that reality are watching ...
When average home prices dip in a county-level report, the natural instinct is alarm. Your home is losing value. The market is softening. But in Collin County, Texas – one of the fastest-growing counties in North Texas – the headline numbers are telling a misleading story, according to one team that has been working the ...
Investors looking at affordable properties in Chicago’s south suburbs are running into an obstacle that does not show up in any listing: several villages have rewritten their rental standards in ways that effectively bar new investors from renting out properties within village limits, according to Aaron Gaines, a Realtor with Keller Williams Preferred Realty who ...
