When most people think about insuring a home near the coast, they picture flood zones and waterfront properties. But buyers in New Jersey’s Monmouth and Ocean counties are running into a different problem – one that catches people off guard. Standard homeowners insurance, the basic coverage every mortgage lender requires, has become harder to obtain ...
People still move to Florida expecting a bargain. No state income tax, warm weather, reasonable home prices – that was the pitch for decades. But buyers relocating to Tampa Bay in 2026 are discovering a cost structure that the listing price doesn’t reveal: insurance premiums driven up by hurricane risk, property taxes that run higher ...
Banks price foreclosure homes to attract owner-occupants, but most of those homes cannot pass the appraisals that owner-occupants need to get a mortgage. The result, according to Janet Knopp, Principal Broker / Agent at Capital Region Preferred Properties LLC, is a market where REO properties sit in limbo, wanted by two buyer types but workable ...
During the post-COVID frenzy, entry-level buyers in Arizona’s West Valley were effectively priced out, not always by the home itself, but by the terms surrounding it. Prices ran up, sellers refused to help with closing costs, and the math didn’t work for someone who’d scraped together a down payment but had nothing left over. According ...
A population that doubles sounds like guaranteed appreciation. More people means more demand, which means your home is worth more, right? That is the assumption many buyers carry into fast-growing markets. But in Collier County, Florida, where local economic development officials project the population could double within the next eight to ten years, the math ...
In most housing markets, down payment assistance helps first-time buyers close a gap they could eventually bridge on their own. In Baltimore City in 2026, it has become the deciding factor in whether a finished rehab sells or sits, according to Salinda Adams, a Realtor and home improvement contractor at United Real Estate Executives who ...
When buyers look at Chicago and see property tax rates pushing toward 2 percent – sometimes higher in the suburbs, most recoil. But according to Chris Katsulis, Founder & Team Leader of the C. Thomas Group at The Nav Agency in Chicago, that heavy tax burden may be doing homeowners a favor by suppressing the ...
For most sellers, pricing a home “at market value” sounds like the responsible move. Pull comps, match the range, list. But in parts of West Austin right now, pricing at market value is functionally the same as overpricing, and sellers who want to move their homes in a reasonable timeframe need to list below it. ...
Homeowners in Lake Nona, Florida, who purchased between 2021 and 2023 and then refinanced to pull out equity are now discovering they cannot sell without writing a check at closing. The pattern is still small in scale, but it carries echoes of a much larger crisis, and it is already showing up in closed transactions. ...
Converting a parcel from general commercial zoning to a mixed-use planned unit development in Lebanon, Ohio, took less effort than getting a routine construction permit in a larger city nearby. That speed gap between small municipalities and major metros has direct consequences for homeowners and buyers near rezoned corridors; the commercial character of a neighborhood ...
In most housing markets, the question “what did that house sell for?” anchors every negotiation. Buyers pull comps, sellers cite recent closings, and both sides argue over which sale best reflects current value. But in North Texas, a nondisclosure state where sold prices never appear on public records, that anchor barely exists. As of mid-2026, ...
The instinct for most real estate investors is to follow the crowd, buy where population is growing, where demand is rising, where prices are climbing. On Long Island, that instinct may be exactly wrong. The areas gaining residents have already priced in the demand, while areas losing population may offer entry points that generate better ...
In most residential markets, agents anticipate demand by watching school calendars, interest rate movements, or seasonal migration patterns. In Eldorado, New Mexico, none of those signals apply. The buyer pool consists almost entirely of empty nesters and retirees making discretionary lifestyle moves. These are people who defer purchases indefinitely until they’re personally ready, then act ...
The pandemic-era suburban boom that pushed buyers into the far reaches of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro is unwinding. Properties in outer markets are struggling to attract buyers while demand reconcentrates closer to established urban nodes, according to Yaron Yashar, a Realtor at Fathom Realty who works primarily in the north DFW corridor. For investors who ...
Jersey City’s downtown condo market reports a three-month absorption rate, but according to Patrick Southern, Team Leader at SERHANT (Properties by Southern), roughly one-third of that inventory cannot compete with new construction – leaving an effective supply closer to two months for buyers seeking quality units. The Three-Month Number Overstates What’s Available A three-month absorption ...
