If You Were Selling Today, Would You Have the Home That Buyers Want?
By: Dona DeZube
Published: November 8, 2013
Knowing what appeals to today’s homebuyers, and considering those trends when you remodel, can pay off years from now when you sell your home.
Two new surveys about what homebuyers want have me feeling pretty smug about my own home choices. Maybe you'll feel the same.
Privacy from neighbors remains at the top of the most-wanted list (important to 86% of buyers), according to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® "2013 Community Preference Survey." Privacy is no doubt the best feature of my mid-century ranch home, since I can only see one neighbor’s house and it’s a ...
Matching Room Color and Lighting to Get the Effect You Desire
By: Lisa Kaplan Gordon
Published: February 10, 2014
Light changes color, so your lighting design -- a top priority for any remodel -- should help guide your color choices. Here’s how.
It’s all determined by the way light and colors interact.
“People have to understand that the color of an object won’t look the same 24 hours a day,” says lighting designer Joseph Rey-Barreau. “I just had bamboo flooring installed throughout my house, and during the day it looks totally different than it...
Rising Home Prices Create Affordability Issues for Homebuyers
By: Dona DeZube
Published: February 11, 2014
Tight inventory pushed home prices up in most U.S. metro areas. That’s good news for homesellers, but bad news for buyers struggling to afford a home.
Home prices rose strongly in the lion’s share of U.S. metro areas in the fourth quarter of 2013, data from the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® shows. As homes became more expensive, however, they became less affordable, particularly for Western homebuyers.
The national median existing single-family home price was $196,900 in the fourth quarter, up 10.1% from $178,900 in the fourth quarter of 2012. The median price is where half of...
