Where you live may be the most important determining factor when it comes to whether you survive an apocalyptic disaster. “Finding yourself in a highly populated urban center, competing with violent crowds for dwindling resources, will usually not end well. If the scarcity doesn’t get you, the resulting chaos certainly will,” Richard Duarte, a personal injury attorney in Miami and author of Surviving Doomsday, told realtor.com®. “On the
In a sign that tight inventory may be loosening, 54 percent of U.S. housing markets saw an uptick in the annual rate of vacant properties in the third quarter of this year, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ 2017 U.S. Residential Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report. Nearly 1.4 million homes—or 1.58 percent of all residential properties—were vacant at the end of the third quarter. That’s down slightly from a rate of 1.63 percent
With steady job growth, mortgage rates near record lows, and escalating rental costs nationwide, the market is favorable for first-time home buyers—yet their share of overall purchase activity this year is approaching a 36-year low, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2017 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers. First-time buyers accounted for 34 percent of home sales this year, the fourth lowest share since 1981. It’s not bec
The investigation into the cause of death is ongoingThe Chapel Hill police department released chilling news regarding two dead bodies found in a home by a Realtor on October 12.The police believe the son, Eric Dana Gibson, killed his mother, Margaret Montgomery Gibson. The investigation is ongoing. No information has been released about cause of death or motive. According to early reports, there were no visible signs of forced entry.“The c
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realtor.comFarmhouse chic is all the rage in home decor these days, thanks largely to Chip and Joanna Gaines from "Fixer Upper," who play up this style in many of the homes on their show (Hello, "barndominium"). The recent news that "Fixer Upper" will soon be ending for good provides all the more reason to embrace this trend. Soon, it'll be all we'll have left of Chip and Jo! (Sniff.)But before you go all Beverly hillbillies on us, reme
This Halloween, you may be less spooked as fewer “zombies” are out in real estate. The number of zombie preforeclosure properties has plunged 22 percent from a year ago.A zombie home is a property that is in foreclosure limbo. The foreclosure process has begun for the home, but it has not yet been repossessed by the foreclosing lender. About 14,312 properties at the end of the third quarter are considered zombies, according to ATTOM Data
A home insurance policy won’t cover every thing that could possibly go wrong with a home. The details are all in the fine print within the policy.“Insurance policies are like snowflakes; no two are exactly the same,” Ashleigh Cloud Trent, an insurance adviser with Swingle Collins and Associates in Dallas, told realtor.com®.Many standard policies do not include a few things that homeowners may assume they cover. Homeowners may need to inves
Many real estate professionals have become keenly aware of targeted wire fraud scams that include email impersonation tactics. A growing avenue cyber criminals are using to get highly sensitive financial data is known as spear phishing, according to Asaf Cidon, vice president of content security for Barracuda Networks, a data protection company.Spear phishing is a highly targeted and researched personal attack that is difficult to detect. Ha
Mortgage rates reached their highest averages since July this week.“The 10-year Treasury yield surged this week, jumping 12 basis points,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 30-year mortgage rate followed suit, increasing 6 basis points to 3.94 percent. Today's survey rate is the highest rate in three months.”Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Oct. 26: 30-year
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