Weekly Real Estate News Quiz: Think You're Up On The Biggest Headlines?
The U.S. Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it would cut interest rates for the second time this year, after having not dropped them since the 2008 recession. Real estate economists are split on the immediate impact it will have on mortgage rates and the housing market.
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Seattle consistently ranks as one the most expensive housing markets in the nation with a median home price of $713,100 — a price tag that nearly 42 percent of residents can’t afford. That’s why Mayor Jenny Durkan has proposed a 51 cent tax on Uber and Lyft rides to fund more affordable housing projects.
The tax is estimated to generate $133 million in revenue by 2025, $53 million of which will be used to build 500 housing units for residents making between $15 and $20 per hour. The additional funds will go toward Seattle’s streetcar system, according to a report by The Seattle Times.
Coldwell Banker Bain is growing its presence in Oregon with the acquisition of Coldwell Banker Morris Real Estate, a fellow Coldwell Banker franchisee.
The Bellevue-based Coldwell Banker Bain is currently the nation's fourth-largest Coldwell Banker franchise and the 17th most productive brokerage overall by sales volume, according to the Real Trends 500. With the acquisition, the company now has 300 agents in Oregon, as well as a new office in Bend to join existing offices in Portland and Lake Oswego.
With the average home growing in size, some married couples are getting a "sleep divorce" — and moving into separate bedrooms for a good night's sleep.
A recent National Sleep Foundation survey unearthed by realtor.com found that up to 25 percent of married couples sleep in separate beds while 10 percent have separate bedrooms. Termed a "sleep divorce," sleeping in separate bedrooms has always been a popular choice among the wealthy (Donald and Melania Trump famously do it) but is now being increasingly embraced by the average-income family.
A new Trump administration report argues that factors such as overregulation and "misguided and faulty policies" have produced today's ongoing homelessness crisis, and floats the possibility of using police to help solve the issue.
The report, from the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), spans more than 40 pages and notes that more than half a million people in the U.S. are homeless on any given night. Of those people, 35 percent are unsheltered and forced to live on sidewalks, in cars and other places "not intended for human habitation."
A variety of factors have led to this situation, the report argues, including "the overregulation of housing markets, which raises homelessness by increasing the price of a home."
They were all announced on Tuesday as finalists in the top agent category for Inman’s Golden I Club.
There won’t be any chestnuts roasting by an open fire in a majority of homes this winter, according to a survey released by the National Association of Home Builders on Tuesday.
Only 41 percent of single-family homes built within the last year include fireplaces, continuing a four-year decline. Only 7 percent of starter-homes (<$150k) built in 2018 included a fireplace, while 60 percent of luxury homes (>$500k) had the feature.
Compass CEO Robert Reffkin announced Monday that his fast-growing brokerage has launched a batch of new consumer-oriented property search tools, and also said that it's "likely" his company will go public sometime in the future.
In an interview Monday with CNBC, Reffkin said that "an IPO is likely in our future." However, Reffkin did not say when Compass might make an initial public offering on the stock market, adding, "I don’t go to sleep at night thinking about an IPO.”
Zillow announced Thursday a new partnership with roughly a dozen homebuilders in Zillow Offers markets across the country. The new program will allow consumers to sell their existing home to Zillow, but wait up to eight months to close on the sale of their home while the new one is being built.
With the new partnership, Zillow is hoping to eliminate a lot of the uncertainty surrounding the sale of a new home and the subsequent move into a newly constructed one. It’s aimed at eliminating the prospect of having to carry multiple mortgages or the stress of timing the sale of the home just right.
Since its launch, Facebook’s ad-targeting feature has made headlines for being used as a tool to discriminate against prospective homebuyers and renters on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin and other factors — all a violation of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.
Although Facebook has taken steps to squash discrimination through revised housing ad controls, the problem has yet to be solved as evidenced by a lawsuit filed by the Housing Rights Initiative Wednesday.
In the suit, which includes 54-year-old Neuhtah Opiotennione as a plaintiff, HRI claims Bozzuto Management, Fairfield Residential, Fore Property, Greystar Real Estate Partners, Kettler, The Tower Companies and Wood Partners hid Facebook ads from older renters in the Washington, D.C., area.