Strengthening demand from smaller markets will help the commercial sector see stable growth and offer “decent” returns for investors in 2017, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ quarterly commercial real estate forecast.NAR predicts that the national office vacancy rate will drop 1.1 percentage points to 12.1 percent this year. Job growth in the business and professional services sector is expected to increase the need for
The majority of contracts settle on time, but more than a quarter of practitioners are citing delays due to common culprits.In the latest REALTORS® Confidence Index report, 29 percent of real estate professionals say they faced a delay to settlement and 5 percent reported a contract that was terminated. Sixty-seven percent of practitioners reported their contracts were settled on time.Among the contracts that had a delay to settlement, 38 percen
Black homeownership has fallen to levels not seen since the 1960s, shows a new analysis by The Urban Institute. Many demographic groups faced a decline in homeownership during the housing crisis, but blacks appear to have been the hardest hit.In the three decades after the Fair Housing Act passed, black homeownership increased by nearly 6 percentage points, reaching 47.3 percent. However, from 2000 to 2015, the rate of black homeownership dropped
Mortgage rates continue to defy expectations, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate barely budging for the fourth consecutive week.Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Feb. 23: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.16 percent, with an average 0.5 point, rising from last week’s 4.15 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.62 percent. 15-year fixed-rate mortga
Is now a good time for FHA to reduce hurdles to homeownership with a lower mortgage insurance premium? NAR says yes, but the Trump administration and some members of Congress aren’t so sure. On Inauguration Day, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development suspended a planned reduction in the FHA premium saying in a letter to mortgage lenders that “more analysis and research are deemed necessary.”The quarter-point reduction had been
Many markets are seeing so few new listings that they may not be able to meet the strong buyer demand heading into real estate’s traditionally busiest season. Listings are down more than 7 percent compared to a year ago across the country, according to the latest data by the National Association of REALTORS®.“Competition is likely to heat up even more heading into the spring for house hunters looking for homes in the lower- and mid-market pr
The shopping mall is getting a big makeover across the country. Faced with a shrinking number of shoppers, mall landlords are looking to reinvent shopping centers, mixing in everything from apartments to concerts, to get more foot traffic.One giant in the mall space, Westfield Corp., has cut its portfolio of shopping centers in half from 66 to 33 since 2004. It’s now testing the waters in apartment buildings, organizing concerts and other event
More than 47,000 home fires reported to U.S. fire departments involved some type of electrical failure or other household malfunction, according to the National Fire Protection Association.Homeowners sometimes discover that fires can be caused by some unexpected objects. Realtor.com® recently featured some of the hidden fire dangers that may lurk in a home:DishwashersMany dishwasher fires are caused by liquids that come into contact with the app
For years the commercial real estate market remained relatively unchanged when it came to technology, lagging behind the rest of the real estate industry during the Dot Com Boom and the more recent rise of automation and cloud-based technologies. But commercial real estate recovered following the recession and profits began to grow, attracting younger brokers with different needs than their predecessors.These shifts in the industry have led to a
Two-thirds of Americans fail to contribute anything to a 401(k) or other retirement account available through their employer, according to the Census Bureau.The latest data is alarming financial experts, who say Americans are not saving enough for retirement. Only about a third of workers are saving in a 401(k) or similar tax-deferred retirement plan, according to researchers Michael Gideon and Joshua Mitchell, who analyzed W-2 tax records from 2
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