How Long Does It Take To Save For A Down Payment

In a recent study conducted by Builder.com, researchers determined that nationwide it would take“nearly eight years” for a first-time buyer to save enough for a down payment on their dream home.

Depending on where you live, median rents, incomes and home prices all vary. By determining the percentage a renter spends on housing in each state and the amount needed for a 10% down payment, they were able to establish how long (in years) it would take for an average resident to save.

According to the study, residents in South Dakota are able to save for a down payment the quickest in just under 3.5 years. Below is a map created using the data for each state:

What if you only needed to save 3%?

What if you were able to take advantage of one of the Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae 3% down programs? Suddenly saving for a down payment no longer takes 5 or 10 years, but becomes attainable in under two years in many states as shown in the map below.

Bottom Line

Whether you have just started to save for a down payment, or have been for years, you may be closer to your dream home than you think! Meet with a local real estate professional who can help you evaluate your ability to buy today.

Make Anything A #KitchenBacksplash

From traditional tile to trendy glass — and shiny metal to rustic wood — there is seemingly no end of choices for kitchen backsplashes today. “Tile is still the most popular backsplash material, with natural stone a fast-growing second,” says John Morgan, 2013 National President of the National Kitchen and Bath Association. “But with the right installer, you can make just about any material work.”

Kitchen backsplashes no longer simply protect walls from spills and splatters, a wide array of eye-catching materials like glass, wood, metals and stone make the backsplash the focal point of today’s kitchens.

Expected #PriceGrowth Over 12 Months

In the monthly REALTORS^® Confidence Index Survey, NAR asks REALTORS^® “In the neighborhood or area where you make most of your sales, what are your expectations for residential property prices over the next year?” The map below shows the median expected price change in the next 12 months for each state, reported in the October 2015 REALTORS^® Confidence Index Survey Report. REALTOR^® respondents from Florida were the most upbeat, with a median expected price growth in the range of five to six percent. In Washington, Nevada, and Colorado, the median expected price growth among respondents was four to five percent.

Nationally, REALTORS^® who responded to the October 2015 survey expected prices to increase by 3.2 percent over the next 12 months (3.2 percent in September 2015; 3.0 percent in October 2014). REALTORS^® expect the recent strong price growth to moderate as rising prices have made homes “unaffordable” for many, with home prices almost at par with their levels prior to the housing downturn.

#HomeStaging: Pro Tips for Appealing to the Senses

Staging a home for sale is all about inspiring your buyer, and their senses are the avenue by which you connect with them. French novelist Honoré de Balzac once wrote “love is the poetry of the senses,” and specifically touching on each sense when staging a home creates atmosphere that inspires just that kind of poetic love. No matter the size or style of the home, there are a whole range of small things you can do to make it more appealing to aspiring homeowners (and help you lock in a sale!) Here’s how to get started:

Sight is the sense most agents associate with staging. The placement of furniture, decor, plants and everything else is truly central to staging. What can get overlooked in the great production of staging is the most fundamental element to catching someone’s eye – light. Especially for homes whose layout prevents a lot of natural light from getting in, you will want to ensure that you have bright and vibrant light throughout the home you aim to sell. Dark homes can not only feel dreary, but they can also make it more difficult to show off some of the qualities that will help you sell the home from the flooring to any moulding touches and more. Light is also very important for getting good quality photographs, which in the era of online advertising is key to putting your best foot forward to sell homes. There’s a major difference in perception between houses with dark, grainy photographs and ones that look professionally shot when interpreting them in the digital space.

Smell is among the strongest and most personally connective senses we possess as humans. We associate different aromas with experience and memory to a degree where certain smells can make us comfortable and nostalgic or quite the opposite. People are consciously aware of smells that they like and dislike, and some argue that using fragrances or food smells to change buyer perspective is a big no-no. However, if you are choose natural, neutral aromas like lavender, sage, pine or other light woody fragrances, you can create a space that feels like home. Be aware of using fragrances that may cause people who are sensitive to aromas to be uncomfortable, and be smart about using things like incense and spray aerosols that can trigger asthma or allergies.

Taste is important because, frankly, everyone loves snacks. This is a simple fact of life. Food makes people feel more comfortable and welcome in a home, and can add a feeling of sophistication to your showing. While you can’t guarantee everyone will be interested in your hors d’oeuvres, a lot of people will appreciate some fresh fruit, mild cheeses, or even a glass or two of wine as they settle into what may be their new home. Avoid anything that is overly fragrant, like strong cheeses and cooked meats, but don’t be afraid to let the personality of the home inform the snack choice you make. For homes that are more down home and country cottage influenced, regional favorites can’t be beat, whereas if you’re catering to a higher society crowd your snacks should follow suit.

Hearing. Much like smell, music is deeply evocative for memory and affects the mood and comfort level of the listener. Playing music through a home you aim to sell does wonders for filling in the space, making it more comfortable for everyone walking through and giving a sense of personality to your staging. I would recommend something instrumental, preferably classical or piano to enhance without distracting from the surroundings. If you want to get more technical, music that is primarily structured around major chord progressions will energize listeners, whereas minor chords sound darker and can create a sense of melancholy (for an example, look what happens when you shift REM from minor to major. How happy it feels!). It’s also important to ensure your music isn’t too loud, as it can take away from your staging and make it more difficult for your buyers to converse about the home with one another and with you.

Touch. Chances are prospective buyers aren’t going to go around touching the walls and tiles to gauge their tactile appeal, but there is a strong likelihood they will have a seat at some point along the way (or be drawn towards touching a sofa, linens or the curtains). Touch is one of our key exploratory senses, used to judge a wide range of things from the temperature of an item to its softness or quality. Staging a home with comfortable, quality goods is one part of staging with touch. Another key element of touch: temperature. A home that is too hot or too cold will make buyers uncomfortable and distract them from the features you’re looking to showcase. An updated thermostat is not only a great selling point for the home, but helps you accurately and consistently set the temp for showings.

#HomebuyingTrend Purchasing Larger Homes

Home buyer demographics change slightly from year to year due to macroeconomic forces from the health of the economy to inflation to the global trade on oil prices. The National Association of REALTORS® recently released its 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report and there are some interesting new trends emerging this year. One of the most fascinating is that in almost every region of the United States, we saw buyers trading up and buying bigger homes than last year. According to the new report, 42 percent of all buyers traded up in the size of their home, up from 40 percent in 2014. In the 2014 report, buyers reported that they were looking for homes similar in size at 31 percent compared to 29 percent in 2015. Regionally, the percentage of buyers looking for larger homes increased across the board.

One reason for this shift in purchasing power is that people finally have more equity from selling their previous homes in order to buy a bigger one. Since the housing downturn in 2010, many homes were worth less than their mortgages. Over the last several years, home prices have been rising. In 2014, 17 percent reported waiting or stalling to sell their home, which dropped to 13 percent in 2015. Sellers also reported that they sold their homes for a median of $40,000 more than they purchased it, up from $30,100 in 2014. The most common reason for selling a home in 2015 was that the home was too small at 16 percent.

The typical seller in 2015 was 54 years old (same as last year) and the median household income was $104,000, up from $96,700 in 2014. Buyers aged 35 to 44 years, or Generation X, was the second largest age group to purchase homes last year at 20 percent, behind Millennials 34 years or young where 28 percent purchased homes. We can speculate that Generation X-ers probably had a child in the last few years and wanted a bigger home to expand their family. Finally, we see the trend where repeat buyers have been able to sell their homes at a higher price in order to trade up and purchase larger homes.

5 Ways To #ConvertYourBathroom Into A #SpaOasis

Imagine coming home from a hard day at work, stepping into the bathroom, and feeling all of your worries fade away as you soak in the tub or stand under a warm stream from a waterfall showerhead. The right décor and design can make taking a bath or getting ready for your day in your bathroom feel like stepping into your very own, private day spa. Sounds pretty good, right?

Here are a few wonderful tricks for giving yourself a mini-vacation every time you step into your bathroom.

1. Choose a relaxing shade of paint. 

Think about the shades of paint you see when you go to a day spa. They’re almost always neutral, unsaturated colors that help you feel relaxed. I prefer grays and rich browns for bathrooms, but a cool, cucumber green is also a nice choice. Whatever shade you choose, go with a washed-out, subtle version instead of a really bright and stimulating tone.

2. Decorate with scents. 

Next, scent is a huge part of the relaxing experience when you go to the spa. A candle, some dried lavender in a sachet, or a few drops of your favorite essential oil mixed with Epsom salts in a warm bath can transport you to a completely different place in your mind every time you set foot in your bathroom.

3. Have soft lighting.

If you’re remodeling your bathroom, get rid of any harsh fluorescent lights and replace them with warmer, softer lights. You’ll still want to get enough light to do makeup and check your outfit when you get ready to go in the morning, so install brighter lights over the mirror. But make sure that they operate on a separate switch from your other lights so that you can maintain a soothing atmosphere when you shower or soak in the tub.

If you’re not remodeling or changing out light fixtures, you can get a similar effect by placing a few candles around your bathroom to give it a warm and calming atmosphere with all of the lights turned off. You can also experiment with different shades for your light fixtures to help cut the harshness of the light.

4. Upgrade your fixtures.

If your fixtures are a little bit out-of-date, you have a choice. You can upgrade them, which can mean going with a better showerhead (which I definitely recommend). Or, if you’re happy with how your fixtures work but they don’t quite look right, you can improve their looks with a little bit of spray paint. Choose a complementary textured paint to give your bathroom fixtures a whole new look and feel.

5. Coordinate your linens and toiletries.

If you really want to give yourself a home-spa experience, you’ll want to wrap yourself in luxury whenever you step out of the tub, and you’ll want to have a coherent and cohesive look to the room, too. Go ahead and invest in towels, washcloths, and a bath mat that are soft and fluffy and that match the color you’ve chosen for your walls. Upgrade your shower curtain to complement these and add a few matching or complementary toiletries.

You’ll have a room that looks, feels, and smells absolutely amazing every time you enter it.

Facts About #BuyingAHome

Some Highlights:

• 36% of Americans think they need a 20% down payment to buy a home. 44% of Millennials who purchased a home this year have put down less than 10%.
• 71% of loan applications were approved last month
• The average credit score of approved loans was 723 in September (the lowest recorded score since Ellie Mae began tracking in August 2011).

Decorating With Nature

As the days become shorter and the light fades, we naturally want to hunker down indoors with cozy throws, hot drinks and good friends. And while shopping for new goodies to reflect the season can be fun, you don’t need to spend big to bring the look and feel of the turning seasons into your home. Here are 16 project ideas (most of them quick and ridiculously easy) that make use of whatever natural elements you have on hand, from found feathers to firewood.

Where Will #HomePrices Be Next Year

Some interesting facts:

• 25 states are forecasted to achieve higher levels of appreciation in the next 12 months than already achieved in the last year.
• 25 state and the District of Columbia are forecasted to experience a slow in appreciation.
• All 50 states & D.C. are forecasted to achieve some level of positive price appreciation.

Even though each state is appreciating at different levels, you need to know the Cost of Waiting until next year to buy your dream home!

#NewHomeSales Surge

Some Highlights:

• The median price of a newly constructed home is currently $292,700.
• Sales are up 5.7% month-over-month and 21.6% year-over-year.
• Many buyers are looking to new homes as an option due to the lack of inventory of existing homes for sale.

#HomeEquity You May Have More Than You Think

CoreLogic recently released their 2015 2^nd Quarter Equity Report which revealed that 759,000 properties had regained equity in the last quarter. That means that 91% of all mortgaged properties (approximately 45.9 million) are now in a positive equity position. Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, reported:

“For much of the country, the negative equity epidemic is lifting. The biggest reason for this improvement has been the relentless rise in home prices over the past three years which reflects increasing money flows into housing and a lack of housing stock in many markets.”

Obviously, this is great news for the financial situation of many homeowners.

But, do they realize their equity position has changed?

A recent study by Fannie Mae suggests that many homeowners are unaware that their equity position has changed…in some cases dramatically. For example, their study showed that 23% of Americans still believe their home is in a negative equity position when, in actuality, only 9% of homes are in that position.

The study also revealed that, though 69% of homes had “significant equity” (greater than 20%), only 37% of Americans realize it.

This means that 32% of Americans with a mortgage fail to realize the opportune situation they are in. With a sizeable equity position, many homeowners could easily move into a housing situation that better meets their current needs (moving to a larger home or downsizing).

Fannie Mae spoke out on this issue in their report:

“Homeowners who underestimate their homes’ values not only underestimate their home equity, they also likely underestimate 1) how large a down payment they could make with their home equity, 2) their chances of qualifying for mortgages, and, therefore, 3) their opportunities for selling their current homes and for buying different homes.”

Bottom Line

Every homeowner should be aware of the true equity in their house and also realize the opportunities that go along with it. If you are unsure of the savings you currently have built up in your home, contact a real estate professional to help ascertain that number. You may be surprised.

CoreLogic recently released their 2015 2^nd Quarter Equity Report which revealed that 759,000 properties had regained equity in the last quarter. That means that 91% of allmortgaged properties (approximately 45.9 million) are now in a positive equity position. Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic, reported:

“For much of the country, the negative equity epidemic is lifting. The biggest reason for this improvement has been the relentless rise in home prices over the past three years which reflects increasing money flows into housing and a lack of housing stock in many markets.”

#HomeSales In Your State

Some Highlights:

• The National Association of REALTORS® surveyed their members for their Confidence Index
• The REALTORS® Confidence Index is a key indicator of housing market strength based on a monthly survey sent to over 50,000 real estate practitioners. Practitioners are asked about their expectations for home sales, prices and market conditions.
• Homes sold in less than 60 days in 39 out of 50 states and Washington D.C.
• Only Vermont had a median sold date longer than 90 days.