From the monthly archives:

April 2012

Rents Rise While Home Prices Fall

April 30, 2012
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Tweet With the job market improving, making the jump from the pull-out sofa in Mom and Dad’s basement to an apartment across town (or across the country) is becoming more realistic for many Americans. But thanks to surging rental demand, apartment hunters might be in for a little sticker shock when it comes to rent [...]

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A Flicker Of Hope Appears In The Housing Market

April 30, 2012
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Tweet The boom in housing in the middle of the last decade created a huge oversupply of homes in the United States. But now that oversupply appears to be close to vanishing, at least in most parts of the country. There is no longer a large overhang of available new homes for sale. That is [...]

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Cutting-Edge Home Built For The Whole Family Debuts In Sparks, Nevada

April 30, 2012
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Tweet One feature drew Nancy Lucier and her daughter, Brittany, to the grand opening of Lennar Homes’ new Verona community at D’Andrea in Sparks on Saturday – the Next Gen suite. Lennar is the first home builder in the area to bring a house that is designed to accommodate multiple generations living in the same [...]

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Consumer Spending In U.S. Increases As Incomes Rise

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Consumer spending in the U.S. climbed in March after the biggest gain since August 2009, and incomes picked up, indicating the biggest part of the economy will help sustain the expansion. Household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy, increased 0.3 percent, after a revised 0.9 percent gain the prior month [...]

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6 Ways To Get A Great Mortgage Deal

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Finding an affordable house is no longer a problem but qualifying for a mortgage can be. Here are six tips to getting a mortgage and a good rate. First: put your credit on ice. The higher your credit score, the lower your rate. The best rates go to those with a 760 or more, [...]

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10 Things Open Houses Won’t Tell You

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Once a primary tool for real-estate agents looking to sell a home, experts say the traditional open house has lost its influence in the Internet age. Nearly 90% of buyers search online for homes, while only half that number visit open houses, according to a 2011 report from the National Association of Realtors. And [...]

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Phoenix’s Housing Market May Be Rising From The Ashes

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Phoenix’s housing market may be on the rise. John Burns Real Estate Consulting said the area is outpacing the recovery of other hard hit areas like Las Vegas, Riverside-San Bernardino and Sacramento. “Phoenix was one of the hardest-hit housing markets during the bust, with home values declining 57% from 2006 through mid-2011,” said Adam [...]

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San Antonio Builders Doing Better

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Home building is on the way back. San Antonio-area home builders in the first quarter started 1,636 homes, a 10.4 percent increase over the same quarter last year. It’s the double-digit bump the home-building industry has been waiting for and a much better start to the year than 2011, when building declined 24 percent in the [...]

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Charlotte Housing Market Showing Signs Of Life

April 30, 2012
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Tweet Charlotte-area home sellers are starting to get multiple offers again. More buyers are losing their top picks. And some condo projects that sat empty during the recession are selling out. The Charlotte-area housing market is showing new signs of life after four years in the doldrums, local agents and experts say. Certainly no one [...]

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Lennar’s ‘Home Within A Home’ Available In The Santa Clarita Valley Starting May 5th

April 30, 2012
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Tweet New Lexington at RiverVillage homes, built by Lennar, will be available starting May 5. “We’re seeing some stabilization in California, and it’s becoming a very strong market,” said Greg McGuff, division president for Lennar. Another change in the re-emerging homebuilding industry is the way homes are designed. Lennar’s multigenerational homes literally contain a “home [...]

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