One of the most battered housing markets during the housing crisis, plagued with a number of foreclosures and falling home prices, is on the mend, joining a list of improving housing markets in May, according to a newly released index by National Association of Home Builders/First American.
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Texas continues to be an emerging hot spot for jobs in the U.S. Metros in that state take up four of the top six best cities for jobs cited in a recent Forbes analysis.
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More than 200,000 underwater home owners with mortgages through Bank of America may be eligible to have a reduction in the amount they owe on their loan, which could possibly trim their monthly payments by up to 35 percent.
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Rents continue to inch up, soaring more than 5 percent nationwide in the 12 months ending April 31. In some places, rents have increased by more than 15 percent in that time period.
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Foreclosed homes are increasingly being purchased or rented by those who are turning the homes into sites of illegal activity: Indoor marijuana farms.
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Senior FHFA official Meg Burns has clarified that the only goal of a pilot foreclosure-to-rent program is to gauge whether housing supply can be reduced and neighborhoods stabilized through bulk sales. The aim is not to expand the supply of affordable rental housing or boost energy efficiency, she stressed, as some believe.
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Americans would rather see their dentist or visit their in-laws than spend time with their lawns. In fact, they’d rather do just about anything than mow, fertilize, and perform other lawn care chores, according to a Consumer Reports survey of 1,000 adults nationwide.
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