by Norma Langston | Aug 23, 2018 | Featured Post
Millionaire To Millennials: Owning Your Home Can Help You Retire Sooner!
In a CNBC article, self-made millionaire David Bach explained that: “Buying a home is the escalator to wealth in America. Homeownership can also help you retire early, that is, if you pay your mortgage off.”
Bach suggests that homebuyers should, “Take out a 30-year mortgage, but with the intention of paying it off in 25, 20 or ideally, 15 years.”
How does he suggest you do this? Here’s the secret:
“…If you were paying $1,000 a month, now you’re going to make $1,100 payments every month. Inform the bank that you are doing this and that you want the extra $100 a month to be applied to the principal (not the interest).”
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR MORTGAGE?
Bach explains that, “If you keep this up, you’ll wind up paying off your 30-year mortgage in about 25 years. Increase your monthly payment by 20 percent, and you’ll have that mortgage retired in about 22 years.”
BOTTOM LINE
Whenever a well-respected millionaire gives investment advice, people usually clamor to hear it. This millionaire gave simple advice – buy a home and pay off your mortgage early so that you can retire sooner with the money you will have saved.
by Norma Langston | Aug 15, 2018 | Back to school, Buying a Home
Homebuyers Willing to Sacrifice ‘Must-Haves’ in Favor of Good School Districts
It should come as no surprise that buying a home in a good school district is important to homebuyers. According to a report from Realtor.com, 86% of 18-34 year-olds and 84% of those aged 35-54 indicated that their home search areas were defined by school district boundaries.
What is surprising, however, is that 78% of recent homebuyers sacrificed features from their “must-have”lists in order to find homes within their dream school districts.
The top feature sacrificed was a garage at 19%, followed closely by a large backyard, an updated kitchen, the desired number of bedrooms, and an outdoor living area. The full results are shown in the graph below.
Buyers are attracted to schools with high test scores, accelerated academic programs, art and music programs, diversity, and before and after-school programs.
With a limited number of homes available to buy in today’s real estate market, competition is fierce for homes in good school districts. Danielle Hale, Chief Economist for Realtor.com, explained further,
“Most buyers understand that they may not be able to find a home that covers every single item on their wish list, but our survey shows that school districts are an area where many buyers aren’t willing to compromise.
For many buyers and not just buyers with children, ‘location, location, location,’ means ‘schools, schools, schools.’” (emphasis added)
Bottom Line
For buyers across the country, the quality of their children’s (or future children’s) education ranks highest on their must-have lists. Before you start the search for your next home, meet with me and let me explain the market conditions in your area.
by Norma Langston | Aug 8, 2018 | Featured Post
Dallas and 4 other Texas metros make the top 15 in the new list of U.S. boomtowns
The story of the United States is the story of people migrating to different cities and towns to build new lives through new opportunities. From the promise of gold to the promise of big tech in Northern California; from trading furs to building cars in Detroit; from the prosperity of shipping to the prosperity of hospitality in Charleston, the country is built on boomtowns… and Dallas is one of them!
With all the construction cranes on the highway and business relocations to the area, it’s no surprise that Dallas has ended up on a new list of the country’s biggest boomtowns. But why all the continued growth and interest?
Texas is obviously on fire, and people love coming here, maybe it’s our salsa! Seriously though, there are three good reasons why Dallas is a boomtown:
1 – Growing industry – business is booming
2 – More people and housing – people are coming and we are keeping up!
3 – Growing workforce and employment opportunities – it’s a good place to work and make a living
In fact not just Dallas, but all of Texas’ major metros ended up near the top of the new ranking by Magnify Money, a consumer finance website.
Dallas ranked in seventh place in the comparison of top U.S. growth cities. Austin was rated the top U.S. boomtown in the report. And San Antonio was just after Dallas in ninth place.
“Americans are flocking to and prospering in Texas,” Kali McFadden with Magnify Money said in the report. “Texas metros take up one-third of the top 15 spots.”
Magnify Money ranked cities on factors including population growth, housing and rising employment and incomes.
“The first thing we looked at was how much business and industry has grown locally,” McFadden said. “We not only wanted to know how many new businesses there are but also how businesses in general are doing, as measured by their increase in hiring and — for businesses that don’t have employees, known as non-employers — how much revenue has increased.”
While Texas towns hogged the economic beauty contest, cities in the Northeast and Midwest were near dead last in the ratings.
Some cities in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and Ohio saw their labor forces and the number of businesses shrink for the five-year period used in the comparison.
North Texas has been one of America’s fastest growing markets since the Great Recession, leading the country in job gains and population growth.
Article first published by MagnifyMoney.com.
by Norma Langston | Aug 1, 2018 | Featured Post, Real Estate News, Real Estate Trends
From personalized wellness programs to fitness-focused apps, luxury homes are focusing on making residents feel better.
We need to take wellness into account in our non-stop paced digital lives. An increasingly isolated and aging population. Rising chronic illness. Climate change. Given the pressures of the modern world, a gym membership and taking the occasional “mental health day” often just aren’t enough to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
One way to achieve optimum wellness, experts and developers say, is by choosing a home that is designed for it.
Real Estate Developers Take Wellness Into Account
A growing number of developers believe healthier home features are a big pull for buyers. This real estate boom first sought to make office environments healthier. Now it is focusing more on the residential market, according to a new report released by the Global Wellness Institute (GWI).
What makes a “well” home?
Homes that are designed for a healthier lifestyle usually focus on energy efficiency and sustainable construction first, and then look at wellness programs within the community. Indoor components that can make a home healthier may include natural lighting, air quality, proximity to green spaces, exercise facilities, and nontoxic paints and finishes.
The U.S. leads the market share
Wellness real estate has grown to a $134 billion global industry, according to researchers at GWI. The number of residential, mixed use, and commercial properties has risen 6.4 percent annually since 2015. The GWI predicts that health-oriented real estate will continue to grow at that pace through 2022 and reach $180 billion by then. Globally, the U.S. leads the market share in wellness real estate developments.
“We’re becoming more unhealthy as we live longer,” Ophelia Yeung, a senior research fellow at the GWI, told Mansion Global. That has led more people to ask themselves “why they’ve invested their life savings in a home that is not keeping them well.”
Buyer’s are willing to pay a premium for a healthier home
Prospective owners may be willing to pay a premium for a healthier home or community. Home buyers may be willing to pay 10 to 25 percent premiums for homes in wellness developments at the middle and upper end of the market. “There is a recognition that building for human health is going to be the core [value]” in the real estate market going forward, Yeung says. “When you look at it from that perspective, it’s a whole lot bigger than the luxury apartment with the spa, the gym, the swimming pool.”
Personal wellness advisors play a part
At some high-end developments, staff are assessing the homeowner’s health as soon as they move in, Mansion Global reports. For example, condo owners at Canyon Ranch in Lenox, Mass., consult with a personal health adviser to implement individualized wellness plans, which include on-site physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, behavioral counselors, and spiritual wellness experts.
The mid-market should catch up in 3-5 years
The wellness movement seems to be taking root more in the high-end market, but the lower end of real estate will soon catch on too, Kavita Kumari, principal engineer at Cundall, a London-based multidisciplinary engineering consultancy, told Mansion Global. As the products and materials used in making healthier homes grow in appeal, costs will come down, Kumari says. Yeung estimates that in three to five years, the mid-market will catch up with the luxury segment. Broad consumer awareness about healthy homes is “just being awakened,” Yeung says.
Source: Article first published by Mansion Global (June 2018) “Wellness Real Estate Has Blossomed Into a $134 Billion Industry Worldwide—and It’s Growing Fast”.
