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Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

This law aims to prevent investors from flipping distressed homes. They're managing to anyway -- and going unpunished

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The home on Bottlebrush Court was built in the early 1980s. The Oceanside property features four bedrooms, two baths and almost 1,600 square feet of living space on a 6,100-square-foot lot just south of the San Luis Rey River.

When it was put up for public foreclosure auction under a trustee sale in late 2022, county property records show the ...Read more

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America/TNS

SEC to ready plan for trading crypto versions of stocks

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The Trump administration is poised to roll out a plan for trading digital versions of securities that could reshape the landscape of the American stock market as it continues to loosen the rules for free-wheeling crypto markets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to release its so-called innovation exemption for tokenized ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

With gold near $5,000 an ounce, Americans empty their attics, and buyers hire to keep up

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Gold doubled in price over the past two years, briefly topping $5,000 a troy ounce on Jan. 28. Since then, it’s stayed close to that price, a record high even after discounting inflation.

Around the same time, silver topped $100 an ounce for the first time, and the price has been bouncing since, from $70 to $90.

Precious metals buyers say ...Read more

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Ford City Mall to shut down over safety concerns, ending 60-year run on Chicago's Southwest Side

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The main building at Chicago’s Ford City Mall will shut down permanently in about five weeks due to what city attorneys have described as unsafe conditions, ending its more than 60-year run as a top retail destination for the Southwest Side.

“The main mall will be shuttered June 22 at noon,” Assistant Corporation Counsel Greg Janes said ...Read more

Todd McInturf/The Detroit News/TNS

Rocket Mortgage sues rival UWM for $100M

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Detroit-based home lender Rocket Mortgage filed a lawsuit Thursday against local archrival United Wholesale Mortgage for alleged breach of contract.

The suit marks the latest escalation in a bitter personal and business feud between Rocket Companies Chairman Dan Gilbert and UWM CEO Mat Ishbia.

The filing from Rocket to the New York state ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: Am I responsible for mortgage after signing quit-claim deed?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: My ex and I divorced last year, and she kept the house. I signed a quit-claim deed transferring my interest in the property to her. I thought I was done with it. Now I am trying to buy a small place of my own, and my lender says I still appear to be responsible for the mortgage on the old house. How can that be? I do not even own it anymore. ...Read more

DON MACKINNON/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Taylor Swift, lawsuits and quirky exemptions: How empty homes tax works in other cities

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

SAN DIEGO — If Measure A passes on June 2, San Diego would join a group of cities in the U.S., Canada and abroad that tax second homes or properties that are unoccupied for most of the year.

San Diego’s “non-primary home” tax, as it is being called, would impose an initial annual levy of $8,000 on more than 5,000 homes that are vacant ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Los Angeles' surging real estate prices have cooled, so why is nobody buying condos?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Even as the relentless rise in Los Angeles housing costs seems to have paused, condominium sales slowed to a trickle this year.

The number of condo units sold in the first two months slid to a more than 20-year low, according to figures from real estate data firm Attom. The median price of a condo fell nearly 5% in February compared with a year...Read more

Renée Jones Schneider/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Minnesota lawmakers vote to limit powers of homeowners associations

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Homeowners associations across Minnesota will see their powers diminished under a far-reaching “HOA Bill of Rights” approved by state lawmakers this week.

The bipartisan measure that runs more than 50 pages is aimed at protecting homeowners by requiring more transparency from HOAs, limiting their ability to levy fines and foreclose ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: Can HOA regulate street parking?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: I am interested in finding out if a homeowners association can dictate that cars cannot be parked on the street in front of a single-family residence, and that they must instead be in the driveway or garage. — Sherrie

A: The answer to your question turns on a single point that most people do not stop to consider, namely, who actually owns ...Read more

Nathan Howard/Getty Images North America/TNS

Data centers use lots of electricity. Should we be worried? Here are 5 key issues

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Data center proposals across the country are stoking wide-ranging questions and concerns tied to their consumption of electric power.

The facilities store racks of computing equipment, in row after row, powering main features of modern technology, especially artificial intelligence.

Keeping that machinery humming can consume as much ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

An AI bubble? Not so, says this leading money manager

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The world’s largest asset manager dismissed worries of an AI bubble and instead said that the industry is providing unrivaled opportunities to investors, in remarks Tuesday at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, said that despite concerns that AI is being hyped, there is legitimate ...Read more

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Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

No body

Five tips for quick house cleaning

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Keeping a home reasonably clean does not require a full day of scrubbing or an obsessive personality. For most households, the secret is learning to focus on the areas that create the greatest visual impact in the shortest amount of time.

Professional cleaners and organized homeowners alike say that a fast, effective cleaning session often ...Read more

What Happened to the Smart Home?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

By almost any measure, the smart home should have arrived by now.

For more than 50 years, futurists have promised houses that would anticipate our needs, adjust themselves automatically and free homeowners from countless mundane tasks. In the 1960s, television specials and magazine illustrations depicted suburban families living with ...Read more

No shoes at home? House shoes, socks, or bare feet?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

By all appearances, the modern American home is becoming a shoe-optional zone.

Whether prompted by concerns about dirt, allergens, comfort or simple habit, more households are asking visitors to remove their shoes at the door. Once that happens, a surprisingly consequential question follows: What comes next?

For some, the answer is a pair of ...Read more

Why going barefoot is better for your home

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Going barefoot at home has long been a quiet, almost instinctive habit for many households, but in recent years it has gained renewed attention as people reconsider how their living spaces function day to day. From cleanliness to comfort to long-term maintenance, the simple act of removing shoes at the door can shape the entire atmosphere of a ...Read more

Katy Kildee, The Detroit News/The Detroit News/TNS

Is college still worth it? Survey says yes, but …

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Teenagers aren’t turning their backs on college — but they are rethinking what “college” actually means.

And they’re doing it at a moment when the value of higher education itself is under fresh scrutiny.

Earlier this month, a committee at Yale University warned that colleges and universities share responsibility for a growing ...Read more

Karen Ducey/The Seattle Times/TNS

Living on $60K in Seattle comes with up to 7 roommates

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

When Adriana Gomez-Weston first got the offer for her current job in Seattle, she was ecstatic.

Working for the catering company Compass, she estimated that she'd make around $60,000 a year before taxes. That sounded high compared with the average income in North Carolina, where Gomez-Weston, 33, grew up.

I thought that would be a lot of money...Read more

AI-generated image/HomeServices of America/TNS

How Mae, an AI real estate agent, is putting a face on HomeServices of America

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

MINNEAPOLIS -- The country’s newest real estate specialist is Mae (short for Maestro), and she was just born this year.

The “synth human” is really part of a new AI-powered platform that will put a (digital) face on Minneapolis-based HomeServices of America, which owns mortgage, title, insurance and escrow companies, among others. The ...Read more