Consumer

/

Home & Leisure

Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

The share of young single women homeowners dropped nationwide in 2022, reversing a trend

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Single women have been gaining on single men when it comes to buying homes. But that progress stalled last year.

In metropolitan areas across the country, young single men are more likely than young single women to own a home, but the ownership gap had been narrowing and almost closed in 2021, according to Zillow, as more women entered the ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Governors push faster construction to meet housing needs

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

PORTLAND, Oregon — Dick Anderson, a Republican state senator from coastal Oregon, has a chart and a readymade joke to illustrate the housing crisis facing his state. Up until 2006, his figures show, home building was on an upward trajectory in Oregon. But once he retired from a career in housing finance in 2006, the numbers plummeted.

"From ...Read more

Tiffany Tompkins/Bradenton Herald/TNS

Lawyer once helped debt-ridden owners hang on to homes. Now he helps Florida cities take them away

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Malekia and Maya McKinney were desperate to keep the property where they had grown up.

The city of St. Petersburg, Florida, had filed a lawsuit to foreclose on it in March of 2018, citing unpaid property fines.

Malekia turned to someone she trusted for advice. He gave her a name:

Matt Weidner.

The St. Petersburg attorney had made a name for ...Read more

Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group/TNS

As the Bay Area urbanizes around it, Livermore is one of the last ag cities standing

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

From certain places on Darrel Sweet’s ranch near Altamont Pass in California's Diablo Range, the world looks no different than it did 150 years ago. Wildflowers blanket the hillside. A ranch dog named J.J. chases squirrels across a muddy dirt track. Cows stand near a cattle pond, looking out at a range of rolling hills that seem to act as a ...Read more

Walt Disney Imagineering/Walt Disney Imagineering/TNS

Disney's planned community in California takes shape with nod to 'The Incredibles'

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The House of Mouse? Think a whole lot bigger.

Officials last week released fresh details about the first Storyliving by Disney project in Riverside County, California, an ambitious effort to infuse a master-planned community with the Burbank entertainment giant's trademark whimsy and wonder.

Among the newly unveiled features of the in-the-...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Affluent Orange County town battles a new breed of luxury party houses: fractional ownership

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Max Gardner and his wife, Artyn, decided to sell their home in Irvine and move to Balboa Island eight years ago because they wanted something more than a comfortable place to live. They were hunting for a lifestyle.

On this tony man-made island in Newport Beach, California, stately homes with street-facing patios are clustered together on ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: What can we do about sellers swapping lights and laundry for lower-cost versions?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: We are buying a new home and did our walk-through before the closing. Not only was the fancy chandelier changed for a simple ceiling light, but the high-end washer and dryer had been replaced with well-used basic models. We are distraught. What can we do? — Jon

A: When people agree to buy and sell a property, they must sign a written ...Read more

US 30-year fixed mortgage rate eases to six-week low of 6.45%

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

U.S. mortgage rates edged down to a six-week low of 6.45%, helping drive a fourth-straight advance in applications to buy a home.

The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage eased 3 basis points in the week ended March 24, Mortgage Bankers Association data showed Wednesday. The group’s index of mortgage applications to purchase a home rose ...Read more

DREAMSTIME/TNS

US housing cools further, with prices down 3% from the peak

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The U.S. housing slump stretched into a seventh month in January.

Home prices nationally fell 0.2% from December, according to seasonally adjusted data from S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller. The index is now down 3% from its record high, reached in June.

Prices have continued to soften as seller discounts become more common in a market where buyer ...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

A last-minute guide to filing your 2022 return: EV credits, shrinking refunds and the end of pandemic tax relief

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

With weeks to go before the April 18 deadline, the majority of the nation’s 168 million tax filers are once again scrambling to download software, organize receipts and call their accountants for last-minute help.

Procrastinators may find what early filers already know: Tax year 2022 is not producing as many happy returns as in previous years...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Half of US employees earn extra cash on the side, survey finds

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

To meet increasing spending needs, households can generally do two things: cut spending or raise income. A large share of Americans are doing the latter, according to a new survey.

Almost half of employed consumers hold a side job or have some other form of supplemental income such as selling artisan products, data released Monday by ...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

US new-home sales unexpectedly rise, showing some stabilization

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Sales of new U.S. homes unexpectedly rose in February after a downward revision to the prior month, suggesting the housing market is beginning to stabilize after a tumultuous year.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 1.1% to an annualized 640,000 pace after a 633,000 rate in January, government data showed Thursday. The median ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: What can I do after golf ball broke my window?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: I have lived in a condo next to a golf course for 20 years and have never had an issue with a golf ball damaging our building. The golf course was recently sold, and the new owner renovated and moved the tee boxes around. Last week I came home to a broken dining room window caused by an errant golf ball. There have been several other hits to ...Read more

Yasin Akgul/GETTY IMAGES EUROPE/TNS

How many of California's concrete buildings might fall like those in Turkey's deadly earthquake?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The scenes of tilted, crumbled and collapsed concrete buildings after powerful earthquakes jolted Turkey and Syria last month are sobering. In Turkey alone, the shaking wrecked some 185,000 buildings, and the death toll in both countries has topped 48,000 people.

Could the Bay Area’s concrete buildings suffer a similar fate when The Big One ...Read more

Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Bay Area cities struggle to balance housing mandates, wildfire risks

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

ORINDA, California — How can cities balance new state guidelines restricting development in high-risk wildfire zones with parallel — and often conflicting — mandates for aggressive housing construction?

In vulnerable areas like Orinda, where virtually the entire hillside city is subject to high fire risk, many local leaders say they are ...Read more

Daniel Kim/The Seattle Times/TNS

Seattle landlords can ask about criminal records, court rules

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

A key portion of a Seattle law meant to guard against housing discrimination is unconstitutional, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, but it upheld other parts of the law.

The lawsuit took aim at Seattle's "Fair Chance Housing" ordinance, passed in 2017, which barred most landlords from asking prospective tenants about "any ...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Here's how to prepare for a recession, if it actually happens

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

A recession could be on the way. Or it could not.

Economists have been predicting and prognosticating for months, some saying the economy will recede later this year, while others point to 2024. If it does happen, most agree it will be mild, not to the level of job losses from the 2007-09 Great Recession.

Regardless which forecast is right, ...Read more

Monica Herndon/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

A young Black wealth coach's money advice for millennials: Start by giving up the scarcity mind-set

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Time is a crucial ingredient for building wealth. But these economic times for millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, have not been auspicious.

Culprits included the 2018 Great Recession, which took off just as many were graduating from college or in the early days of their careers. Add to that the huge student-loan debt load that so ...Read more

How much a $100,000 salary is actually worth across America

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

For many, reaching a six-figure salary is a watershed moment, yet it’s an illusory milestone: In reality, your take-home pay is much lower after taxes and factoring in the sky-high cost of living in many major cities. That’s especially true with slowing wage gains and nearly two years of persistent inflation.

So where should you live if you...Read more

D.A. Varela/Miami Herald/TNS

They bought their dream homes from the 'King of Coconut Grove.' They still can't move in

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Twelve new townhouses line a block of Coconut Avenue. Lushly landscaped, outfitted with high-end appliances and spacious closets, they’re in move-in condition. Yet the Coconut City Villas are empty, as empty as their backyard swimming pools and unsullied trash bins sitting in unoccupied driveways.

Instead of “For Sale” signs, house ...Read more