Where Did Americans Move in 2017?

  • Atlas Van Lines recently released the results of their annual Migration Patterns Survey in which they tracked their customer’s movement from state-to-state over the course of 2017.
  • Idaho held on to the top spot of ‘high inbound’ states for the 2nd year in a row followed by Washington.
  • The ‘outbound’ states seem to draw a line straight across the country from Connecticut to Wyoming.

2017 Housing Market in Review

A video infographic with statistical information from the 2017 housing market.

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4 Reasons to Sell This Winter

  • Buyer demand continues to outpace the supply of homes for sale which means that buyers are often competing with one another for the few listings that are available.
  • Housing inventory is still under the 6-month supply needed to sustain a normal housing market.
  • Perhaps the time has come for you and your family to move on and start living the life you desire.

The Home Buying Process

WHAT AFFECTS PROPERTY VALUES?

Some the features that increase property values are obvious-like a remodeled bathroom, a modern kitchen, or a sought-after neighborhood. But here are a few features and circumstances you have not have realized can affect property values.

  1. The neighbors: Not every neighborhood or community has an HOA that can keep the neighbors from going overboard with decorations or neglecting to care for their home. Homes adjacent to crazy neighbors can potentially be undervalued.
  2. Trendy groceries and coffee: Recent statistics suggest that if your home is a short walk from popular grocery stores like Whole Foods or coffee chains like Starbucks, it can actually appreciate faster than the national average.
  3. Mature trees: A big beautiful tree in the front yard is enviable, and it’s not something that can be easily added to any home. Homes with mature trees tend to get a little boost in value.
  4. Parking: This isn’t too much of an issue if you live in the suburbs or in a rural area, but residents in dense cities can have real problems with parking, and homeowners might need to rent a spot just to guarantee a place to park each night. That’s why having guaranteed parking in urban areas will raise property values.
  5. The front entrance: First impressions matter to buyers-many will cross a home off their list within 10 seconds of stepping through the front door. An appealing front door, a friendly entryway, and a functioning doorbell are all necessities for getting top dollar.

10 Tips to Prevent Damage During a Move

Find out how to protect your floors, furniture, fragile objects and more

From nicks in that fresh paint job to broken chair legs and sofas stuck in stairwells, there are lots of things that can go awry during a move. Thankfully, with some thoughtful preventive measures (and lots of padding), it is possible to get from old house to new with all your belongings in one piece — and hopefully with no dings in those freshly painted walls either.

4 Reasons to Sell This Fall

Should I Buy A Home Now? Or Wait Until Next Year?

The high cost of free parking

The cities we live in are shaped by the way we get around them. Over the past 60 years, with more and more people opting to drive cars, the need for parking spaces has increased with the boom in driving.
To accommodate that demand early on, cities and towns started requiring developers to include parking with their new buildings after World War II. These policies, known as mandatory parking minimums, set precise standards for parking spaces for each building. And these parking spaces don’t come cheap.

To learn much more on free parking’s affect on cities, Donald Shoup’s book is here: https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free…

And Mobility Lab, who helped make this video, covers many more issues around infrastructure is here: https://mobilitylab.org/

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