home values

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10 Best Cities for Growth of Home Values

Austin tops the list

(Newser) - Anyone who's owned a home over the past two decades has likely seen a handsome uptick in value. According to an analysis by smartasset , home prices grew by 154% between 1998 and 2022. Of course, some locales have fared better than others, and CNBC breaks out the top metro...

'Horrific' Error Values Property at Nearly $1B

And taxpayers might have to pay for it

(Newser) - Utah officials say a possible dropped phone resulted in a typo that overvalued a home for almost $1 billion, the AP reports. And taxpayers may have to pay for the mistake. The Deseret News reports a house built in 1978 in an unincorporated area of the county was recorded in...

With Trump Poised to Sign Tax Bill, Pity Long Islanders

Nearly half of homeowners there would be hit by property tax cap

(Newser) - "Today we are giving the people of this country their money back," proclaimed Paul Ryan Tuesday as the House passed a sweeping rewrite of the tax code (it has to vote again Wednesday because of this glitch ). That's likely not the case for current and future...

Hundreds of Connecticut Homes May Be 'Worthless'

Foundations are crumbling in the state

(Newser) - Around 1995, Linda and Robert Tofolowsky noticed the walls of the basement in their Connecticut home cracking. Their foundation had developed severe fissures, and they soon discovered other homes in the area with the same issue. Their insurance claim was denied, they got no help from the town or the...

What a Starbucks Does to the Neighborhood

Zillow's bigwigs crunch the data

(Newser) - It seems like an expected enough conclusion: A Starbucks is good for the neighborhood. But just how good? Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff and Chief Economist Stan Humphries dig into the question by syncing their own real-estate data with known Starbucks locations. What they conclude: "Starbucks equates with venti-sized home-value...

Walter White Cost His Neighbors Almost $30K

Study shows meth labs a huge drain on local property values

(Newser) - Don't worry, no spoilers ahead (though Business Insider tells this story through slightly spoiler-colored glasses, if you're up to speed on the show). Breaking Bad's Walter White may have stashed a lot of meth-cash in his home over the seasons, but he's not exactly bringing money...

Home Prices Up .7%, 1st Rise in 8 Months

Washington DC, San Fran, Atlanta see biggest gains

(Newser) - Home prices in major US cities have risen for the first time in eight months, boosted by an annual flurry of spring buyers. Prices rose in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index, according to the April report released today. Washington, DC, saw...

Housing Market Headed for Double Dip

Declines could hurt broader recovery

(Newser) - The housing market is cratering again, dousing the optimism that pervaded earlier this year. Prices fell for the third straight month in October, according to the S&P/Case Shiller index released yesterday, and economists expect them to keep dropping through early spring, wiping out any progress made since the market’...

Your House Isn't Going to Appreciate Like Mad

Those days are done, say economists

(Newser) - In the good old days, a house was generally synonymous with "cash cow," a rapidly appreciating investment that all but guaranteed a comfortable retirement and paid for college tuition and vacations along the way. Those days of quick appreciation are gone, say economists, and have been replaced by...

Plunging Property Taxes Bleed Government Coffers

(Newser) - From New York and Los Angeles to devastated Rust Belt towns, falling home prices are leaving local governments in a pinch, the New York Times reports. Desperate for extra cash, homeowners are petitioning assessors in droves to lower their property taxes and match property values. “It’s worthy of...

US Household Wealth Falls Record $5.1T

Combined five-quarter drop is nearly as big as US GDP for 2008

(Newser) - The wealth of US households fell at a record pace in the last quarter of 2008, as drops in home values and stock prices accelerated, Bloomberg reports. Net worth for households and non-profits fell $5.1 trillion to $51.5 trillion, nearly twice the decline between the second and third...

How One Woman's Home, and Dream, Foreclosed

One woman's story helps us understand today's financial mess

(Newser) - When a California woman bought a home 3 years ago, she had little idea that her mortgage would help drag down the nation's economy—and the world's, the Sacramento Bee reports. Erin O'Hagan and two family members pooled incomes to buy a $475,000 Sacramento home, and planned to refinance...

American Consumers Stop Spending: 'They All Feel Poor'

Unending bad news has sent consumer confidence reeling

(Newser) - Consumers, hit by a tsunami of economic bad news, have dramatically cut back spending in recent weeks, on everything from clothes to cars to airline travel to dining out, reports the New York Times. The slowdown all but guarantees a drop in consumer spending for the third quarter, the first...

Home Prices Fall Again; Rate of Decline Sets Record

Consumer confidence numbers offer ray of hope

(Newser) - Home prices continued to nosedive in May, a signal that the housing crisis may be worsening and a red flag for the credit markets and Wall Street, reports the New York Times. Every region covered by the S&P/Case-Schiller home-price index showed a drop compared to May 2007, with the...

US Lost 62K Jobs in June
 US Lost 62K Jobs in June 

US Lost 62K Jobs in June

US payrolls suffer sixth straight monthly decline

(Newser) - US employers, battered by rising fuel prices and a stuttering economy, continued to cut payrolls in June, eliminating some 62,000 jobs. It was the sixth straight monthly drop, reports the Wall Street Journal, and nearly 13% more than economists expected. Payrolls have fallen 438,000 so far this year,...

Existing Home Contracts Down in February
Existing Home Contracts Down in February
Economy

Existing Home Contracts Down in February

Still no sign of bottom in housing values

(Newser) - Contracts to buy previously owned homes declined 1.9% in February, according to the National Association of Realtors’ index, which fell to its lowest levels since its creation in 2001. The drop was nearly double the 1% decline analysts predicted, reports Bloomberg, and sent stocks tumbling further.

Bernanke's Home Is Case in Slump's Point

Fed chief's DC digs worth about the same as in 2004

(Newser) - Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke’s own home illustrates the very crisis his organization must fight—in the midst of a national housing slump, it’s worth roughly the same as when he bought it in 2004, Bloomberg reports. Values peaked just after that; the fact that his Capitol Hill...

During Bust, Green Groups Make Land Grab

Conservationists snatch idle land from developers' hands

(Newser) - As the subprime debacle rips through real estate, leveling home values and clogging the market with unsold property, an unlikely group of vultures is descending, reports Newsweek. Conservation groups and local governments alike, which sat on the bench during the last boom, are snapping up land from would-be developers to...

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