Just how widely can the cost of living vary from state to state? Financial website GoBankingRates.com culled 2016 data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, examining six categories of living expenses: housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous items. The site used the data to calculate each state's overall cost of living index.Hawaii is the priciest state to live in, where cost-of-living e
Twenty-six percent of millennial college students say they plan to move back home as soon as they earn their degree in order to pay off some of their student loans, according to TD Ameritrade's Young Money Survey of about 2,000 young adults.Thirty-two percent of millennials between the ages of 20 and 26 say they owe between $10,000 and $50,000 in student loans. The average student loan balance was $10,205.That is prompting more graduates to move
Home sales reached their highest pace in a decade in the first quarter of 2017 as property prices continue to escalate, according to the National Association of REALTORS®' latest quarterly report.The median price of an existing single-family home nationally was $232,100 in the first quarter, up 6.9 percent from the same time period a year ago. Home prices rose year over year in 85 percent of the 178 metro areas analyzed.The continued inventory s
Buyers continue to flood the market as some areas experience 'unhealthy appreciation'Key Takeaways In Q1, the national median single-family home price was $232,100, a 6.9 percent quarter-over-quarter and 5.9 percent year-over-year increase.The National Association of Realtors (NAR) released its latest Metropolitan Median Area Prices and Affordability report, which boasted the best quarterly sales pace in nearly a decade.The median existing singl
Get ready to see more first-time home buyer clients. In the first quarter of 2017, the number of new-owner households was double the number of new-renter households.About 854,000 new-owner households were formed during the first three months of this year, more than double the 365,000 new-renter households in that period, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. What’s more, it’s the first time in a decade that new buyers outpaced new renters.Fir
The nation has 1.9 million new graduates, and many may be looking for that perfect place to relocate to. Realtor.com®’s research team sought to find the best metros for new college grads by analyzing 200 of the largest metros to see which ones offered the most in-demand job opportunities, affordable housing, and largest single and millennial populations, among other factors.About half of those who recently graduated hold jobs that aren’t rel
Homeowners say their top motivation for remodeling is simply because they “desire better/newer amenities,” according to the National Association of Home Builders’ Remodeling Market Index for the first quarter of 2017.The desire for better amenities narrowly beat out the “need to repair/replace old components” once again in this year’s survey.View the chart to see the chief reasons why homeowners say they remodel.Source: “Desire for
The Austin, Texas, metro area will boast the largest “net zero” master-planned community in the nation. At Whisper Valley, about 7,500 eco-friendly single-family homes, townhomes, and rental apartments are to be built completely energy-self-sufficient. That means the homes will send as much power back to the grid as residents use.The $2 billion community will open in the next month. It sprawls more than 2,000 acres about eight miles east of A
Home prices are beginning to moderate, and national wages recently increased, helping to offset rising mortgage rates and buoy housing affordability in the first quarter of 2017, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.Sixty percent of new and existing homes sold between the beginning of January and the end of March were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $68,000, accordin
REALTORS® saw their median gross income increase 8 percent in 2016 year-over-year, as the average member also reported closing their highest number of transactions in recent years, according to the National Association of REALTORS® 2017 Member Profile, based on a survey of more than 165,000 members.REALTORS® saw transactions grow to 12 per agent, the highest since 2014. Median incomes rose from $39,200 in 2015 to $42,500 in 2016. The median gr
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