Paint Colors That Make a Room Look Bigger

Paint Colors That Make a Room Look Bigger

A room’s size is sometimes a matter of perception, and the paint color on the walls has a lot to with that perception. Some colors can actually make a room appear smaller, while other colors can make the walls expand and feel larger. Realtor.com® recently highlighted some of the paint colors to create the illusion of more space, including:

White: White reflects light, thereby making a space look brighter and feel more open. “White will make any room appear bigger and complement the natural lighting,” Than Merrill, a real estate investor and host of A&E’s “Flip This House” told realtor.com®.

Yellow: A creamy and soft yellow can also reflect light, and can create a softer alternative to white (as long as it’s not too bold of a yellow). Add white accents, such as on the trim, to add further dimension to the room.

Gray: A calming, light shade can help expand a room and, unlike white, doesn’t cast off a glare.

Monochromatic color schemes: Use a monochromatic color scheme for the entire space to open it up (in other words, stick with the white, gray or soft yellow and don’t introduce then a bolder color). “Choose rugs, furniture, and accents in similar shades – like a patterned rug in white and light gray,” realtor.com®’s article suggests. “This creates a minimalist, clean look that makes the entire space feel larger.”

Source: “What Colors Make a Room Look Bigger?” realtor.com® (Sept. 9, 2016)

Mediterranean-Style Homes Losing Appeal?

Mediterranean-Style Homes Losing Appeal?

In the 1990s, Mediterranean-style homes were all the rage. But new surveys suggest the once-popular design may be losing some of its appeal.

Mediterranean-style homes are known for stucco walls, tumbled stone, and wrought-iron accents. Asking prices for this type of home still remain high, but price growth has slowed in recent years, particularly compared to more modern color palettes and minimalist design, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Mediterranean-style homes have a median list price of $750,000—triple the amount of the median list price for homes of all other styles, according to a realtor.com® analysis. But since 2012, asking prices for the style have stayed flat while median home prices have increased 25 percent.

Notably, modern homes have seen the largest jump in median asking prices, surging 37 percent over four years. Realtor.com®’s analysis examined the four most popular architectural styles in the U.S.—Mediterranean, modern, Colonial, and Victorian.

“The relative lack of appreciation of Mediterranean homes likely results from pent-up demand for newer and more versatile styles,” Javier Vivas of realtor.com® told The Wall Street Journal. “These other styles have attracted more eyes and fiercer competition, particularly since the recovery.”

Nevertheless, Jay Kallos, an architect for luxury builder Ashton Woods, adds “good architecture always trumps in any style. A beautiful and well-designed home will always stand the test of time.”

Source: “Mediterranean-Style Homes Lose Their Luster,” The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 8, 2016) [Log-in required.]

Women Better Than Men at Paying Mortgages

Women Better Than Men at Paying Mortgages

Women are less likely than men to miss a mortgage payment, according to a new study from the Urban Institute. Yet, they tend to pay higher interest rates.

A single male borrower had a 6 percent probability of default while a comparable female-only borrower had an expected default rate of 5.8 percent, the study showed.

“This is the first step in saying the barometer is consistently not accurately predicting whether women are able to pay their mortgages,” says Sheryl Pardo, a spokesperson for the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

Even though women show a higher tendency to pay their mortgages on time, they tend to pay higher interest rates. Why? The study posits that women tend to get higher interest rates because they comprise a higher percentage of subprime loan borrowers and their credit profiles don’t tend to be as good as men’s.

But the study’s authors argue that lenders need to reassess predictors in determining how likely a person is to default on the loan.

Women’s predictors are lower, which suggests she’s not going to do as well, but lenders aren’t “predicting accurately,” Pardo told Credit.com. “Women do better than their characteristics say they should do. And, in fact, they perform better than men.”

Women tend to pay higher interest rates than men – 5.48 percent versus 5.41 percent, the study found. Women borrowers tend to have more debt to income, which lowers credit scores, and they tend to have less income than men ($68,000 versus $95,000 for men).

“Given that more than one-third of female-only borrowers are minorities and almost half of them live in low-income communities, we need to develop more robust and accurate measures of risk to ensure that we aren’t denying mortgages to women who are fully able to make good on their payments,” Pardo says.

Source: “Women Are Better Than Men at Paying Their Mortgages,” Credit.com (Sept. 8, 2016)

Optimism Grows Among Sellers, Buyers

Optimism Grows Among Sellers, Buyers

Consumers have a fairly optimistic 12-month outlook on housing at the end of the summer home-buying season, says Doug Duncan, chief economist at mortgage giant Fannie Mae. The optimism is being buoyed by confidence in the job market and more favorable expectations regarding their personal finances compared to a year ago.

Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, overall, showed a slight upward trend during the spring and summer of this year. That falls in line “with our forecast, which calls for 4 percent growth in home sales in 2016 to the best level since 2006 and continued improvement for 2017,” Duncan says.

Fannie’s HPSI dropped 1.5 points in August but is up 4.2 points compared to a year ago. Four of the six HPSI components dropped last month, with the share of consumers who expect home prices to go up in the next 12 months and those who say now is a good time to sell seeing a 6 and 5 percentage point, respectively, decrease in August.

However, more consumers are reporting a positive employment outlook from the previous month, up 4 percentage points month-over-month in August.

For the third consecutive month, the share of Americans who say now is a good time to buy a home rose 1 percentage point to 34 percent in August. The share of Americans who say now is a good time to sell dropped 5 percentage points from an all-time survey high in July to 15 percent.

The share of Americans who say they are not concerned with losing their job increased 4 percentage points to 73 percent.

Source: Fannie Mae

Deep-Cleaning Targets to Help a Home Shine

Deep-Cleaning Targets to Help a Home Shine

Buyers are just more attracted to clean houses. And while a standard job may give a home a momentary shine, a deep clean of hidden spots may help provide the wow factor your listing needs.

The Cleaning Authority offers the following tips on deep cleaning a home:

1. Use a top-to-bottom approach.

Begin at the top: Clear the cobwebs from the corners of the ceiling, dust off light fixtures and ceiling fans, and clean off cabinet tops (including the top of the refrigerator). All of these areas tend to be prime dust collectors. Next, move on to the middle of the home: Wipe down walls, and touch up paint where needed. Remove build-up on light switch panels. Finally, clean the baseboards and floors.

2. Change air conditioner filters.

If the home seems to be perpetually dusty, the A/C filter and ducts may be the culprits. “If the filter needs to be changed or the duct needs repairing, you’re just recirculating the same dust throughout the home,” according to The Cleaning Authority.

3. Zoom in on the bathroom.

Beyond cleaning the typical spots, go further: Clean behind the toilet too. Check for rust where the toilet meets the floor, scrub the hinges on the toilet cap, and polish the shower, tub, and faucet. Also, scrub the bathtub tile. Don’t neglect the rails on a glass shower door.

4. Clean behind the refrigerator.

You may be surprised at what you find behind your fridge, everything from decaying food to even a breeding ground for insects. Pull out the fridge and give it a good scrub underneath.

Source: The Cleaning Authority

Student Housing Gets an Upgrade

Student Housing Gets an Upgrade

Luxury student housing is popping up around colleges and universities across the country. Residential developers are adding fancier amenities to student housing options as enrollments in higher education continue to rise.

About 47,700 new beds are expected to roll out onto the market in privately owned, student housing properties this fall semester, according to Axiometrics, an apartment research firm. Universities in the Southeast are seeing the biggest increases.

These new student housing options are touting higher end amenities, including everything from stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, en suite bathrooms, and in-unit washer and dryer. Some of the new student housing is also promoting its walkability to shops and eating areas, as well as 24/7 on-site emergency service and video surveillance, saunas and fitness areas, tanning beds, outdoor patio with built-in grilling, study lounge with computers, and even on-site convenience stores.

“Privately owned student housing is quickly becoming an integral sector in real estate, and performance metrics demonstrate its strength,” says Jay Denton, senior vice president of analytics at Axiometrics. As enrollments at colleges and universities continue to see growth, Axiometrics researchers are forecasting rent growth to remain strong over the next five years and occupancy to remain above 95 percent.

State universities are seeing some of the highest enrollment growth. Developers are stepping in to meet demand, but they’re embracing a higher end form of student housing than in the past.

“We had to do a lot of convincing that it wasn’t all ‘Animal House’ structures, but actually really stable cash flow properties,” J.J. Smith, COO of CA Student Living told CNBC. “Now that we have educated the institutional world, we’re seeing a lot of capital interested in these properties.”

Developers are moving away from affordable, garden-style apartments far from campus toward more pedestrian-oriented infill walkable high-wise construction around major universities, Smith says. Parents are showing they’re willing to pay 10 to 40 percent more than a university dormitory for more posh digs for their children too.

From the resort-style pools to sauna and fitness centers, “each year there continues to be another new amenity that gets introduced to the sector,” Smith says.

For example, CA Ventures at Colorado State University in Fort Collins reportedly is putting a ski and snowboard simulator into one of its properties. Golf simulators are also available at several of their properties.

Source: “Student Housing Ups the Ante on Amenities,” CNBC (Sept. 1, 2016)