In reviewing 35 years of survey data on home buyers and sellers, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) announced five notable real estate trends. The organization’s survey, called Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, dates back to 1981 and is the longest-running series of national housing data evaluating the demographics, preferences, motivations, plans and experiences of home buyers and sellers. Here are the key takeaways over the past 3 ½ decades:

Residential properties encumbered with a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) obligation are now eligible for FHA-insured mortgage financing. The change applies both to new purchases and refinancing, under a guidance issued in September by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). PACE is a popular program that provides an alternative way to finance energy improvements to properties, such as energy efficiency, water conservation and renewable energy upgrades. The

A recent case highlights the importance of disclosing any environmental contamination and clean-up that took place on your property when you sell it, even if you sell it “as is.” A New Jersey appeals court decided that a seller’s failure to disclose such information could expose him to liability for fraud many years after the sale. In the case, the seller had owned the property since 1983 and defaulted on the mortgage in 1987. The seller’s

Renting out your house when you’re out of town or offering up an extra room while your son or daughter is away at college sounds like a great way to make some extra cash. And services like Airbnb have made the process rather simple. But it might not be quite so simple when you go to refinance your home. Recently, some big banks are raising an eyebrow because making money off your home can be construed

The explosion of online shopping has created a big headache for landlords and condo associations – what should be done about the deluge of packages being delivered to residents? Staff at large apartment buildings often strain under the effort to accept, sort and deliver hundreds of packages. Smaller landlords and condo associations are striving to figure out the best policy: Should packages be left outside, where they are vulnerable to weather and theft? Is there a

Anyone who owns real estate needs to have a will that indicates what should happen to the property if he or she suddenly passes away. You might assume you know who would inherit the house, but without a written will, the inheritance would be decided by state-law rules that might not be exactly what you’d expect. Even if the house ultimately goes to the person you want, the lack of a will might mean that ownership

A buyer who discovered that her new house was contaminated with mold can sue the seller, even though the house was purchased “as is” and the seller specifically said there might be mold in it, according to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Catherine Fricano bought the house from a bank that had acquired it in a foreclosure. The house had sustained serious water damage, and before selling it, the bank twice paid for mold remediation and

You probably know that if you make a profit when you sell your house, you can usually avoid paying capital gains tax. In most cases, you can avoid the tax on profits of up to $250,000 (or $500,000 for a married couple). But did you know that if you sell your house in one transaction and a vacant parcel of land next to your house in a separate transaction, you can also get a tax break?

Many commercial insurance policies contain what’s called a “protective safeguards endorsement.” This gives the property owner a break on its insurance premiums if the owner protects the property through a fire alarm, automatic sprinkler system, fire safety service contract, or other method of preventing harm. Sounds like a good idea, right? It can be … but the trick is that these endorsements typically say that the owner must maintain the system in good working order at