Score! 7 Miami Open Houses Worth Hitting on Super Bowl Weekend

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With Super Bowl LIV kicking off this Sunday, football fans are gearing up for the big game—particularly in the host city of Miami, where the event will unfold at Hard Rock Stadium.

According to the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, about 150,000 out-of-state visitors are expected to flood the city this weekend. And while many may focus solely on downing beer and mountains of chicken wings while rooting for their favorite team (San Francisco 49ers or Kansas City Chiefs, take your pick), it turns out that a number of these revelers might also partake in a more surprising pregame activity: hopping through open houses in the most luxurious mansions that Miami has to offer.

“There’s a lot of wealth in Miami right now—Super Bowl tickets aren’t cheap—so I think it’s definitely a good time to have an open house and plant the seed of, ‘Oh, look at our amazing 80-degree weather,'” says local Douglas Elliman real estate agent Dina Goldentayer, who is hosting three luxury open houses this weekend. “I think the open house traffic this weekend will be similar to Art Basel, which is typically known as this area’s busiest week of the year for luxury lifestyle real estate purchases.”

“Miami is in the spotlight this weekend, and no doubt those visiting the city for the big game will want to know what they can get for their money,” says Florida real estate agent Cara Ameer. “Miami is really like the Los Angeles of Florida, with amazing homes, world-class restaurants, shopping, and culture. It is really becoming a hub for fashion, arts, and entertainment as so many parts of the city have been revitalized.”

Moving to Miami also makes sense for people who want to save on taxes.

“Florida has been a hot spot as a result of tax reform, which has driven a lot of people from high-tax and cold-weather states to the Sunshine State,” adds Ameer.

And these Miami open houses mostly happen on Friday, Saturday, or (at the latest) Sunday morning, so a little luxury real estate shopping needn’t interfere with your enjoyment of the big game. So if you’re in town for the climactic highlight of the NFL season, consider hopping in your car to go check out some of Miami’s most jaw-dropping open houses below.

1. 19 Palm Avenue, Miami Beach, FL

19 Palm Ave., Miami Beach, FL

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Price to score: $23,500,000
Open house hours: Saturday, noon–3 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: This 9,556-square-foot, six-bedroom home is destined to be party central with its open-air atrium, reflection ponds, and rooftop lounge so you can take in the starry sky above.

2. 6585 Allison Road, Miami Beach, FL

6585 Allison Rd., Miami Beach, FL

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Price to score: $18,900,000
Open house hours: Saturday, noon–2 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: With over 10, 000 square feet of living space, including six bedrooms, a bar, theater, and elevator in case you’re feeling lazy, this house is one of just 49 waterfront homes on a gated island. So, you’ll have plenty of privacy.

3. 4720 SW 76th Terrace, Miami, FL

4720 SW 76th Terrace, Miami, FL

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Price to score: $3,400,000
Open house hours: Saturday, 3–5 p.m. 

Why it’s a winner: Not into the beach? Then head down a quiet tree-lined street to this quaint 4,507-square-foot, four-bedroom beauty, which comes with custom millwork, coffered ceilings, and exotic hardwood and marble floors.

4. 7350 SW 47th Court, Miami, FL

7350 SW 47th Court, Miami, FL

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Price to score: $5,685,000
Open house hours: Saturday, 3–5 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: With 9,452 square feet of living space, including seven bedrooms, and sitting on a verdant acre of land, this estate features gorgeous balconies stretching across the upper levels as well as an outdoor cabana, kitchen, and oversize lap pool.

5. 3523 N Bay Homes Drive, Coconut Grove, FL

3523 N Bay Homes Drive, Coconut Grove, FL

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Price to score: $4,675,000
Open house hours: Saturday, 2–4 p.m.; Sunday, noon–2 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: This award-winning home built by architect James Lloyd offers 3,498 square feet of living space and four bedrooms. It is perched along Biscayne Bay with its own boat dock.

6. 4701 SW 74th St, Miami, FL

4701 SW 74th St, Miami, FL

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Price to score: $4,250,000
Open house hours: Saturday, 2–4 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: Nestled among majestic oaks in Ponce Davis, this modern new construction measures 5,495 square feet. It offers six bedrooms, and designer finishes include a Scavolini kitchen and Sub-Zero/Wolf appliances.

7. 6056 Alton Rd, Miami Beach, FL

6056 Alton Rd, Miami Beach, FL

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Price to score: $1,975,000
Open house hours: Saturday, 1–3 p.m.

Why it’s a winner: This 3,394-square-foot, four-bedroom 1928 Mediterranean Revival comes with two guest villas and one coach house, all with a bed and bath in each. So, there’s room for all your friends to stay.

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Forget Everything You Know About Renters: This Is Who’s Renting Today

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It’s time to put aside all of your assumptions about renters! The fastest-growing group of tenants today isn’t the stereotypical broke 20-somethings scrounging for change between the couch cushions.

Instead, renters are becoming wealthier, both younger and older—and more likely to have children than in previous years, according to a recent report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“We’ve seen this enormous growth in high-income households [who are renters],” says Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, a research associate at the center and the lead author of the biennial report. A high-income household is defined as bringing in at least $75,000 a year. “[They] have college educations.”

These more well-off tenants accounted for more than three-quarters of the growth in the renter population from 2010 to 2018, according to the report. There were 43,725 renter households in 2018. And despite the assumption that folks buy homes to raise children in, there were actually more rental households with children than homeowners with kids—at 29% and 26%, respectively.

According to Airgood-Obrycki, she’s seeing more baby boomers and soon-to-be retirees become renters. That pushed up the median age of renters to 42, still 15 years younger than the typical homeowner.

“A lot of them are roommate households that combined have high incomes together. We’re also seeing adult children who are still living with their families,” she adds.

Those leasing the roofs over their heads, increasingly need to have more money to do so. That’s because most of the new rentals coming online tend to be pricier, luxury units. They’re often designed to appeal to young professionals and older tenants who are downsizing or retiring who can afford them.

And leases in nice buildings present an attractive alternative for white-collar professionals struggling with student debt or those living in ultrapricey cities having trouble coming up with a down payment.

As for the rental properties themselves, “the vast majority of new units are larger, and they tend to be in the central core of large cities where land and construction is more expensive,” says Airgood-Obrycki. “These new units are being built with more amenities.”

But the problem is these higher-earning renters are inadvertently pushing up rents for those who can least afford them. Landlords are incentivized to raise rents, because they know they can get them, and renovate older properties so they can charge more.

Factor in a severe and growing affordable housing shortage and nearly half, 47.5%, of renter households were cost-burdened in 2018. That means these less-affluent tenants are spending more than 30% of their incomes on housing. About a quarter, or 10.9 million, spent more than half their incomes on rent.

And despite the strong economy and low unemployment rate, the number of cost-burdened folks grew by 261,000 households from 2017, to reach 20.8 million in 2018.

“There’s an ongoing affordability crisis that’s worsening again,” says Airgood-Obrycki. “If [rents] just keep going up and up and up and incomes aren’t quite rising at that same pace for most households, then you get this gap.”

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The Force Awakens! Mansion With ‘Star Wars’ Basement Is the Week’s Most Popular Home

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There’s no need to travel to a galaxy far, far away for a private and luxurious “Star Wars” experience. An out-of-this-world Hidden Hills, CA, mansion landed on the market this week and went viral at hyperdrive speed. The residence, loaded with a collection of Star Wars memorabilia, was this week’s most popular home on realtor.com®.

Even without the stunning below-ground “Star Wars” stash, the house is a showstopper. The $26.5 million estate also has an on-site observatory for space exploration, a fitness studio, and a wine room—which obviously has to play the “Cantina Band Song” on repeat.

But it’s the basement entertainment complex fit for a Jedi Council meeting, with an 18-seat theater, bar, and custom-made props, that makes the home supremely clickable.

Setting the Skywalker saga aside, you also clicked on a number of historic homes this week. A couple are even on the National Register of Historic Places, like the Governor James Whitfield house in Mississippi and the Porter-Thomsen home in Nebraska.

You were also interested in the Samuel Merrick House in Pennsylvania, which hosted the final meeting between George Washington and his commanders before they crossed the Delaware.

Scroll down for all of this week’s most popular homes. And may the force be with you, always.

10. 1187 Eagle Rd, Newtown, PA

Price: $1,125,000

Why it’s here: This historic Bucks Country farmhouse served as the meeting location for George Washington and his officers before they crossed the Delaware River. Really! Built in 1773 and known as the Samuel Merrick House, the three-bedroom home has nearly 5,000 square feet of living space, including a modern addition. The lot of more than 6 acres allows for plenty of room to stretch out and ponder the home’s remarkable history.

Newtown, PA

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9. 736 E. Victory Dr, Savannah, GA

Price: $749,900

Why it’s here: The Levy House is where traditional, formal living meets slow Southern charm. It was built in 1924 and renovated in 2017, and the interiors feature plenty of designer details. There’s a lion’s head window, custom-made by a local artist, and a morning room surrounded by 14 French doors that open to the courtyard and pool. The four-bedroom brick home sits in the city center and also includes a detached carriage house with private courtyard.

Savannah, GA

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8. 1279 Fox Ave SE, Paris, OH

Price: $369,000

Why it’s here: Stone Creek Stables is a 22-acre farm with a home built in 1900. It’s move-in ready—outfitted with barns, stables, and everything else an aspiring farmer would need. The listing says the property is filled with wildlife, springs, and a creek. The three-bedroom home is modern, with such trendy touches as wood floors, sliding barn doors, and an updated kitchen and bathrooms.

Paris, OH

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7. 749 W. Onondaga St, Syracuse, NY

Price: $119,000

Why it’s here: Close to downtown, this brightly painted historic home could be used as a private residence, bed and breakfast, or even as commercial property. Known as the Archimedes Russell house, the six-bedroom was built in 1885 and is lavishly decorated with fabric, gilded woodwork, and daring paint colors throughout. Highlights include the double staircase, chandeliers, and other antique touches.

Syracuse, NY

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6. 906 Third Ave N., Columbus, MS 

Price: $950,000

Why it’s here: This National Landmark home was built in 1854 by Governor James Whitfield. The Antebellum treasure has been lovingly maintained over the decades and has had multiple updates across its over 7,100 square feet. There are custom silk wall coverings, original chandeliers, and an ornate library with custom molding and inlay.

Columbus, MS

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5. 357 Cherryhill St., Valparaiso, IN

Price: $390,000

Why it’s here: Tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac and surrounded by Woodland Savanna Land Conservancy, this two-story family home is perfectly suited to modern living. The five-bedroom residence boasts a large kitchen with two pantries and hand-poured concrete countertops. Modern farmhouse details, like sliding barn doors, give the space versatility, and the finished lower level, with a rec room, is a perfect retreat for kids.

Valparaiso, IN

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4. 483 Fingerboard Schoolhouse Rd, Earleville, MD

Price: $425,000

Why it’s here: Built in 2006, this log-built house sits on nearly 4.5 acres, across from a wildlife management area. The cozy three-bedroom home has upgrades like a wood-burning stone fireplace, mudroom, sunroom, and loft. The wooded lot also includes a barn with electricity and plenty of extra storage.

Earleville, MD

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3. 4770 Mayo Woodlands Rd SW, Rochester, MN

Price: $1,700,000

Why it’s here: Dubbed the Mayo Woodland residence, this modern home was designed by award-winning architects, according to the listing. Interiors of the more than 6,000-square-foot house are light and airy. Natural light pours into nearly every room, thanks to large windows, which frame views of the large wooded lot dotted with prairie flowers and a private pond.

Rochester, MN

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2. 3426 Lincoln Blvd, Omaha, NE

Price: $425,000

Why it’s here: Known as the Porter-Thomsen home, this piece of Omaha history was built in 1904. The four-bedroom home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and offers notable features like a wraparound porch, formal entry, ornate woodwork, murals, columns, and pocket doors. All the standout features have been lovingly maintained for more than a century.

Omaha, NE

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1. 5824 Jed Smith Rd, Hidden Hills, CA

Price: $26,500,000

Why it’s here: Tucked away in the basement of this Hidden Hills mansion is a mind-blowing Jedi lair packed with one-of-a-kind “Star Wars” memorabilia. In addition to the 5,000-square-foot “Star Wars”-themed retreat, the six-bedroom modern Craftsman home is elegant and spacious. The lush 3-acre property also has a pool, tennis court, fire pit, and on-site observatory.

Hidden Hills, CA

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$59M Penthouse at Hudson Yards Tower Is the Week’s Most Expensive Listing

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A luxurious penthouse in the tallest residential building in New York City’s Hudson Yards has landed on the market for $59 million. It also earns the title of this week’s most expensive new listing on realtor.com®.

Hudson Yards is the massive redevelopment project along the Hudson River and West Side Highway. It’s a mixed-use district of housing, office space, retail shops, and parks. It features a spiral staircase called the Vessel, an interactive artwork by designer Thomas Heatherwick.

The limestone and glass tower was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with interiors designed by Tony Ingrao. The residences, which begin on the 53rd floor, sit atop an Equinox hotel and gym, indoor and outdoor pools, a Soul Cycle studio, and restaurants. The hotel is currently open, and residential occupancy is scheduled to begin this summer.

Residents of the 143-unit building will receive their own private amenities, including a fitness center, meditation room, children’s playroom, screening room, golf simulator, and a private terrace.

As for this full-floor condo on the 90th floor, it’s still under construction. When it’s finished, the five-bedroom, 6.5-bathroom unit will include Hudson River and city views, and 10,171 square feet of living space. The images of the unit seen below are renderings.

Terrace and living room

Courtesy of Related-Oxford

Tallest residential tower in Hudson Yards

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Lobby with tapestry by Swedish artist Helena Hernmarck

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The layout will feature a private elevator that opens to an entry foyer, which leads to a corner great room with a 14-foot ceiling and French oak floors. 

Adjacent to the dining room is a 454-square-foot terrace. The eat-in kitchen is equipped with Gaggenau appliances and features a marble island, counters, and backsplash. 

The corner master suite has a dressing room and wet bar, as well as dual master baths.

In addition, there’s a fitness room, media room, and in-unit laundry (true heaven for many New Yorkers). The new neighborhood features access to the High Line.

Stephen Ross, the CEO of Related, the building’s developer, purchased a top-floor penthouse last fall for his personal use. In doing so, Ross left a vacancy at the Time Warner Center. He put up that Central Park condo for sale for $75 million, which made our most expensive home list last year.

35 Hudson Yards is represented by Corcoran Sunshine—New Development.

The Vessel

Lawrence Schadt

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Home Searchers: Who Is Coming and Going – And Who Is Staying Put?

• Almost half of Zillow page views originate from outside the metro area of the listing being viewed.
• In big cities, the share tends to be much smaller; in Chicago only 16% of page views come from outside the area.
• In many cities, the most-expensive neighborhoods close to downtown are most popular with outsiders.

The tens of millions of homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters and plain dreamers that visit home listings on Zillow each month offer a unique window into the aspirations and interests of the nation's home shoppers. Whether our users are in the thick of the hunt for a new home, or just looking before they leap at an opportunity to relocate, their traffic on our site provides a small signal into which directions moving truck traffic might be headed in the near future.

Using the rough locations of users' internet service provider and the ZIP codes of listings they're viewing, we can define two ways of looking at how attractive a given locale is:

• Outside appeal: The share of page views on listings in a given metro that originate from users located outside that metro area
• Stickiness: Among page views originating from users inside that metro area, this is the share that are browsing Zillow listings also inside that metro area.

Big Cities Get the Least Interest from Outsiders

In general, bigger cities see a smaller share of page views of their listings coming from outsiders. Chicago, America's "Second City" but third-largest metro area, landed in last place on this measure, with just 16% of page views coming from within the metro area. New York City, the nation's most populous MSA, isn't far behind: 17% of NYC home listings' page views originate from outsiders potentially looking to move in. In third, somewhat surprisingly, was the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, where 24% of listings traffic originates from afar – much less than the market's relatively modest size would suggest.

At the other extreme, six of the 50 biggest metropolitan areas get a majority of their page views from non-residents: Las Vegas (60.7% of listing views come from outside the area), Jacksonville (56.2%), San Antonio (55.2%), Riverside-San Bernardino (54.7%), Raleigh (54.1%) and New Orleans (52.5%). This robust outside interest in these relatively affordable sunbelt cities reflects a national trend of migration out of some of the more-expensive and/or chillier parts of the country. Riverside is a special case, where page views from the massive adjacent Los Angeles MSA help to flood their home listings with "out of town" viewers, including some who might even live in Riverside but browse Zillow at their L.A. workplace.

America's "Stickiest" Cities Are All Over the Map

Another way of considering a city's appeal is to consider what share of its residents' search traffic is oriented closer to home, a metric we call "stickiness." St. Louis tops the charts by this measure, with 74% of web traffic originating nearby staying focused on home listings nearby. Other sticky cities include Detroit (69.1% of page views are from users within the MSA), Jacksonville (67.3%), Phoenix (66.7%) and Cleveland (66.4%). Unlike with the outside appeal metric, which shrinks inversely with population, the stickiness metric has no significant relationship to city size.

The least sticky market among the 50 largest is Nashville, where just 30% of local web traffic is directed at home listings nearby. Other less-sticky places include Salt Lake City (31.1%), San Jose (35.3%), Orlando (37.2%) and Charlotte (39%).

Putting it all together, those cities that rank highest for both stickiness and outside appeal include Jacksonville, St. Louis, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Richmond, Va.

A Closer Look at Outside Appeal

Looking within each metropolitan area reveals interesting stories about the parts of town that draw the most interest from newcomers or outsiders. Across all areas analyzed, a few common threads emerge: First, that the downtown of the central city is perennially appealing for outsiders to peruse. This could reflect interest in living close to jobs when first moving to a city, or it might just be the part of town that visitors most often encounter while traveling, so it's the part they look up first. In Seattle, for example, Zillow home listings in ZIP code 98104 – which encompasses much of the city's downtown business district and historic Pioneer Square – attract almost half their web traffic from out of town.

Also popular among out-of-town viewers are neighborhoods close to downtown and/or famous neighborhoods that may attract a lot more "window shopping" on Zillow rather than serious house hunters. For example, listings in the 90210 ZIP code and the neighboring 90077 in L.A.'s Westside collect a staggering 70% of their traffic from outside the Los Angeles area. These ZIP codes are probably better known as Beverly Hills and Bel Air.

Finally, ZIP codes literally outside the central MSA are also popular with outsiders: Those areas at the outer fringes of every metropolitan area often attract outsized outside interest, for the natural reason that they are quite nearly outside the bounds of the MSA itself. The geographic boundaries of commuting areas, home shopping areas and even MSAs and ZIP codes themselves do not line up neatly, so the definitions of "local" and "outsider" naturally get much fuzzier at the edges of metro areas.

Use the dropdown menu to see the patterns across your own metropolitan area below:

Where Exactly Are People Coming From?

Every city's listings data tells a different story of who is interested in moving in, or where residents are looking at moving to. Again using Seattle as an example, it appears there is some truth to Seattle locals' gripes about an influx of California transplants: The top outside origins for people looking at Seattle listings are L.A. and San Francisco, followed by nearby Portland, Ore. But other origins might be more surprising, including a steady flow from New York, Seattle's fourth-biggest originator, and enough people thinking of trading in sunny Phoenix for greener Pacific Northwest pastures to help put it fifth on the list of top 5 origination cities.

But before worrying about all that competition from the Golden State or elsewhere, Seattleites should maybe consider that there were about 34 times as many page views from within the Seattle metro area as there were from Los Angeles.

See your own city's top outside origins below:

Methodology

All page view events on Zillow listings (both for-sale and for-rent, and via both the Zillow desktop and mobile offerings) were tallied from three months across 2019, and aggregated by the ZIP code of the home listing and the city identified in web traffic analytics as the location of the user. Both locations of users and listings were then aggregated to the MSA level based on whether their centroid was located inside standard shapefiles for the MSA. In cases where users' locations did not fall inside an MSA boundary, they were assigned to the nearest one within 50 miles; if there was none within 50 miles, they were counted as non-metropolitan users.

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Mortgage Rates Hold Steady Near 3-Month Lows

Mortgage rates continued to hold in the narrow range where they've existed for all of 2020 thus far, near their lowest levels in three months. Steady retail sales and encouraging home construction data gave rates a nudge late last week, but news of a coronavirus outbreak prompted investors to seek out safer assets, erasing those gains.

Perhaps surprisingly, major geopolitical developments over the past month – stories that dictated most of mortgage rates' movements through 2019 – have failed to let rates loose in any meaningful way. Inflation is running below target and the Federal Reserve appears unlikely to raise the federal funds rate in the near future, so upward pressure on mortgage rates is limited for the time being.

With a shortage of market-moving data on tap, and barring a monumental development on the trade front, this minimal upward pressure on rates is unlikely to strengthen in the coming days.

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Could HUD Chief Ben Carson’s Bus Tour Help Solve the Affordable Housing Crisis?

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Housing chief Ben Carson says he is committed to tackling the affordable housing crisis that’s reached a fever pitch in many parts of the country. His first step? A nationwide bus tour.

The secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development kicks off his tour on Wednesday in Louisville, KY. The purported aim of Carson’s Driving Affordable Housing Across America journey is to talk to local officials, builders, and just about everyone else about ways to loosen state and city regulations that make it harder, costlier, and longer to construct housing.

Reducing “overly burdensome” regulatory barriers to putting up housing is a priority of Carson’s boss, President Donald Trump, and Carson heads up a White House council dedicated to the task.

“It’s important that we get out into local communities and hear directly from our fellow citizens who are grappling with rising housing prices and learn more about best practices to address them,” Carson said in a statement. “Families, businesses and all levels of government have concerns about the rising cost of housing, and this is an opportunity to bring those parties to the table for a discussion about how we can work together to fix the problem.”

HUD has not released the number or location of the stops on the controversial tour. It will run through June.

But in an election year where nearly all of the major Democratic presidential candidates have released comprehensive affordable housing plans, many critics believe the multistop bus trip is little more than a publicity stunt. And they say that although reducing regulatory barriers will help to alleviate the dearth of affordable housing, it’s just one of many steps needed to turn the crisis around.

The bus tour is “really unnecessary,” says Edward Goetz, an urban policy professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “HUD has been collecting this information for a long time, and they don’t need a bus tour to do it.”

Others applauded Carson’s willingness to talk to local leaders grappling with this crisis in a bid to find solutions.

“He’s getting out of [Washington,] DC, and actually going to look at communities and examples where maybe they’ve successfully tackled affordability,” says K.C. Conway, director of research at the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. “It might give him some good takeaways.”

Conway also praised Carson’s desire to use the carrot—instead of the stick—to get state and local officials to loosen regulations to create more housing.

“A lot of [the regulations] emanate from this ‘not in my backyard’ [ethos],” says Conway. “There’s a stigmatization with affordable housing. They think it’s going to bring crime and undesirable [new residents] to their communities and it won’t be good for their property values.”

What is the solution to the affordable housing crisis?

Everyone seems to have a theory on the best ways to address the affordable housing crisis.

University of Minnesota professor Goetz would like the government to produce more subsidized housing and offer more programs to help the lowest-income folks secure a roof over their heads. These could include tax breaks, subsidies for developers and builders, expansion of the Section 8 program for the poorest of the poor, and creation of more federally subsidized housing.

“The size of the affordable housing crisis is so great, we have to do everything,” says Goetz. “It’s foolish that [reducing regulatory barriers] by itself is the solution. And it seems to be all we’re getting from this administration.”

Andrew Aurand, vice president for research at the National Low Income Housing Coalition, would like fewer regulations prohibiting rental apartments from going up. He’d also like to speed up the time between builders submitting proposals to construction and the shovels going into the ground. (Proposals can sometimes get lost in a series of zoning board meetings.)

“Addressing regulatory barriers is important, but it cannot be used as an excuse to not sufficiently invest in our housing programs that serve the poorest families,” says Aurand. “This administration that is planning this road tour … at the same time consistently proposes cuts to the programs that serve our lowest-income renters.”

Most experts agree that not all state and local regulations are bad. Some are important for public safety and protecting the environment, says Ken Chilton, a public administration professor at Tennessee State University in Nashville. And some of these regulatory costs fund necessary infrastructure, new roads, and schools to accommodate the folks moving into the new housing.

Chilton isn’t convinced that if the regulations were removed, builders would suddenly start building cheaper homes.

“The data doesn’t support that,” he says.

But making it easier and less expensive to construct new homes will make housing more affordable—and help more folks become homeowners, says John Weicher, director of the Center for Housing and Financial Markets at the Hudson Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington, DC. Weicher is also the former HUD assistant secretary of housing during President George W. Bush‘s first term.

“It’s certainly a step in the right direction,” Weicher says.

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Rent vs. Buy: The Best Places to Become Homeowners—or Remain Renters

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The most important question for many potential home buyers isn’t about the quality of the local school districts, whether mortgage interest rates will fall, or commute times. Instead, it’s whether it makes more financial sense to just keep renting, rather than sinking money into the purchase of a home. And it all depends on where you live.

In more than 8 out of 10 counties, 84%, it was cheaper to rent than to buy in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to a recent realtor.com® report. In the past year, it has become better to buy in 26 counties—in part because mortgage rates have dropped under 4% in that time.

The economics team at realtor.com analyzed the 593 counties with at least 100,000 residents where sufficient data was available to come up with its quarterly Rent vs. Buy report. It looks at the percentage of income required to rent and to purchase a home, using listing, rental, homeownership, mortgage, and income data.

“Renting remains the more affordable option in a lot of the country,” says Senior Economist George Ratiu of realtor.com. “However, due to declining mortgage rates, we are seeing buying becoming more financially attractive.”

Smaller counties in the Midwest and South tend to offer lower-priced real estate and a cheaper cost of living than the big cities along the coasts. That’s because land and construction labor are less expensive and there are fewer zoning regulations. Plus, there isn’t as much demand for a limited supply of homes in smaller and midsize cities and the surrounding suburbs and exurbs.

Meanwhile, New York City and ultrapricey (and scenic) California counties on the water dominated the list of the highest-priced counties where it makes more sense to rent. These places tend to have lots of good-paying jobs, lively social scenes, and natural beauty. Six of them had median list prices over $1 million.

“Affordability is driven by geography,” says Ratiu. The most expensive markets have “solid economies and strong job growth, which is very attractive to young professionals. The trade-off is that it’s much more difficult to get a foothold in homeownership.”

So where are the best places to purchase a home, or to rent one?

The best counties to buy a home

1. Clayton, GA  ($154,500 median list price)
2. Baltimore City, MD ($167,500)
3. Cumberland, NJ ($142,450)
4. Richmond, GA ($125,50
5. Vigo, IN ($89,050)
6. Wayne, MI ($127,050)
7. Muscogee, GA ($151,550)
8. Cambria, PA ($79,950)
9. Hampton City, VA ($193,00)
10. Jefferson, NY ($162,500)

The best counties to rent a home

1. New York, NY ($1,680,550 median list price)
2. Santa Barbara, CA ($1,395,050)
3. Monterey, CA ($1,000,050)
4. San Mateo, CA ($1,643,050)
5. San Francisco, CA ($1,499,300)
6. Marin, CA ($1,383,550)
7. Napa, CA ($995,050)
8. Los Angeles, CA ($866,550)
9. Kings, NY (Brooklyn) ($807,050)
10. Maui, HI ($960,050)

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Meet America’s ‘Ugliest House of the Year’—and See How Gorgeous It Looks Today

HomeVestors; realtor.com

“Ugliest House of the Year” may seem like a dubious title, but for house-flipping franchise HomeVestors, known for its tagline “We Buy Ugly Houses,” this distinction has a certain cachet. Give the credit to its annual competition in which it asks its 1,100 franchisees across the country to submit photos of their homeliest homes—along with pictures after they’ve been renovated into beautiful new abodes.

The winner this year? A 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in Miami was crowned the Ugliest House of the Year for 2019, as decided by a HomeVestors Facebook poll in which members voted on the most impressive transformations. The house was rehabbed by real estate broker Rick Tobchi with a reno budget of over $100,000.

And, in case you were hoping to snag the newly beautified home, a buyer beat you to it. Although the home’s original purchase price is unknown, according to the HomeVestors spokesperson, the home was sold for $335,000 in November 2019.

Curious to hear more about what it took to turn America’s Ugliest House around? Check out these jaw-dropping before-and-after photos.

Extensive water damage made the home unlivable.

HomeVestors

Inside America’s ‘Ugliest House’

So just how bad was this home before Tobchi got his hands on it? For one, a roof leak caused extensive water damage, making the home unlivable when Tobchi’s team purchased it.

“The damage to this house started with a small roof leak that was never fixed and got worse, causing enough damage to render the home uninhabitable,” Tobchi explained in a HomeVestors press release. (Tobchi could not be reached for comment.) “To our surprise, when we took possession of the property, we found the new roofing materials stored in the garage!”

The original kitchen featured outdated decor and damaged appliances.

HomeVestors

New appliances and countertops modernized the space.

HomeVestors

To salvage this property, Tobchi and his team decided to strip the house down to the studs.

“We rebuilt from the foundation up—all new partition walls, electrical and gas systems, plumbing, roof, windows, floors, bathrooms, kitchen,” he said.

Bathroom vanities and fixtures were trashed.

HomeVestors

New vanities got an upgrade with granite countertops.

HomeVestors

Bathrooms needed major repairs and updates.

HomeVestors

Crisp white tiling and new fixtures brightened up the space.

HomeVestors

The renovation team not only repaired extensive damage, but added certain features, too. It installed hurricane-resistant windows, quartz countertops in the kitchen, and granite in the bathroom. New plumbing, electrical/gas systems, and LED lighting were added throughout the house.

The home’s interior was gutted and rebuilt.

HomeVestors

New partition walls, flooring, and more enhanced the renovation.

HomeVestors

As these pictures prove all too well, any home, no matter how ugly, is salvageable in the right hands.

“Our professional franchisees like Rick [Tobchi] set the bar high for improving neighborhoods,” added David Hicks, CEO of HomeVestors. “They take the time to first work personally with homeowners that need to sell properties which no other traditional buyer or iBuyer would even consider. And then, they perform carefully planned and executed rehabs that become valued and beautiful assets to their communities.”

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November Case-Shiller Results and December Forecast: Primed for an Upswing

• The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index® rose 3.5% year-over-year in November (non-seasonally adjusted), up from 3.2% in October. Annual growth was also up from September in the smaller 10-city index (to 2%, from 1.7%) and in the 20-city index (to 2.6%, from 2.2%).
• Phoenix (+5.9%), Charlotte (+5.2%) and Tampa (+5%) reported the highest year-over-year gains among markets in the 20-city index.

After a yearlong slowdown in 2019, home values appear primed to go back on the upswing to start 2020.

The national Case-Shiller Home Price Index rose 3.5% year-over-year in November. The smaller 10- and 20-city composite indices grew more slowly, at 2% and 2.6% year-over-year, respectively. The annual rate of growth was higher in November than in October in all three indices. On a monthly (seasonally adjusted) basis, all three indices rose 0.5% from October to November.

Index	Zillow Forecast, Released 12/31/19	Actual Case-Shiller Indices, Released 1/28/20	Historical Median Absolute Error*
10-City Composite, Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.2%	0.5%	0.2%
10-City Composite, Year-Over-Year (NSA)	2.0%	2.0%	0.2%
20-City Composite, Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.3%	0.5%	0.2%
20-City Composite, Year-Over-Year (NSA)	2.5%	2.6%	0.1%
U.S. National Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.3%	0.5%	0.1%
U.S. National Year-Over-Year (NSA)	3.5%	3.5%	0.1%
*Calculation of Median Absolute Errors are based on Zillow’s forecasts dating to 2011.  The national Case-Shiller forecasts began in 2014.

The main driver in this acceleration is clearly the ongoing and historic lack of for-sale inventory, though a strong job market, stabilizing geopolitical tensions and still-low mortgage rates have played their part. Even taking seasonal factors into consideration, the number of homes available for sale fell consistently through the latter part of 2019 and now sits near the lowest level on record. This lack of homes has made competition among buyers — buoyed by otherwise favorable economic conditions — even more fierce, in turn helping to push up prices even faster. Indeed, homebuying activity has picked up in recent months, with sales of existing homes reaching their highest level in nearly two years in December.

This shortage of homes on the market poses a looming threat to the housing market: Home values are likely to continue to reaccelerate, but many more for-sale homes are needed in order to ensure that price growth is sustainable and not the start of another period of overheated growth that ultimately turns away more buyers than it attracts.

Annual growth in December as reported by Case-Shiller is expected to accelerate in all three major indices. S&P Dow Jones Indices is expected to release data for the December S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices on Tuesday, Feb. 25.

Index	Actual November Case-Shiller Change	Zillow’s Forecast for the Case-Shiller December Indices
10-City Composite, Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.5%	0.3%
10-City Composite, Year-Over-Year (NSA)	2.0%	2.7%
20-City Composite, Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.5%	0.4%
20-City Composite, Year-Over-Year (NSA)	2.6%	3.2%
U.S. National Month-Over-Month (SA)	0.5%	0.4%
U.S. National Year-Over-Year (NSA)	3.5%	4.1%

 

Note: Case-Shiller and Case-Shiller Index are registered trademarks of CoreLogic Solutions, LLC. The statements herein are not endorsed by or provided in association or connection with CoreLogic, LLC.

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Leanne Ford Installs the Best Bedroom Upgrade Ever for Lazy People

Paul Archuleta/Getty Images; Reid Rolls/House Beautiful

Leanne Ford, who co-stars with her brother, Steve Ford, on the HGTV renovation reality show “Restored by the Fords,” has recently installed a rather creative upgrade for those who hate getting out of bed for a glass of water: a bedside faucet.

According to “House Beautiful,” she’d been longing to try this hack in one of her renovations and had even sourced a gorgeous eagle-shaped fixture from a shop in Pittsburgh a few years ago. Installation wasn’t much of a problem since the master bedroom and bathroom in this particular home shared a wall.

Once the faucet was in place next to the bed, she said, “it was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.”

Water on the wall: clever or crazy?

Reid Rolls/House Beautiful

Granted, middle-of-the-night thirst is a common problem, especially after a salty pepperoni pizza or some movie popcorn. A nearby glass of water seems smart, but if you have little kids, a dog, or, like most people, butterfingers in the dark at 2 a.m., it’ll likely topple over at least once a week.

So, are bedside faucets going to become all the rage, designwise? We checked in with the pros for their take on this look—and here’s what we learned.

Bedside faucets: The next big trend?

Photo by Dcasa Ltd 

Drew Henry, founder of Design Dudes, loves the bedside faucet in theory, as it’s clearly a dream solution for lazy bedtime water drinkers.

“But personally I hate food or beverages in my bedroom space, and any water in this room creates annoyance and can sometimes damage your nearby books or mattress,” he shares.

Photo by Caroline McCredie

It’s hard to tell whether there’s a piece of furniture underneath the faucet that Leanne put in, but most homeowners are going to want some kind of table by the bed. “The idea of a tap right where you sleep seems convenient, but I’m sure you’ll still want a nightstand below it—then what happens if you have a leak or the faucet drips?” asks Henry.

Is an actual sink under the faucet the next step?

“I don’t imagine anyone wants a bedside sink,” he says.

The cost to install a bedside faucet

You might pay between $500 to $1,000 to tap into nearby pipes on a shared wall, says Henry, but the cost may end up being prohibitive if you’re unlucky with your floor plan and need to add new plumbing.

“If the master bath is close by, then you can certainly run some piping, but I often feel like the bed is across the room or on the opposite wall from it,” he says.

Bedside faucet vs. wet bar

Photo by Jenni Leasia Interior Design 

In a larger bedroom, the general concept could work, notes Henry, especially if you have the space to include a wet bar or coffee station near a sitting area that’s separate from where you sleep.

“Of course this design takes away from the short-term ease of never leaving the bed for a glass of water, but it’s ultimately much more functional,” he says.

Bottom line: Bedside faucets aren’t likely to start trending anytime soon. And unless you have the perfect pipe scenario, don’t bother with this detail.

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December New Home Sales: A Disappointing Stumble

• December sales of newly built single-family homes fell 0.4% from November but rose 23% from a year ago, to 694,000 (SAAR), according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
• The median sales price of new houses sold in December 2019 was $331,400.
• The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of December was 327,000. This represents a supply of 5.7 months at the current sales rate.

After a string of blockbuster reports, December’s new home sales data was a disappointing stumble right at the finish line of what was otherwise the best year for new home sales since before the Great Recession. These numbers could serve as a bit of a wakeup call for builders that have grown increasingly confident in the demand for the homes they’ve been putting up with growing vigor since the Summer. After revisions, this series has now fallen month-over-month in each of the past three months. Still, with overall inventory as scarce as it is currently, it’s clear that more construction is desperately needed. And low mortgage rates, a robust labor market and stabilizing geopolitical tensions suggest that demand for housing will stick around, and buyers are hungry for more housing options. The inventory shortage isn't going to be solved overnight, and there are headwinds, but the fundamentals that have been keeping housing on a steady path for much of the year should remain in place for at least the early part of 2020.

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The 2020 New American Home Wowed Us—Except for These 3 Things

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

If you could build your perfect home, what would it look like?

Would it have dual dishwashers? A minibar in every bedroom? A vanishing-edge pool and hot tub perched 3,000 feet above sea level? All with top-of-the-line, energy-efficient appliances that promise to slash your utility bills?

That’s the idea behind the 37th New American Home, unveiled this week by the National Association of Home Builders during its annual convention in Las Vegas. The 7,638-square-foot, one-story home in Henderson, NV, was built to showcase the latest innovations in design, efficiency, and technology—plus every luxury amenity you could imagine.

And this year, the contemporary desert home’s designers had a theme in mind—one that’s obvious from the moment you set foot on the curb.

“I had a vision for this home at the beginning that it was a desert oasis,” says Dan Coletti, president of Sun West Custom Homes, which built the property. “As you walk through the home, you kind of feel that fluidity, water, textures—everywhere.”

Outdoor space, the New American Home

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

Not just for show, the four-bed, five-bath property is for sale for $5.75 million. But don’t fall too hard in love—this place already has a pending offer.

Even if you’re not moving in, the idea is that builders and designers might take some cues from this ultimate spec home. So we toured the property to give you an inside look at the most-cutting-edge features in homebuilding today—and what could be coming to a neighborhood near you soon. Here’s what stood out—for better or for worse.

What we loved: The shades of blue

Master bedroom

Rachel Stults

Full disclosure: I’m on board with blue. From teal to periwinkle, I dig any shade of indigo. And boy, does this house have all the shades. Themes of water and waves flow throughout the home, offering a soothing and tranquil vibe amid the arid, rocky desertscape.

The lean in to blue is perfectly on trend for 2020, too: Color authority Pantone recently named Classic Blue as its color of the year, and a host of other paint companies (including Sherwin-Williams, which provided the paint for the 2020 New American Home) have homed in on blue as the next big hue.

The wall treatments

Home office

Rachel Stults

Woven wallpaper, intricate tile, luxurious stonework, and one-of-a-kind wood paneling. (That’s right—wood paneling!) This house is decked out with so many exquisite wall treatments that we lost count of all of them.

In particular, the wallpapers—which Coletti says “are so rich and have textures”—make everything look more expensive. And in the home office, the wood paneling isn’t your mama’s ’70s-era stuff, or even Joanna Gaines‘ more modern, light-colored shiplap. Instead, the boards are stained a rich navy blue—a perfect contrast to the light flooring and natural wood furniture.

The elegant wine showroom

Wine showroom

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

Forget the cellar. 2020’s New American Home brings wine front and center, making it the focal point of the open living space.

“I’m not a big wine connoisseur like some people, but I love the beauty of wine bottles. I think they add an ambiance for a dining experience,” Coletti says. “And you can see all the wine in there at night when the lighting is perfect, too.”

This glassy wine room serves another purpose beyond showing off, creating necessary separation between the dining room and kitchen.

The fantasy fire feature

Living room with fire feature

Rachel Stults

This baby is the largest residential fireplace ever installed in all of Las Vegas—”17 feet of fire,” as Coletti calls it. And we are sufficiently impressed.

Just one thing: We were a bit surprised to learn this fire feature doesn’t emit any heat. While real fire is being produced (with less gas than traditional fireplaces), the flames are purely for aesthetic purposes. So if you’re looking to warm up on a chilly desert evening, you’ll have to bump up your thermostat setting or head to the fire pits outside.

The truly seamless indoor-outdoor flow

Indoor-outdoor infinity pool

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

Speaking of the outside, one of the coolest features of the home has to be the floor-to-ceiling glass doors that pocket right and left to fully open to the outdoor space. You could lounge in your master bedroom, watching TV (on a flat-screen that flips down from the ceiling, no less) and be surrounded by water at the same time. Talk about an oasis.

What we didn’t love: The exterior

Exterior

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

On the outside of the home, laser-cut steel sculptures were applied to light blue stucco walls to give the impression of waves. And, well, they nailed that look.

But that doesn’t mean we have to like it. While we’re into the whole water theme, we dare say this is a little too on the nose—and the bold design doesn’t enhance the curb appeal, either. Even more surprising? They brought a few of these sculptures inside the home, too. We’d prefer a more subtle approach to the water concept.

The ‘mini master bedroom’ (and its adjoining bathroom)

“Mini master bedroom”

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

Tired of the water theme altogether? Just take a stroll into the “mini master bedroom”—a blood-red space with black, white, and gold accents. The adjoining bathroom, which features more of the same, along with a strange floral motif just doesn’t jibe with the space.

Adjoining bathroom

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

No, not every room needed to be blue—or even cohesive with the rest of the home. But walking into this space felt jarring. One colleague likened it to a bordello. (To be fair, another colleague went gaga for everything in the bathroom, which just shows how subjective interior design can be.)

The kitchen

Kitchen

Courtesy of Jeff Davis Photography

While the kitchen is undeniably impressive (a built-in beer tap! dual dishwashers! three refrigerators!), we have to admit: There’s a lot going on here. The blue subway tile on top of blue paint, with mixed white and dark wood cabinetry, combined with a dark wood ceiling, gave us sensory overload. Individually, we like a lot of the elements in this kitchen, but on the whole, we can’t get behind it.

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