According to a recent report by Hippo Insurance, about 43% of all homeowners are delaying maintenance and renovations due to high inflation. This is due to high inflation raising the costs of just about everything, including buying a new home or renovating an existing property. However, this decision may ultimately be short-sighted, and could cost homeowners more in the long term.
After a prolonged period of rising housing prices and high demand, economists are now projecting that the housing market is cooling off. Prices began to fall off in April, with as much as fifteen percent of sellers cutting their prices, according to Fortune. This means that, for the first time in years, prices and sales are expected to fall significantly, which could have a serious effect on the housing market.
The threat of climate change is, for some people, merely a political consideration. However, as the effects of climate change become more evident, real estate developers have begun taking it into account as part of their development strategy, shaping their plans based on the predicted impact of a warming planet. This has led them to begin developing in places that might not have seemed attractive before, while avoiding some traditional markets that look more like bad bets in the face of a changing climate.
The number of people applying for an adjustable rate mortgage has doubled in three months, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This massive increase in the number of people taking on adjustable rate mortgages has been attributed to increasing mortgage rates, which have made traditional fixed-rate mortgages more appealing. Some analysts fear this could be pointing to a cooling housing market, as interest rates rise and home sales continue to decline.
In a controversial new ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that a nursery that was made to temporarily give up its land for labor activities suffered a per se physical taking. This ruling was considered surprising for a number of reasons, including the notion that it was considered a physical taking rather than a regulatory taking. This could substantially impact how some states tailor similar legislation in the future.
Every attorney knows that they must do their due diligence whenever engaging in any kind of legal transaction, and rarely is that more important than in real estate. This is because real estate transactions can be exceedingly complicated, and often involve hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. Unfortunately, though, no amount of due diligence can be enough to cover every potential pitfall, and that can put you and your client at risk.