Archive By Section - HOME SCENE
Three steps to ensure you get best deal when buying a house
Ample inventory, low mortgage rates and motivated sellers - all these key elements are present in real estate markets across the country, indicating it's still a great time to buy a house. If you're thinking of buying a house - whether it's new or existing, your first home or your fifth - you can help ensure you get the best possible deal by doing a few things before you get down to serious shopping.
Colorful exteriors without drop of paint
Nothing brightens a home's personality more dramatically than brilliant color. It's easy to freshen your home's exterior with color trim around windows, doors or along corners. With color trim, there are endless ways you can evoke any emotion or personality you desire. Whether you wish for tranquility, elegance or modernism, it's time to add some color to your "to-do" list.
How do you know when you are ready to buy a house?
Since the foreclosure crisis began, many Americans have been thinking a little bit more critically about whether they are truly ready for home ownership.
Update interiors with quick flooring transformation
Is your home in need of a makeover to go from boring to brilliant? What better time than now to update your home's tired, worn interior. You need look no further than right under your feet - to the floor below - for a simple, budget-minded way to freshen your decor and add to your home's value. Give any room of the house an updated look with flooring that mimics natural stone or ceramic tile, but without the upkeep or high cost.
Five tips for small landlords on how to protect your investment
More and more homeowners who are moving are delaying selling their homes, choosing instead to rent them out as the housing market continues to struggle. The lagging housing market has given others the opportunity to buy properties for investment purposes. Since many of these homeowners don't have much experience as a landlord, they're often required to learn on the fly.
Buying puts money in your pocket in long run even without equity gain
What is the better value: Three bedrooms, one bathroom with 986 square feet of living space for $720 a month or three bedrooms, two bathrooms with 1,012 to 1,296 square feet of living space for $855 a month?
Going green: Energy efficient windows
Now that spring is here, many homeowners are thinking about remodeling projects that will improve the home this season and year-round. Whether you're planning a few do-it-yourself improvements or a major renovation, it's important to think "green." One way to enhance the beauty and comfort of your home while saving on energy is by installing highly energy efficient windows.
Growing vegetables can be easy
Some things bear repeating: Plant vegetables. The tastes of fresh-picked beans, lettuce, and tomatoes, grown from seeds of varieties bred for flavor rather than commercial appeal, will knock your socks off. Not to mention the satisfaction of doing "work" that puts food directly into your belly. Planned correctly, the most basic vegetable garden takes little time or effort. Here's how to plan and plant this most basic garden. LOCATION, LOCATION First, the site. ...
Garden prep 101: Getting ready for season
Outside birds are singing and bits of green are popping up all around. As seasons change from winter to spring, the gardener's mind quickly leaps to growing flowers and produce. Before getting out there and planting, follow these basic garden preparations to get the most out of this growing season.
Sensory gardens: Days of wine & roses
FULTON (AP) - Imagine a garden where melon, peach, apple, lemon, pear and gardenias bloom. Then imagine holding all that in a glass.
Going from cookie cutter to custom
A new home: It's your chance to personalize your living space with details that suit your taste and personality. Or, so you think. Many builders only allow you to choose colors; and offer limited options beyond their builders' grade materials. Or, if you've purchased a previously owned home, it too is most likely equipped with many basic options.
Pros and cons of organic vs. synthetic fertilizers
Another growing season is fast approaching, and before you can seed you must feed. Now is the time to decide whether to use organic or synthetic fertilizers to enrich the soil. They produce similar results but come at it from different directions. Most organic fertilizers are derived from plants and animals. This group includes manure, bone and blood meal, seaweed, compost and minerals. All are rich in nutrients, but must be "cured" or broken down ...
Manteca prices up, SF prices down in 2011
Bay Area housing price trends in the past have been used by real estate agents as a barometer as what is to come in Manteca and the rest of the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Doors, a forgotten design element
It's a design opportunity that's easily missed: Even the most stylishly decorated rooms often have bland wooden doors with cheap hardware.
Spring’s hot color for homes?
Bright red-pink and bursting with energy, honeysuckle is dominating home decor trends in 2011 as a playful and vibrant alternative to the serene turquoise of 2010.
Articles by Section - HOME SCENE
Sales of bank-owned homes hit 5-year low in 1st quarter
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sales of bank-owned homes have plunged to a five-year low, the latest evidence that the nation's foreclosure woes are easing as the U.S. housing market recovery gains momentum.
Are we in a real estate market recovery?
Real Estate Boys: I keep reading that the real estate market is booming again. Time magazine, the newspaper from our north, TV and radio news are all reporting to get "in now, the market is heating up across the nation." Wasn't it just a short year ago you Boys, and it seemed everyone else, was reporting that maybe we haven't seen the bottom yet? Then in late in 2012, "Well, we've bottomed out, but the ...
Rebounding home prices help regain some household wealth for families
WASHINGTON (AP) - The average U.S. household has a long way to go to recover the wealth it lost to the Great Recession, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis concluded Thursday.
Home prices rise 10.9 percent, largest jump in almost 7 years
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. home prices jumped 10.9 percent in March compared with a year ago, the most since April 2006. A growing number of buyers are bidding on a tight supply of homes, driving prices higher and helping the housing market recover.
Smart, stylish renovations for any age
Most Americans over 50 want to stay in their home as they age, but few are making the renovations they need to ensure easy and comfortable living for years to come.
Eight easy ways to organize - and maximize - a small bath
The bath serves a variety of uses, from a functional room to a serene sanctuary, a storage facility to a salon. And, whether you enjoy it yourself or share with the family, every bathroom is in need of one major thing - organization. To help keep your bath feeling more serene and less insane, follow these eight ideas to help improve your organization, maximize space and even add a bit of style.
Go-big upgrades that can help a lingering home sell
Everyone knows spring and summer are the best months in which to sell a home. If your house has lingered on the market, you may be eager to find ways to freshen its appeal for potential buyers. Perhaps you're even ready to go big and invest in upgrades that will improve the home's value, curb appeal and interior allure so much that potential buyers just won't be able to walk away from it.
Sales of bank-owned homes fell in 1Q
FORECLOSURE SALES: Foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac Inc. says 190,121 U.S. bank-owned homes or properties in some stage of the foreclosure process were sold in the first quarter. That's down 18 percent from the previous three months and 22 percent from a year earlier.
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