House Hunting 101

Yes, there are some trends in the luxury housing market that are surviving; even flourishing in this “down market”. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal’s Real Estate Journal mentions a few of these designs.

• Better, Not Bigger
  

  Homes may not be getting bigger, for the most part, but that hasn’t stopped builders from packing them with pantries and decks — increasingly, several of each. John Laing’s new best-seller, a 4,121-square-foot called Plan 2 that sells in the $1 million range at Ravenna in San Clemente, Calif., has two butler’s pantries, two decks, with an option for a third, and two fireplaces, also with an option for a third. Orleans’s Bradford Grand II has two walk-in closets and two optional bookcases in the master suite, and four optional bay windows on the first floor.

• Standard Sunrooms
  

  Once marketed as a luxurious upgrade, sunrooms are now a standard feature in many builders’ top-selling models. More energy-efficient windows have made it easier to create walls of glass without making the house cold and drafty, builders say; and opening up the outdoor views makes homes look bigger.

• Angles Walls Or Entryways
  

  The best-selling La Jolla model by Drees Homes in Fort Mitchell, Ky., puts the front door off to the side of the house instead of at the center, which creates a slanted hallway to the main rooms. Bensalem, Pa.-based Orleans Homebuilders’ Bradford Grand II twists the center staircase so it opens to the side rather than the front, opening up the sightlines throughout the house.

In the past, if a job wanted you to relocate, the big decisions involved schools, crime, climate, compensation and things of that sort. However, in the market that a lot of the country is in currently, the salability of your current home and of the home you’re relocating to, is just as important.

If you accept that relocation and the package does not include the company “buying you out” of your current home, things can get rough if your home stays on the market for a longer period of time (which is happening a lot throughout the country). In addition, if your relocation is going to be short term, what happens if you can’t quickly sell the new home your moving to once the company decides to move you again?

Make sure that you add the salability of all the homes involved (both current and future) into the mix for consideration when you are offered relocation opportunity.

Technorati Tags: relocation

Getting ready to start looking for a home? Or are you already in the process of house hunting? Here are 6 tips for all of you when you’re looking for a new home.

More and more young executive types are receiving inheritances and/or cashing out stock options to re-invest the money elsewhere. No, it’s not into the stock market, but into their future retirement homes.

“But real-estate agents and financial planners around the country say they’re increasingly assisting younger buyers spending $100,000 to $500,000 for a house to call home in retirement. Partially at play is a cultural shift planners say they see among younger savers who aren’t content to just accumulate assets to use in retirement. Instead, this younger generation wants to put some of its nest egg to work today as an investment in family.”

I just came across this blog (Mortgage Lowdown)this morning, and even though the post was made back in November, it contains some very relevant information about buying your first home.

Bizjournals took a look at 938 markets, measuring eight statistical categories, looking for places where the number of senior citizens is substantial and increasing rapidly. Here are the top ten.

1. Gardnerville Ranchos, Nevada
2. Punta Gorda, Florida
3. Pahrump, Nevada
4. Crossville, Tennessee
5. Homosassa Springs, Florida
6. Sebring, Florida
7. Del Rio, Texas
8. Brevard, North Carolina
9. Georgetown, South Carolina
10. Ocean Pines, Maryland

Men’s Fitness Magazine has released their annual “The Fittest And Fattest Cities In America” list. They use common sense criteria like gym membership usage, time sitting in traffic and public exercise venues to rank the cities. Here are the lists:

Fittest (Atlanta ranks #24)

1. Albuquerque
2. Seattle
3. Colorado Springs
4. Minneapolis
5. Tucson
6. Denver
7. San Francisco

Fattest

1. Las Vegas
2. San Antonio
3. Miami
4. Mesa
5. Los Angeles
6. Houston
7. Dallas

Using ranking criteria such as nightlife, job growth, culture, cost of living single, online dating, number of other singles, and my favorite, coolness, Forbes has ranked the best cities to move to if you are single.

1. Denver - Boulder
2. Boston
3. Phoenix
4. San Fran - Oakland
5. New York
6. Raleigh - Durham

You can see the rest of the list (my hometown, Atlanta is #16) by clicking the link above, and you can see the complete methodology of city selection by clicking here.

Wired Magazine just released a list of 10 top tech towns. Now there are some typical criteria on this list like proximity to top-ranked engineering schools, availability of free Wi-Fi and tech jobs (per capita) on Dice. But just to add a touch of dork to this top tech list you’ll also find criteria like personal ads (per capita) on Geek 2 Geek, number of attendees at local meetings of dorkbot (a group for “people doing strange things with electricity”) and comic book stores per capita.

If you’re looking to relocate to get away from traffic jams, long commutes and bumper to bumper driving, I want to show you 10 places in America that have the worst commutes. Here’s the list with the number of hours a person is caught in traffic per year.

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California - 93 hours
2. San Francisco-Oakland, California - 72 hours
3. Washington, D.C. - 69 hours
4. Atlanta, Georgia - 67 hours
5. Houston, Texas - 63 hours
6. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas - 60 hours
7. Chicago, Illinois - 58 hours
8. Detroit, Michigan - 57 hours
9. Riverside-San Bernardino, California - 55 hours
10. Orlando, Florida - 55 hours

While I am not arguing with the rankings here as I would bet the cities are placed in the right order. I am calling BS on the number of hours next to each city. My commute is down a flight of stairs as I work from home, but my wife, on the other hand, spends at least 80 minutes per day in her car going to and from work. With 3 weeks vacation that puts her at about 318.5 hours per year she’s commuting. And there are people in our neighborhood with worse commutes than that. So, use this list as a guide at best. When you want to know real numbers have your real estate agent ask around the areas you’re thinking about moving to. I’m sure you’ll find homeowners in the area more than willing to complain about their commutes.