Luxury properties across the country embrace the colors and textures that wallpaper provides to expansive and creative spaces. When your clients are ready to transform their custom-house into the home of their dreams, introducing them to de Gournay will provide them with a new perspective of wallpaper.
What are the benefits of wallpaper?
– Elevate a space while also covering cracks and stains in plaster or drywall.
– Cover up uneven floors or ceilings as homes age and begin to settle.
– Create personality and reflect personal style with unique and custom prints.
Is wallpaper just a fad?
As experienced real estate agents, you have seen custom paint colors, wallpaper, faux wood panels, and much more – come and go! For generations, people were covering up their parent’s wallpaper with their own personal wallpaper selections.
Wallpaper provides clients with a way to reuse spaces for new purposes without the cost of labor and materials of rebuilding. This is especially true for your clients who are purchasing historic or older homes and wanting to bring back the feeling of years gone by. Wallpaper provides them with the opportunity to infuse walls with deep, rich colors and textures that match the era of their home.
Are professionals required to install Wallpaper?
Your more crafty clients may be able to watch a Youtube video and begin installing their wallpaper selections on their own. Your clients with less time on their hands may want to consult with a local company that specializes in wallpaper for the type of wall surface they have and the average temperatures in their area.
Quiet, Top Floor, End Unit Condo in a Historic Gem in a Historic Neighborhood.
2015 NW Flanders St $187,500 426 sqft
Light-filled end unit! Pretty little loft in the 1925 historic Embassy Apartments with period features and vintage finishes, hardwood and terrazzo floors. The Embassy features bike parking, a large interior courtyard, gym, 2 elevators and deeded storage. Right in the heart of the Northwest/Nob Hill neighborhood. Mere blocks to coffee, restaurants, shopping, lounges, bus lines, the Street Car, light-rail, Trader Joes and more. Walk/Bike scores of 99/94. Residents should be able to acquire an annual parking permit from the city for on-street parking. This place is adorable, especially for the minimalist, eco-friendly Portlander! Contact me before it’s gone!
Maximize Curb Appeal Getting them through the front door starts at the curb. Manicure the lawn, trim the trees and shrubs. Pull weeds and plant some colorful flowers. Clear the walkways. Fix peeling paint and wind up that hose. Paint the address number on the curb.
Make Repairs to Visible Blemishes Is there something that’s an eyesore, but an easy fix? If looking at it bothers you, it could bother a potential buyer and reduce the appeal of your home. Replace burnt out light bulbs, fix that loose door handle, make needed paint touch-ups.
Make a Buyer’s Entrance Inviting Freshly paint the front door with a color that contrasts the house. Add a new welcome mat. Hang a fresh wreath on the door.
Let the Light Shine In Removing heavy window coverings to let in the natural light we all crave. Add lamps to brighten up darker areas to add more cheer.
Remove the Clutter This serves two purposes. First, you want your home to have an open and inviting appearance. Removing clutter will make rooms appear larger and more appealing. Second, it helps YOU prepare to move. Going through the clutter and getting rid of what you don’t need will make your move much easier.
Remove Personal Items It will be much easier for a potential buyer to imagine your home as theirs when they can envision their own items in it.
Highlight Special Features Use accents and color to draw eyes to special features that you want potential buyers to notice—throw pillows, plants or other eye-catching accessories.
Add Mirrors Use mirrors to make rooms look larger and lighter. Position opposite windows for best effect.
Clean Out Cabinets and Closets Buyers are nosy and they WILL open the cabinets. Make sure your contents are orderly and organized.
Eliminate Odors Clean to remove any odors and do not cook any meals with heavy, lasting smells before a showing.
Add Aromas You can easily add appeal by quartering an orange and adding it to a pot of water with a cinnamon stick. Simmer on low for an inviting aroma. Or bake a fresh batch of cookies (and leave a plate of them on the counter for visitors).
Our homes are so much more than the houses we live in. For many, they’ve also become our workplaces, schools for our children, and safe harbors in which we’ve weathered the toughest moments of a global pandemic. Today, 65.6% of Americans call their homes their own, a rate that has risen to its highest point in 8 years.
As National Homeownership Month kicks off this June, homeowners have every reason to celebrate. A survey by Gallup just ranked real estate as the best investment you can make for the eighth year in a row. However, unlike other investment options, the benefits of owning a home aren’t purely financial. Here are the top ways Americans are winning by owning a home.
Non-Financial Benefits:
1. Civic Participation: Owning a home is owning a part of your neighborhood. Homeowners have a stronger connection to their neighborhoods and are more committed to volunteer work and other ways to get involved.
2. Pride of Ownership: Owning a home is having a space that is uniquely yours. You can customize it to your personal liking and make it reflect your personality and values.
3. A Safe Space: Owning a home gives you a sense of security and privacy – two things that have become even more valuable as we’ve tackled the challenges of the recent health crisis.
Financial Benefits:
1. Forced Savings: Owning a home builds equity. Your equity grows with each payment you make toward your mortgage. This form of forced savings can be used down the road to help you accomplish your biggest financial goals.
2. Appreciation: Owning a home is making an investment that steadily gains value, and experts project home values will continue to rise in the years to come.
3. Stability: Owning a home means having better control over your future housing payments. Over the years, a mortgage stays relatively steady, but rent costs continue to rise.
Bottom Line
If you own your home, take time this June to celebrate the ways homeownership has added value to your life. If you hope to become a homeowner this year, let’s connect today to take the first steps toward achieving your goal.
June 1st Portland Metro Area (OR and WA) Market Activity for the Week of May 24th through May 30th
Homes Sold: 896 vs previous weeks: 792; 807; 749; 848; 684; 733; 687; 687; and 581. During the same week last year, this number was 678.
Active Listings: 2568 vs previous weeks: 2593; 2476; 2289; 2265; 2173; 2275 2252; 2163; 2135; and 1998.
Total number of Pending Deals: 6587 vs previous weeks: 6640; 6561; 6501; 6388; 6393; 6216; 6049; 5894; 5835 and 5779.
New Pending Deals: 1084 vs previous weeks: 1117; 1079; 998; 1037; 1088; 952; and 894.
Average Days on Market 15 (33 last year) – Median Days on Market 5 (14 last year).
Average Sale price – $582,724 vs $456,254 during the same week last year.
Total Sales Volume – $522,120,704 vs $309,340,212 during the same week last year.
Average List Price vs Sale Price Average Sale Price as a Percentage of the Asking Price – 104.27%Median Sale Price as a Percentage of the Asking Price – 106.77% Average Sale Price as a Percentage of the Original Asking Price – 104.1%
In today’s whirlwind real estate market, houses are selling at astonishing speed – from sea to shining sea.
Four years ago, the average house spent 39 days on the market. Two years ago, homes were on the market for about 24 days. Today, that number has dropped to just 17 short days.
If you’re looking to sell your house quickly and on the best possible terms, today’s market can’t be beat. Let’s connect to discuss how to secure a speedy, top-dollar sale for your house.
There’s a lot of discussion about affordability as home prices continue to appreciate rapidly. Even though the most recent index on affordability from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows homes are more affordable today than the historical average, some still have concerns about whether or not it’s truly affordable to buy a home right now.
When addressing this topic, there are various measures of affordability to consider. However, very few of the indexes compare the affordability of owning a home to renting one. In a paper just published by the Urban Institute, Homeownership Is Affordable Housing, author Mike Loftin examines whether it’s more affordable to buy or rent. Here are some of the highlights included.
1. Renters pay a higher percentage of their income toward their rental payment than homeowners pay toward their mortgage.
The report explains:
“When we look at the median housing expense ratio of all households, the typical homeowner household spends 16 percent of its income on housing while the typical renter household spends 26 percent. This is true, you might say, because people who own their own home must make more money than people who rent. But if we control for income, it is still more affordable to own a home than to rent housing, on average.”
Here’s the data from the report shown in a graph:
2. Renters don’t have extra money to invest in other assets.
The report goes on to say:
“Buying a home is not a decision between investing in real estate versus investing in stocks, as financial advisers often claim. Instead, the home buying investment simply converts some portion of an existing expense (renting) into an investment in real estate.”
It explains that you still have a housing expense (rent payments) even if you don’t buy a home. You can’t live in your 401K, but you can transfer housing expenses to your real estate investment. A mortgage payment is forced savings; it goes toward building equity you will likely get back when you sell your home. There’s no return on your rent payments.
3. Your mortgage payment remains relatively the same over time. Your rent keeps going up.
The report also notes:
“Whereas renters are continuously vulnerable to cost increases, rising home prices do not affect homeowners. Nobody rebuys the same home every year. For the homeowner with a fixed-rate mortgage, monthly payments increase only if property taxes and property insurance costs increase. The principal and interest portion of the payment, the largest portion, is fixed. Meanwhile, the renter’s entire payment is subject to inflation.
Consequently, over time, the homeowner’s and renter’s differing trajectories produce starkly different economic outcomes. Homeownership’s major affordability benefit is that it stabilizes what is likely the homeowner’s biggest monthly expense, assuming a buyer has a fixed-rate mortgage, which most American homeowners do. The only portion of the homeowner’s housing expenses that can increase is taxes and insurance. The principal and interest portion stays the same for 30 years.”
A mortgage payment remains about the same over the 30 years of the mortgage. Here’s what rents have done over the last 30 years:
4. If you want to own a home and can afford it, waiting could cost you.
As the report also indicates:
“We need to stop seeing housing as a reward for financial success and instead see it as a critical tool that can facilitate financial success. Affordable homeownership is not the capstone of economic well-being; it is the cornerstone.”
Homeownership is the first rung on the ladder of financial success for most households, as their home is most often their largest asset.
Bottom Line
If the current headlines reporting a supposed drop-off in home affordability are making you nervous, let’s connect to go over the real insights into our area.
The last year has put emphasis on the importance of one’s home. As a result, some renters are making the jump into homeownership while some homeowners are re-evaluating their current house and considering a move to one that better fits their current lifestyle. Understanding how housing affordability works and the main market factors that impact it may help those who are ready to buy a home narrow down the optimal window of time in which to make a purchase.
There are three main factors that go into determining how affordable homes are for buyers:
Mortgage Rates
Mortgage Payments as a Percentage of Income
Home Prices
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) produces a Housing Affordability Index. It takes these three factors into account and determines an overall affordability score for housing. According to NAR, the index:
“…measures whether or not a typical family earns enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a typical home at the national and regional levels based on the most recent price and income data.”
Their methodology states:
“To interpret the indices, a value of 100 means that a family with the median income has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home. An index above 100 signifies that family earning the median income has more than enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan on a median-priced home, assuming a 20 percent down payment.”
So, the higher the index, the more affordable it is to purchase a home. Here’s a graph of the index going back to 1990:The blue bar represents today’s affordability. We can see that homes are more affordable now than they’ve been at any point since the housing crash when distressed properties (foreclosures and short sales) dominated the market. Those properties were sold at large discounts not seen before in the housing market for almost one hundred years.
Why are homes so affordable today?
Although there are three factors that drive the overall equation, the one that’s playing the largest part in today’s homebuying affordability is historically low mortgage rates. Based on this primary factor, we can see that it’s more affordable to buy a home today than at any time in the last eight years.
If you’re considering purchasing your first home or moving up to the one you’ve always hoped for, it’s important to understand how affordability plays into the overall cost of your home. With that in mind, buying while mortgage rates are as low as they are now may save you quite a bit of money over the life of your home loan.
Bottom Line
If you feel ready to buy, purchasing a home this summer may save you a significant amount of money over time based on historical affordability trends. Let’s connect today to determine if now is the right time for you to make your move.
![Homes Across the Country Are Selling Fast [INFOGRAPHIC] | MyKCM](https://files.mykcm.com/2021/05/26172158/20210528-MEM-1046x2094.png)
