Real Estate Deeds Made Easy Since 1997
Caught in a housing crunch, Duluth, Minnesota recently changed its rules to encourage the construction of tiny homes. Until 2020, developers in Minnesota couldn’t even build houses smaller than 400 square feet. This has changed. In multiple New England cities, too, policy makers are warming up to smaller houses. Indeed, this is happening all across …
Continue reading “Could Tiny Houses Help People Become Homeowners?”
The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) lauded wins for property rights in two recent Supreme Court cases. But the two cases dealt with starkly different questions.
A racial covenant is language in a real estate deed that puts homes off-limits to certain buyers. It could say the deed may not be conveyed to particular social groups, such as Black, Asian, or Jewish people. Recently, St. Paul leadership joined a coalition to remove racial exclusions from Minnesota property deeds. Aptly, it’s called …
Continue reading “St. Paul Steps Up: City Begins Discharging Racial Exclusions From Deeds”
Taxes keep going up, following property values. But some homeowners — and buyers — can tap into county or state property tax breaks. Some states exempt seniors from property tax. Some states let eligible homeowners put off paying property taxes — in many areas, for as long as they own the home. An exemption doesn’t …
Continue reading “Welcome News: Some States Are Helping Seniors Defer Their Property Taxes”
In the Black community today, just one in every five households can afford to shift from renting to buying the median priced U.S. home. That’s according to the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR says Black homeownership is down over the past decade, and lagging behind that of other groups. The trend will not reverse itself …
Continue reading “Update on Black Real Estate Wealth Trends in 2023”
Recently, Redfin has been sounding the alarm about a particular real estate trend. People are building in dry areas with high fire risk. This is happening in a decade that’s seen unprecedented losses to fire. The Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) — where builders are active in and near natural lands — is now the fastest …
Continue reading “Up in Smoke? Know the Risks of Buying Real Estate in Wildfire Country”
It happens to more than a hundred homeowners each year. Governments and companies take home equity from the owners who run into hard times and can’t cover their property tax bills. In other words, these entities aren’t only recovering their legitimate past-due balances through foreclosures. They are also keeping all the value they can extract …
Continue reading “Surplus-Retention Seizures: Legalized Home Equity Theft?”
Missouri’s on a mission — to end racial deed restrictions. Its new law would require deletions of language regarding anyone’s race, religion or national origin from any deeds recorded from now on. Some Missouri homes have deed language that dates back a century, barring people from groups “other than the Caucasian race” from buying or …
Continue reading “States Scrub Racial Deed Restrictions From the Records”
An Intro to Solar Easements Solar electricity changes real estate. When a homeowner adopts solar energy, other homeowners are impacted. Solar systems create aesthetic changes. Because of community resistance, they also create a need for solar access rights. Does any of this affect the title or property value? It can — in the form of …
You Might Be Eligible for Tax Breaks If you’re a homeowner, or you’re in the market to buy a home, the last thing you want to hear about is rising property taxes. But check those bills. Even though we expect a slowdown throughout the rest of the year and beyond, the 2022 real estate market …
Continue reading “Property Tax Assessments Rising Again in 2022-2023”