Real Estate Blog

One of Birmingham's fastest growing residential real estate brokerages will help market homes in the unique town of Mt. Laurel.

ARC Realty has opened a Mt. Laurel office, and will partner with the community on new homes and home sites moving forward. Mt. Laurel is located in the Dunnavant Valley area off of U.S. 280 south of Birmingham.

“It’s rare to find a neighborhood of new homes with this much style and character,” said ARC CEO Beau Bevis, in a statement. “There’s a blend of old and…

The new plans for residential units by San Jose's bustling open-air shopping center come as many Bay Area developers grapple with how to make new housing projects financially feasible as both land values rise and construction costs rise at a dizzying rate.

An Arizona homebuilder has agreed to acquire a smaller national builder in a move that will catapult the company into the Triangle’s list of top 10 residential builders.

Taylor Morrison Home Corp. will buy AV Homes Inc. in a cash and stock deal valued at $963 million, the companies announced Thursday.

The transaction is on track to close in the third or fourth quarter. Boards of both companies have already approved the deal.

Taylor Morrison has a territory that spans Florida, Arizona, Texas…

A San Francisco judge ordered HomeAdvisor to halt its TV and radio ads in California until the Golden-based home services company stops saying that it performs background checks on all workers who visit a customer’s home.

The preliminary injunction, which went into effect Monday, comes about two months after the San Francisco District Attorney sued HomeAdvisor. The DA’s office called HomeAdvisor’s ads “false and misleading” because only the business owner is background checked.

Ads that don’t imply all employees underwent background checks are allowed as long as there is a disclaimer that says “HomeAdvisor Background-Checks Business Owners But Not Employees,” according to the order signed by the San Francisco Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn.

In a statement, HomeAdvisor said it disagreed with the claims in the case and is appealing.

“We are committed to ensuring HomeAdvisor customers receive a best-in-class experience from our network of skilled service professionals. This legal ma..

Taking a home in metro Denver from listing to the closing table now only takes 41 days on average, one of the shortest turnaround times in the country, according to a new study from Trulia.

Denver had the fifth-fastest turnaround time in April. Seattle and the California metro areas of San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland comprise the top four, respectively. Homes in the first three went from listing to sale in a speedy 36 days.

Colorado Springs, ranked seventh, saw transactions take 43 days from listing to sale. By contrast, it took 144 days to close a listing in Syracuse, N.Y., and 132 days on Long Island.

“Since 2010, it has been the story of steady decline nationally. But 64 days is a … record nationally,” said Felipe Chacon, a housing economist with Trulia, which tracks how long it takes a listing on its website to appear in the public records as a sale.

Listing to sale is a broader measure than average days on market, which is the measure that real estate agents track. That me..

Denver received a B-plus from Apartment List’s annual Renter Satisfaction Survey. The grade puts the city at No. 11 out of the top 50 largest cities in the U.S.

The third annual survey drew responses from more than 45,000 renters nationwide. Renters rated their cities on 11 factors including affordability, public transit, and weather. The four factors that have the greatest influence on overall satisfaction are safety, job opportunities, social life, and recreational activities.

Denver’s top scores were in the recreational activities and social life categories, which rated A grades. Across categories concerning weather, commute times and public transit, job and career opportunities, and taxes, Denver’s scores fell in the B to A-minus range.

But with respect to affordability, Denver received a D. This comes as no surprise as average apartment rents in Denver continue to rise with the surrounding metro rents providing little to no relief.

“Denver renters expressed general satisfactio..

A deal to buy and preserve the former Colorado Heights University campus fell through this spring, but other companies have expressed interest in buying the 70-acre parcel and safeguarding its historic character.

Catellus Development Corporation last year said it wanted to buy the campus, which was first developed in 1891 by the Sisters of Loretto as Loretto Heights Academy, a Catholic elementary and secondary school for girls. The campus’ main structure — a red-hued administration building with a tower — can be seen for miles around the south Denver metro area and is fiercely defended by neighbors who want to keep it from being erased or marred by over-development.

Also important is the campus cemetery, where 62 nuns are buried. Neighbors don’t want to see those plots disturbed. Catellus expressed willingness to preserve the campus’ historic properties.

But the California-based company failed to reach an agreement with the campus’ owner, the Japan-based Teikyo University Group, whi..

Her three daughters were grown. Her husband died two years ago. The circa 1978 tri-level in southeast Aurora was more house than she needed. And the scorching metro real estate market just begged her to cash out.

For Debby Pilloud, the next move seemed obvious: Capitalize on her equity and downsize to a less-pricey condo.

But like more and more homeowners, Pilloud pumped the brakes, stayed put and invested in some overdue home improvements.

“It’s all paid off, so I just want to get it updated,” Pilloud said. “So in the future, if something were to happen where I die or get sick, and the kids need to sell, it’s taken care of.”

And in the meantime, she enjoys the benefits of the remodel, which so far has revamped her master bathroom — “It’s gorgeous,” Pilloud said. She has just gotten the estimate to refurbish the main floor powder room and has plans to update a third bathroom.

It’s a trend that has played out with increasing frequency not only in the metro area, but across the coun..

Metro Denver experienced a nearly 25 percent surge in the number of homes and condos available for sale in May versus April, according to a monthly update from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

The inventory of homes buyers had to choose from at the end of May reached 6,437, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier and the highest level for a May in three years. But inventories still remain at historically low levels. Back in May 2007, when the housing bubble was bursting, there were 29,110 homes for sale on the market.

“Overall economic conditions like employment, job growth and net migration are stronger today than 2007-2008. I don’t see a bubble any time soon, but keep an eye on inventory,” Steve Danyliw, chairman of the association’s market trends committee, said in the report.

Unlike prior months, a surge in new listings wasn’t matched with a commensurate surge in home and condo sales. Those rose 6.5 percent to 5,235 during the month and are down 10.9 percent year over year.
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Woodstock’s walkable downtown is about to expand with new retail and office space, as well as a boutique hotel.

City officials announced Thursday a 3.5-acre project called Woodstock City Center.

Morris & Fellows will be the master developer. The firm previously helped develop downtown Woodstock and now is under construction on the Alpharetta City Center project.

In Woodstock, plans call for 35,000 feet of retail, 35,000 feet of office and a 100-room boutique hotel, said Cheri Morris, president…