By:Courtney Crowder

Source:The Des Moines Register

Internet, Internet, on the web, which state is the American-est of them all?

Iowa, of course.

 

A new totally unscientific study by Estately declared lil' ol' us to be the most American of all the 50 states.

Iowa is "where astronauts are born, and where the actual baseball field in the movie 'Field of Dreams' is located," the Estately post read. "It produces the most bacon of any state, and Iowa corn farmers fuel our country's obesity epidemic with sweet, sweet corn syrup."

Estately rated states based on eight factors: 

  • Bald eagles per square mile
  • Olympic gold medals won per capita
  • Native astronauts per capita
  • Fast food restaurants per capita
  • Major League…

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by RealEstateRama Source: Iowa RealEstateRama  

WASHINGTON, D.C. – June 17, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Sale prices and number of homes sold continue their upward trend. Homes are selling faster than any point in the last 3 years according to the Iowa Association of REALTORS® (IAR).

Homes continue to sell very quickly as days on market fell to 75 days as compared to 90 days at this time last year. This is the lowest number of days on market in the last 3 years.

Sales increased 7.3 percent from a year ago. 4,134 homes were sold last month as compared to 3,853 homes that sold in May 2014. Active listings were down 3.4 percent and Pending listings were up 5.7% when compared to last May.

Listing Activity May 15

The report shows that…

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By: Kurt Jacobson
Source: Realty Biz News

Gone are the days when women used to cut out pictures from interior design magazines and filed them away for future use. Today, technology has invaded nearly every aspect of our lives, including home décor and design. So whether you are buying furniture for your living room, choosing paint colors for your dining room, or simply looking for ideas to do up your kid’s room, you can rely on technology to help you achieve the best possible results. 

Here are some of the top apps in the home decor and design space today. Don’t forget to check them out before you plan your next home renovation project!

Color Smart

Want to paint your bedroom in the colors of the painting you fell in love with, but not sure…

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By: Prajakta Dhopade
Source: MSN.com/Money

Selling a home can be difficult. Worrying if you’re accepting the right price, wondering if the market will work in your favour and hoping your home is attractive to potential buyers can be a headache. What’s one way to stand out from the crowd?  How about throwing in a free Maserati or other outrageous giveaways? That’s what a Montreal homeowner did last week. The extravagant vehicle was given away with the sale of a home in Montreal’s pony Westmount neighbourhood.

But this isn’t the first time an excessive add-on has made its appearance in a real estate transaction. Over the years there’s been some wacky extras thrown into the home buying mix. But do they actually make a difference?

Toronto broker Ryan…

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SwipeFin allows real estate pros to swipe expenses into 'business' or 'personal' categories.

Source: Inman
By: Paul Hagey

Kyle Willis, 30, downloaded the dating mobile app Tinder eight months ago, and while it hasn’t yielded any relationships yet, it did inspire him to create the latest “Tinder for real estate” app, SwipeFin.

The app allows real estate pros to designate all of their expenses as either business (swipe right) or personal (swipe left) with a swipe of their smartphone screen, helping them eliminate the yearly tax-time dance of organizing shoeboxes full of receipts in the process.

Launched earlier this year, SwipeFin joins a growing crowd of real estate apps that have functions based on the simple mobile device swipe…

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Source: Forbes.com

          By: Maggie McGrath

 

What a difference a month — and a change in weather — can make: a new report shows that after plunging 11.4% in March, new home sales rebounded in April, rising nearly 7% in the first full month of spring and jumping 26% over sales reported in April of last year.

According to a report released Tuesday morning by the U.S. Department of Commerce (and compiled using data from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development) sales of newly-constructed single-family homes reached an annual rate of 517,000 in April, a figure that marks a 6.8% rise over sales in March (which were revised to a seasonally-adjusted rate of 484,000 homes) and growing an impressive 26% over the…

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Source: Main Street By: Brian O'Connell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Good news on housing and the economy: Mortgage delinquencies are down.

Data from credit rating giant TransUnion shows the national mortgage delinquency rate dropped to 2.95% in the first quarter of 2015 — the first time that figure has sunk below the 3% market since the third quarter of 2007, right before the Great Recession hammered us.

It's the 13th consecutive quarterly drop in delinquency rate. Year-to-year, the delinquency rate is down nearly 18% from the first quarter of last year. It's also way down from the market high of 6.94% in 2010.

There's something to cheer about even in the much maligned subprime…

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Source: BBC.com Former Fitzgerald home in Great Neck EstatesGreat Neck provided much of the inspiration for The Great Gatsby's fictional town of West Egg

The suburban home where F Scott Fitzgerald is believed to have written The Great Gatsby has gone on sale.  The seven-bedroom house is situated in Long Island, where Fitzgerald set much of his 1925 novel.

Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, lived in the home - in the New York hinterlands - from 1922 until 1924.  The author is understood to have completed The Great Gatsby after moving to France, where he set his subsequent novel Tender is the Night.

A spokeswoman for the estate agency said the asking price for the Mediterranean-style home, in the village of Great Neck Estates, is in excess of $3.8m (£2.4m). She declined to identify the current…

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Source: DAILY REAL ESTATE NEWS

Don't underestimate the importance of a beautiful yard to home owners and their neighbors. 84 percent of adults say that the quality of a home's landscape and yard would affect their decision on whether to purchase a home or not, according to a new survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted by the National Association of Landscape Professionals.

The majority of Americans want to live amid nice landscaping. The survey found that 91 percent of Americans believe it is important to live in close proximity to trees, grass, or nice landscaping. Midwesterners are the most likely to rate the importance of landscaping the highest (at 94%), followed by the West (89%) and Northeast (87%).

"Across the board, the survey…

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Source: Forbes.com

Matt Clawson, Houzz Contributor

You might think you are the master of your own remodel, but sadly, it’s not always so. Remodels sometimes have a tendency to develop their own inertia, as decisions lead to new dilemmas, unintended consequences and surprising outcomes. In some cases, these flights of fancy are perfectly acceptable, provided the design and completed execution truly align with the vision and budget.

But if your budget is a concern, and the wise investment of limited home improvement dollars matters, then there are a few basic guidelines you should familiarize yourself with before planning your remodel. Here we review five remodels that typically make good financial sense, providing a nice return on the…

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