Americans Recover $7 Trillion In Home Wealth as Prices Firm
In March 2014, Steven and Bernadette Doherty paid $183,000 for a two-bedroom home in Charlotte, N.C., $6,000 more than its appraised value. Today, similar houses in the neighborhood are being priced at $300,000 or more. “We bought at the right time,” said Bernadette, a retired Wells Fargo & Co. information technology worker. “In retrospect, we were lucky as prices have gone up so much more.” Home-price appreciation is a welcome...
Cater to Boomers or Millennials? Homebuilders Caught in Between
Las Vegas — The U.S. housing industry is being pulled in two directions. Baby boomers with big housing bucks to spend still rank at the top of many builders’ customer lists. But rising sales to millions of millennials have sent builders scrambling to tailor houses for the next generation of buyers. “Millennials are really coming into the market in significant numbers,” Dan DiClerico of Consumer Reports told homebuilders from around...
Student Who Rented Dorm On Airbnb Faces Punishment
Boston — College students have always come up with creative ways to pay tuition. They’ve been known to live off ramen noodles, and more recently, the loan-burdened but intrepid have tried crowdfunding their education. No wonder, then, that a sophomore at Emerson College recently attempted to get back a slice of the price he has paid by listing his Boston dorm room on Airbnb last month. According to the Boston Globe, 19-year-old Jack...
New York City Eyes ‘Micro’ Apartments
New York — The apartments in a new Manhattan building boast little balconies, tall ceilings, dishwashers and storage space. All in 360 square feet or less. It’s micro-living in the nation’s biggest city, and New Yorkers could be seeing more of it. Planning officials are proposing to end a limit on how small apartments can be, opening the door for more “micro-apartments” that advocates see as affordable adaptations to a growing...
Rembrandt Foods Joins Push Toward Cage-Free Eggs
Minneapolis — As McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, General Mills and other corporate egg buyers increasingly require roomier housing for hens, the egg industry is under pressure to move toward a future that’s freer of cramped bird cages. Earlier this month, Iowa-based Rembrandt Foods, the nation’s third-largest egg producer, became the latest to make a long-term commitment to producing cage-free eggs. The company plans to announce a major new...
