If you're in the market to buy a home, you'll be choosing a house from those listed for sale in your area, unless you hire a builder and architect to construct a home to your exact specifications. That means, to some extent, your choices are limited. In today's market, that's …

Following the housing crash and financial crisis, there was talk that Americans may stop aspiring to homeownership and would no longer see the housing market as a sound investment and reliable creator of wealth. After all, homeowners who saw the values of their homes plummet might become leery and those …

Over the past few years, rising buyer demand combined with a lower-than-normal number of homes for sale has led to higher home prices in markets across the country. And, though the rate at which prices have increased may differ from one market to the next, affordability conditions aren't what they …

Saving for a down payment is one of the biggest obstacles first-time home buyers face. While repeat buyers can use the sale of their home to help fund a down payment on a new house, first timers have to save from scratch. And this can be difficult when also facing …

If you're shopping for a house to buy, you're probably concerned about affordability. After all, even in a buyer's market, house hunters have an interest in getting the best deal. Which means, most prospective home buyers have an eye on home prices and where they're headed. In today's market, the …

As everyone knows, real estate is mostly about location. What $500,000 buys you in one neighborhood will be far different than what it affords you in another. Put another way, your money will go a lot farther in the Midwest than it will on the West Coast. Which is why …

If you were asked to name a hot home design trend, you probably wouldn't guess log homes. And yet, new data from the National Association of Home Builders shows last year's sales of log and timber homes were 56% higher than in 2012. That's a big jump. So what's behind …

New homes are generally more expensive than existing homes. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that everything in a new home is brand new and you're going to pay a premium for that. This is really no different than paying more for an older home that's …

The challenge of finding an affordable entry-level home in today's housing market gets a lot of coverage. First-time buyers facing higher rent, difficulty saving for a down payment, and low inventory are an important demographic and their habits have implications for the overall health of the market. But, at …

There are two reasons home buyers typically have to pay more for a house on the water. The first is that people want to live on the water. It's a desirable location. Secondly, there are a limited number of houses with water access. And when you combine high demand and …