As the pandemic rages on, owners of short-term rentals are readjusting their lease terms and hoping guests will stay longer than a few nights. Booking.com, a website for making accommodations, announced that it’s looking to introduce “extended stays,” and Airbnb has created a “monthly stay” category. Some hotels, such as Red Lion Hotels chain, are…

Americans are taking a greater interest in the aesthetics of their spaces. Share these trending stories online to connect with homeowners interested in sprucing up their spaces and help potential buyers envision their new home. The following are the top five home design stories at REALTOR® Magazine for 2020. 1. How to Best Navigate New Color Trends…

Prior to the pandemic, home offices were losing some clout. No longer tethered to a cord, homeowners found they could work from anywhere—the kitchen table or the local coffee shop. But now the home office is being spotlighted in homes and gaining prominence in real estate listings. Homeowners are craving a dedicated space for a…

Mortgages are now taking an average of nearly two months to close as lenders face a surge in business spurred by low mortgage rates and high demand. The average time it took a mortgage to close in November was 55 days, according to Ellie Mae’s Origination Insight Report. The 55-day average wait is proving problematic for…

An increasing number of homeowners’ mortgages are in forbearance as more owners take advantage of COVID-19 relief assistance from lenders before the end of the year. About 37,000 more mortgages were added to forbearance during the week ending Dec. 15, bringing the total to 2.787 million loans. That represents about 5.3% of the nation’s 53…

More Americans are taking out mortgages this year, the level of which is on pace to top that of the housing boom in the 2000s. And borrowers are saving hundreds of dollars per month by locking in the lowest mortgage rates in history. In the first nine months of 2020, lenders issued $2.8 trillion in mortgage…

Some real estate pros are having their best year ever for home sales, despite the pandemic. Existing-home sales in November climbed 25.8% compared to last year, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Tuesday. Existing-home sales—completed transactions on single-family homes, townhomes, condos, and co-ops—did dip down by 2.5% in November compared to October’s unseasonably high levels,…

Many renters have transitioned into homeownership during the pandemic, and rental demand and prices are dropping in major cities like New York and San Francisco, ApartmentList reports. “The pandemic is likely to change the expectations and behaviors of renters for an extended period, as people grew accustomed to conducting virtual real estate tours and finalizing…

More consumers are being drawn to new-home construction and home builders are rapidly filling orders. But they’re struggling to keep pace as challenges within the industry mount. Single-family starts flattened in November as builders struggled to meet demand, the U.S. Census Bureau reported this week. Overall housing starts rose 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual…

The Federal Reserve left borrowing costs at record lows on Wednesday, while acknowledging there’s still a long way to go as the nation’s economy heals from the COVID-19 outbreak. The key rate acts as a benchmark for borrowing and savings. Interest rates will remain at 0% to 0.25%, which they have since March. The Fed’s…