Hang the twinkling lights, break out the flower crowns, and don’t forget the Mason jar candle holders, because a Pinterest-perfect farmhouse wedding venue is this week’s most popular home on realtor.com®. The meticulously manicured 10-acre spread is a romantic spot tailor-made for a party—and Instagram. Hashtags not included.
On the market for $695,000, the Michigan property provides a turn-key wedding barn, reception hall, outdoor bar, and fire pit. There’s also a five-bedroom main house that’s ideal for the future proprietor of this clickworthy business opportunity.
Other properties you clicked on this week include a massive castle built by an oral surgeon in Wisconsin over the course of a decade, a classic SoCal home that was the scene of a notorious murder, and an over-the-top decor explosion in Detroit still awaiting a buyer.
It’s been a week of style-forward searches—all of this week’s most popular homes have their own distinct aesthetic and point of view. Strike a pose and have a look… See all 10 of the homes HERE!
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An extremely skinny New York home is this week’s most popular property on realtor.com®. The svelte and tiny home was built during the Great Depression, with sheer ingenuity and the kindness of neighbors.
After losing his home and his business, Nathan Seely was given a 1,200-square-foot plot of land by his neighbor Panfilo Santangelo in Mamaroneck, NY in 1932. Seely, who is reputed to be one of New York’s first African-American home builders, created something unforgettable—even beautiful—on the tiny plot of land.
Using recycled materials, including chicken coops and railroad ties, Seely built a home and a piece of history that’s been lovingly maintained and updated by the Seely and Santangelo families ever since.
On the market for $275,000, the slim structure has also achieved historic recognition. The Skinny House in Mamaroneck was placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2015.
The same renegade spirit runs throughout this week’s list of most searched properties—nearly all of them are one-of-a-kind places created by people with dreams of living somewhere special.
There’s a modern masterpiece built on the bluffs of the Mississippi River for wildlife viewing, then there are seasonal cabins and cottages steeped in nature, as well as country homes ringed by ancient trees. For good measure, our list even includes an oceanfront mansion that once belonged to one of America’s true heroes, Ruth Wakefield, inventor of the chocolate chip cookie.
So pour a glass of milk and chomp your way through the entire list of this week’s most popular homes…
A working ranch larger than the city of San Francisco is asking $72 million. The property, just 40 miles from Oakland, is believed to be the largest piece of land for sale in the state of California, according to the listing agent.
At 50,500 acres, the property accommodates up to 1,500 cow and calf pairs. The right buyer is someone who “wants to relive the Old West,” said listing agent Todd Renfrew of California Outdoor Properties.
The N3 Cattle Company ranch has been in the same family for about 85 years and spans four counties, including Santa Clara County, Alameda County, San Joaquin County and Stanislaus County.
It has a diverse terrain that includes watersheds, creeks, steep canyons, woodlands, meadows, ponds and rock outcroppings, and it is sprinkled with hunting cabins, Mr. Renfrew said. At its high point, the ranch has an elevation of about 4,000 feet. The main house is a low-slung four-bedroom home, and there are four cabins used for employee housing.
The property also includes 200 miles of private roads for hiking, trail-running, mountain biking and all-terrain vehicles.
The sellers are sisters and fourth-generation ranchers Sandra Naftzger and Natalie Naftzger Davis. Their family has been cattle ranching for 135 years in Arizona, California and Oregon, Sandra Naftzger said. The original parcels for the California ranch were purchased in the 1930s and 1940s by their grandmother, and their father, Roy Edgar “Ted” Naftzger, Jr., expanded it significantly through the 1980s.
The sisters spent much of their childhood on the ranch, Sandra Naftzger said, and have been operating the property for the last 20 years. “My father was all business,” she added. “We were always taught to be respectful of the cattle operation. We’d be spending time with the managers and the buckaroos. It takes a village.”
Sandra Naftzger said she and her sister are selling because they are ready to move on.
For many Americans, the ultimate summertime fantasy has less to do with washboard abs and a killer tan than owning their own piece of beachfront real estate — aka bliss. From Memorial Day through Labor Day (and beyond), beach lovers across the U.S. find themselves dreaming of escaping the hellish deadlines, soul-sucking commutes, and humdrum daily grind — and trading it all in for salty ocean breezes, caipirinhas on the sand, and fresh lobster rolls from a seafood joint around the corner.
Now just imagine doing it from your very own place.
There’s just one problem: Conventional wisdom suggests that only the seriously loaded can afford to own prime beach–area real estate. But we’re here to tell you that you don’t need seven-figure bank balances to make this sunny reverie into a reality. You just have to find the right beach town, one serving up a magical combo of home affordability and surfy satisfaction.
That’s where the sunburned data team at realtor.com® comes in. As we do every summer, we scoured the U.S.’s 95,471 miles of shoreline to locate the most affordable beach towns in the nation. What we discovered were a sometimes surprising selection of sun-and-sand options that are a lot more financially feasible than a “country cottage” in the Hamptons or Malibu, Calif.
And we never lose sight of a very important fact: A beach home is more than a dream, it’s an investment.
So, what’s the key to avoiding a financial belly-flop of a beach house?
“At the outset, you should have some exit strategy,” says James H. Boykin, author of “Investing in a Vacation Home for Pleasure and Profit.”
In other words, getting into a sweet place with plenty of peace and quiet might be easy. But if you buy in a place that’s not desirable to other beachgoers, you might have a hard time selling or renting it out.
To find America’s most affordable beach towns, our number-crunching ninjas located the country’s biggest metropolitan areas with the highest share of listings with keywords such as “beach,” “beachfront,” and “ocean.” (Metros include an area’s main city and its surrounding suburbs, exurbs, and urban areas.) Then we made sure these markets had lots of fun water-based activities, narrowing our list to the places that boast the highest percentage of things like rafting, kayaking, surfing, boating, and fishing on Yelp.com. We then ranked these metros based on their median prices for the 12-month period of May 2018 to April 2019.
Fannie Mae survey reveals widespread lack of mortgage knowledge
When it comes to obtaining a mortgage, the majority of consumers think it requires a higher credit score and larger down payment than is actually necessary, according to a recent survey by Fannie Mae.
Of the 3,647 surveyed consumers, most vastly overestimated the requirements to obtain a mortgage. Specifically, 53% thought a credit score of 650 was required, when many lenders actually allow a score of 580.
And, when asked how much money a borrower is required to put down, 40% said they didn’t know. Of those who did have an idea, they cited 10% as a required minimum, while a number of programs offer as little as 3% down.
Only 23% of respondents were aware of low-down payment programs, up just 1% from three years earlier.
Further, when it came to debt-to-income ratios, consumers were equally confused, with as many as 61% saying they didn’t know – up from 59% three years ago. Of those who did provide a guess, they cited 40% as the required DTI, when many lenders actually approve 50%.
Fannie Mae’s survey also revealed that even those who were preparing to purchase a home in the next few years were only slightly more confident and more knowledgeable than the rest.
“The lack of mortgage qualification understanding is pervasive, even among current homeowners, those who say they are actively planning to purchase a home in the next three years, and those who successfully answered questions testing general financial literacy,” the researchers wrote.
A flour mill magically transformed into a modern, rustic-chic sanctuary is the week’s most popular home on realtor.com®.
Built in 1876 and perched on the banks of the Raritan River, the Neshanic Mill is a local landmark in Hillsborough Township, NJ. It even graces the “Welcome to Hillsborough” sign at the edge of town.
If the popularity of the listing is any indication, there are plenty of buyers interested in scrounging up enough grist to make an offer.
The old mill bested pretty stiff competition this week. “Real Housewives of New York” fan favorite Ramona Singer dropped the price on her NYC pad and seems to have found a buyer. Another “Real Housewife”—this one from Potomac, NJ—is attached to a popular home reportedly being sold by her estranged husband.
Besides these notable names, this week’s list includes several gawkworthy properties including a luxe waterfront San Diego beach house and a time capsule midcentury bed-and-breakfast in Texas—with all the furnishings included.
But despite fame, flash, and notoriety, it’s the little flour mill from the 1870s that ground the competition into dust. Have a look at all this week’s most popular properties by scrolling on down…
A recent sharp drop in mortgage rates hasn’t unlocked savings just for those looking to purchase a home—homeowners may also benefit. About 5.9 million borrowers could see their rates drop by at least 75 basis points by refinancing their mortgages, according to Black Knight, a mortgage software and analytics firm. That is up by 2 million in the past month alone.
That’s the largest population of eligible borrower candidates in nearly three years for savings. The savings could add up to about $271 per month per borrower.
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped below 4% recently, averaging 3.94% in the latest week.
If rates drop another quarter point, Black Knight estimates that 7 million borrowers could then potentially benefit from refinancing their home mortgage.
The drop in mortgage rates is also boosting affordability for home shoppers. The monthly payment on an average-priced home (assuming a 20% down payment) has fallen 6% over the past six months
“When we factor income into the equation, we see that it takes 22% of the median income to purchase the average-priced home,” notes Ben Graboske, president of Black Knight’s data and analytics division. “That’s the lowest payment-to-income ratio in more than a year as well, and far below the long-term average of 25.1%.”
Also, as of May, the monthly payment required to purchase the average-priced house with 20% down is $1,173, the lowest such payment in more than a year.
Economists say rates are dropping due to trade war disputes with China and Mexico. That is prompting lower yields as investors to flock to the bond market, which is typically viewed as a safety net. Mortgage rates loosely follow yields on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note.
We’ll just clean this up in a week, right?Sally Herigstad
I live in a house with a gorgeous in-ground pool. When my husband and I bought the property in 2012, I swooned over visions of pool parties filled with floaties and endless summer fun.
It’s a good thing I didn’t start sending out those pool party invitations too soon. Because first, we had to figure out how to repair and maintain a swimming pool, which is no small task. Here are a few things I learned about what it takes to have a home with a pool.
Lesson No. 1: Renovating a run-down pool will drain your bank account dry
The home we’d purchased was a distressed property near Seattle that had been empty for years. Thieves had stolen anything they could, including equipment and wiring. My neighbor talked about chasing off groups of teenagers who trespassed onto the empty property and sat around the pool, throwing rocks and bottles into the water. By the time we’d bought the place, the pool water wasn’t just green. It was a menacing green, a black, lumpy morass.
We were about to discover just how expensive and harrowing pool repair can get.
For one, the pool equipment needed to be replaced. A new, energy-efficient heat pump cost $4,500. We bought a pool-cleaning robot for about $800. Just to get the pool running, we spent about $10,000.
It wasn’t just money, either. Because draining a fiberglass pool can cause the shell to shift, we had to actually clean the existing water in the pool rather than draining it. So we spent weeks dragging rubbish and rotting debris out of the murky depths. We evicted hundreds of croaking frogs and salamanders. We cleaned out gallons of pine needle sludge before the pool was even clean enough to start using the pool robot.
The day we could see the bottom of the pool was a long-awaited victory.
Lesson No. 2: Once it’s up and running, swimming pools rock!
And yet: Once all the repairs were done, our first pool party had me hooked! Friends came, and friends of friends. They brought food, and babies, and laughter! It’s a good thing I live in the country, because the shrieking and carrying on would have been heard for blocks away in the city.
I discovered why playing in a home pool is much better than going to a lake or a public pool. I control the temperature, for one thing. (I think 86 degrees is about right.) I test the water myself, so I know the chemicals are all just so. We follow our own rules, with all the floaty toys and basketball games we want.
Lesson No. 3: Even when your pool is fixed, maintenance costs a pretty penny
I’ll admit that my expectations of pool ownership were different from the reality. I had thought that once it was fixed up, we could add a few chemicals and run the pump filters every so often, and spend long, lazy summers lounging by the pool.
First, we live in the Pacific Northwest. So which long, lazy summers? You don’t know how short our summers are until you’re scanning the weather report, looking for enough sunshine to open the pool. I’m lucky if my pool doesn’t look more like this:
Second, pools require a lot of maintenance, and inevitably, repairs. Sometimes we say we should just throw cash in the water, for all the chemicals we buy and dump in the pool. Last year, the pipes sprang a leak, and the summer was half over before it was working again. We spend a significant portion of every summer working on our pool. Last summer, we spent about $500 on repairs, plus another $200 on chemicals.
