5 New Year's Resolutions for Your Home

Every year when January rolls around you vow to lose weight, save money or spend more time with family and friends. But what goals do you set for your home?

Here are our five picks for the best home improvement resolutions for the new year and how to achieve them:

1. Streamline the stuff

One of the best and least expensive ways to feel better about your home is to clear it of clutter.

Each year most of us acquire a mountain of stuff. Without some regular purging, cabinets and drawers get jam-packed and it becomes hard to find the things you use and enjoy the most. (All that clutter also makes your house look dated and dirty, designers say.)

This year resolve to go room-by-room periodically clearing anything that you don't use, wear or love and donate it to charity. After that, think twice about what you bring in, says Antoinette Nue, an Atlanta consultant who specializes in helping people simplify and go green.

"Fill your home with the things that raise your energy level and make you feel good, and get rid of the things that drain your energy or are broken," she says.

Stash useful (but not beautiful) items such as DVDs, remotes and those kicked-off shoes in simple woven baskets. Group similar items together on sleek trays, says Stuart McCormick, a designer with Liz Levin Interiors in Washington D.C.

Clear your counters of everything you don't use on a daily basis. And get ready to breathe a little easier in your own home. 

2. Make it safe and sound

Your home may be beautiful, but is it safe? There are a few things that every homeowner should do to ensure that they're not living with a potential health hazard or fire risk.

First, check your house for radon. This colorless, odorless gas causes about 21,000 lung cancer deaths each year from the radioactive particles it traps in your lungs as you breathe, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. One in every fifteen homes has elevated levels. And with test kits costing as little as $20 at your local hardware store, there's no reason not to get right on that.

While we're on the subject of deadly gas, make sure you install a carbon monoxide detector on every bedroom floor in addition to fire detectors. If a chimney flue or furnace vent gets blocked or leaks, carbon monoxide could back up in your house and kill you. Like a radon test, this is a small investment — $40 or more — for such an important safeguard.

Watch out for dryer lint. We know you clean the little trap inside the door, but most people neglect to clean the vents and ducts behind the dryer. Lint may seem innocent, but it's highly combustible, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, accounting for more than 15,000 building fires a year.

Make sure your house can breathe. Hickory Hills, Ill. home inspector Jack McGraw is always surprised at how many people's bathrooms and attics aren't vented to the outside (or the vents are covered over with shingles.) This makes you a prime candidate for mold.

And if you're considering a remodel — and your home was last built or remodeled before 1978 — consider testing for lead paint and asbestos flooring. It will have to handled properly during removal, or particles can be released into the air for you to ingest.

3. Shrink your bills (and your carbon footprint in the process)

When people think of going green, they often think it takes solar panels or a hybrid car to make a difference.

Not so, says Bob Schildgen, who wrote the "Hey Mr. Green" column for Sierra magazine. It just takes a little old-fashioned common sense.

The best place to start is by cutting your energy usage in your home:

- Remember your mom's advice and switch off the lights when you leave a room.

- Turn off your air conditioner when you leave the house and dial your heater down to 55 degrees at night.

- Install LED bulbs and low-flow showerheads.

- Try drying some of your clothes on the line and wait for the dishwasher or washing machine to be full before you run them.

- Turn off your power strips and/or set your home computer to revert to sleep mode when not in use.

- Water your yard less. Put in drought-tolerant landscaping if necessary.

- Give composting a try. Your garden will thank you.

4. Work out a weekly system for keeping your house clean

Here are a few tips for keeping the mess under control from Jeff Campbell, author of the book Speed Cleaning and owner of the Clean Team housekeeping service in San Francisco.

Daily: Dishes go in the dishwasher every night - no excuses! Dirty clothes go in the hamper and jackets or clean clothes are hung in the closet. Bring everything back to its assigned place.

Weekly: Clean your entire house, using these tips:

- Keep all of your cleaners, as well as rubber gloves and spare cleaning cloths - in a portable carryall that moves with you from room to room.

- Stash cleaning implements such as a toothbrush, scraper, sponge, a few cleaning cloths and plastic bags in a builder's apron that you wear when you clean. Hook your glass cleaner and all-purpose cleaning spray on the loops to keep your hands free as you work around the room clockwise, cleaning from high (cabinets) to low (floors.)

- Focus on one type of cleaning at a time. It's faster, Campbell says. Wipe down fingerprints on all of the cabinets, for instance, before moving on to spraying and wiping counters. Then move on to windows and mirrors and appliances. Once that's done move on to sweeping and then mopping floors.

- For optimum efficiency, enlist the help of your family. If you can, divide the jobs among at least three parties: One of you can do the dusting/vacuuming and changing beds, the other can do the bathroom cleanup, leaving only the kitchen and trash emptying for you to handle. The upside? You can get the whole house done in 45 minutes, Campbell says, leaving more time on the weekends for the park or the movies.

5, Get your place ready for entertaining

Each year most of us vow to spend more time with family and friends. To make you feel like inviting people in, why not give the areas you entertain in a little update?

You don't have go for broke here and invest in a new kitchen remodel. All it takes to get a fresh new look is a little bit of rearranging and a few updates, says designer McCormick.

One easy update that makes your home seem more "finished" is the addition of plants, she says.

"They bring in new energy and help clean the air," she says. "And it's a great way to decorate if you're on a budget."

A couple of dramatic presentations like a large flowering agapanthus or potted palm in a bright ceramic planter that complements your existing color scheme will do the trick.

Pulling out a new accent color from your existing decor can make the whole room seem fresh. Pick an underused color in the room and add more of it in the form of a new pillow or throw to update your look, McCormick advises. A colorful rug or runner can also help anchor your space.

Lastly, take some time to rearrange your furniture so it is oriented in conversation groups and not just facing the television. That just might up for chances for real conversation and connection in the New Year.

Read more at HGTV

Related Links

• The two big housing market trends to watch in 2025

• What You Need To Know About Taxes When Selling A Home

• No View, No Problem: How to Improve The View From Your Property

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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The two big housing market trends to watch in 2025

All the housing market data for 2024 is in, and it’s fair to say that the housing market surprised us again! However, there are two big trends that stand out as we launch into 2025 — affordability and sellers in the market.

The elephant in the room is affordability. Home prices finished 2024 up a few percent nationally and mortgage rates are at their highest level in seven months — back over 7% as we head into January. In fact, at $2,290, the typical mortgage payment for homebuyers is starting this next year at the highest level ever.

There are a few markets in the South where home prices have inched down recently — and every bit helps buyers — but those prices have not adjusted much, and there’s no sign of any major correction in the works. In 2025, housing affordability in the U.S. remains at it’s worst levels in decades. 

In the last few months, the market finally saw some sales growth over the previous year. That growth is in jeopardy if we stay at the high end of the mortgage rate range into the first quarter 2025. Homes are already staying on the market 20% longer than a year ago. The fastest path to changing affordability is a change in interest rates, but there’s no guarantee that rates will fall.

In the HousingWire mortgage rate forecast for 2025, we included the possibility of a five handle during the year. What’s the scenario where mortgage rates drop over 100 basis points in 2025? If we get lucky on economic news and spreads continue to tighten a bit, we could see some alleviation to the affordability vice everyone is now in.

The other trend to watch is whether we finally have more sellers entering the market in 2025. The three years in the post-pandemic housing market have been marked by very few sellers — 60,000 new listings in a given week vs. 80,000 in years’ past. There are some signals that seller volume is starting to creep back to normal levels.

Let’s look at this week’s data and see if we can tease out the signals for impact on the 2025 housing market.

Inventory continues to contract

There are now 651,000 single-family homes unsold on the market across the U.S. That’s 2.5% fewer than a week prior. It’s the holidays, of course. We’ll see another week of inventory contraction this week with New Year’s mid-week. 

Some years, when demand is stronger, the available inventory of unsold homes keeps shrinking until February or March. But demand is not strong nationally, so we expect inventory to bounce along under 650,000 homes in January and start ticking up by February.

Inventory is increasing in basically every market around the country. The Sun Belt markets have led inventory growth with the northern markets much tighter, but we see this disparity evening out a bit in 2025.

New listings are low

As we look deeper into the supply side of the market, there were 32,500 new listings unsold this week. That’s very low over the holidays. But, it’s notable that, for this last week of the year, there were more new listings this week than the same week for the past six or seven years. 

It’s hard to measure precisely with the holidays, but 32,000 is 33% more than hit the market in the 52nd week of the year in 2023. This is probably related to when the holiday hits on the day of the week. The thing to keep an eye on is that each week in December, we had much more “normal” levels of new listings each week.

These are unsold new listings. There’s another set of sellers that we call “immediate sales.” These are the houses that get listed and take offers immediately after listing. They don’t ever add to the active inventory as they’re already sold. When we include these new listings, there were 21% more sellers than a year ago. 

We’ve been averaging 8% more sellers each week. There were only 5,000 immediate sales this week. That’s the fewest since we started measuring this phenomenon during the pandemic. Again, it’s the holidays, so there’s a lot of noise around the day of the week that Christmas and New Year’s fall so. Keep an eye on the new listings counts as we round into the first quarter of 2025. It could be that the shortage of sellers is finally abating. 

Total pendings increase

When we look at sales volumes, there are 269,000 single-family homes under contract. That’s 4.25% more than where we ended 2023. It’s the end of the year, so there are 8% fewer homes under contract now than from the week before Christmas. This is the week of the New Year’s holiday, so we’ll have one more week of declining home sales before the January uptick begins. 

This chart is of the total count of single-family homes under contract. Each line is a year. The red lines are 2024 and 2023, which had very few home sales, that that’s just starting to increase. At the left end of the chart you can see that 2025 is starting just above the previous years. These are contracts pending, so these are sales that will close in January. 

There are 30% fewer home sales in process than at the start of 2022 when the pandemic frenzy was still underway. Still you can see why we’re forecasting 2025 to have 5% sales growth over 2024

It’s going to be fascinating to watch home sales next month. How sensitive are homebuyers to 7% mortgage rates and this latest affordability punch? Do we lose all of the sales momentum that we’ve seen lately?

The new pendings average is down to 44,000, the recent four weeks includes both Christmas week and the late Thanksgiving week this year. Still the week new pendings average is only 1.3% above last year. Keep your eyes on the pendings data. I remain optimistic that we’ll see some sales growth in 2025.

Home prices lead to the affordability challenge

Let’s move on to home prices and the affordability challenge. Nationally, home prices are starting 2025 at $395,000 which is 4% higher than a year ago. If you follow the Altos Research data each week, this won’t surprise you. Even when home sales are low, when inventory of unsold homes is building around the country, and when affordability is at crisis levels — home prices have not fallen. In fact, they’re inching up. 

In this view we have the median price of all the homes in contract. The red line from 2024 across the top shows how prices cluster right at the big round numbers, in this case, $400,000 for most of the year. 

It turns out that due to a huge number of factors, including seller psychology and legal and tax reasons, it’s rare that home prices fall year over year. This view shows us 2022, when after the pandemic mortgage rates spiked way up — higher and faster than anyone anticipated.

The important lesson from the data is that while affordability is the paramount issue for homebuyers, we haven’t seen any signal that the price of homes will correct down.

Price reductions higher than in Q1 2024

Finally, let’s look at the leading indicators for home prices as we start 2025. There are currently 36% of the homes on the market that have taken a price cut from the original list price. That’s more than we started 2024, which indicates slightly weaker supply-demand balance than a year ago. There are 27% more homes on the market, and only 4% more sales, so you can see why slightly more sellers are trying a price reduction than a year ago. 

Still, this number is not tremendously high. It’ll keep falling this spring with fresh inventory and new buyers for the next few months. If mortgage rates stay over 7% that’ll keep a lid on buyer demand and some of those sellers won’t get the offers they were hoping for. Buyers are perfectly happy to wait, while sellers have to act. 

These price reductions are a leading indicator for future sales prices. The number is elevated now, and with 7% mortgage rates to start 2025, we’re going to see right here how much home buyers care about this affordability hit.

Read more at Housingwire

Related Links

• The Biggest Perks of Buying a Home This Winter

• What You Need To Know About Taxes When Selling A Home

• No View, No Problem: How to Improve The View From Your Property

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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The Biggest Perks of Buying a Home This Winter

Waiting for perfect market conditions often means missing out. Because what you may not realize is, if you’re ready and able to buy, this time of year could actually give you an edge. Here’s why. As the weather cools down, the housing market can too – and that works in your favor.

You Likely Won’t Feel as Rushed

Homes tend to take a little longer to sell during this time of year. Data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows the average time a house sits on the market jumps up during the winter months.

This is partly because fewer buyers are active at this time of year – and that decrease in buyer competition means the houses that are on the market aren’t going to be snatched up as quickly. So, if you decide to buy a home in the next couple of months, you’ll likely have more time to consider your options and negotiate a deal without feeling as pressured.

Sellers May Be More Willing To Negotiate

And since homes generally take longer to sell during the winter, sellers are often more motivated to close a deal. That can work in your favor, too. According to NAR:

“Less competition can lead to better deals. While homes are not selling as fast as during the summer, sellers may be more willing to negotiate.”

Whether it’s compromising on price, covering closing costs or repairs, or including extras like appliances, you have more room to ask for what you need.

Homes Are Less Expensive in the Winter

With less competition from other buyers and sellers who are more willing to negotiate, you may see slightly lower prices too. In fact, according to NAR, homes are typically about 5% less expensive now compared to when prices normally peak in the summer.

That might not seem like a huge difference, but on a $400,000 home, it could mean savings of $20,000 on the purchase price.

You can see this expected seasonal shift in home prices taking place this year. Take a look at the graph below showing the median sales price of existing homes (homes that were previously owned) over the past 12 months. You’ll notice in the green bars that prices were lower in the winter months last year, and it seems like that’s going to happen again this year. That gives you the chance to make your budget go further:

Bottom Line

Buying a home during the winter means less competition, motivated sellers, and potentially lower prices, too. Work with a local real estate agent to find the right one at the right price for you.

Read more at Keeping Current Matters

Related Links

• FHFA finalizes new housing goals for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

• What You Need To Know About Taxes When Selling A Home

• No View, No Problem: How to Improve The View From Your Property

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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What You Need To Know About Taxes When Selling A Home

The tax rules for a home sale are pretty clear-cut, yet I continue to speak with people who are confused about what they will owe if they were to sell their primary residence.

This confusion may be due to so few people owing taxes when they sell their primary residence. Another reason for the confusion may be how rarely people buy and sell a home. Here is what you need to know about taxes when selling a home:

How Can You Make Your Home Sale Tax-Free?

As you may or may not know, selling real estate is a taxable event. However, in the past, only some primary residence sales were subject to taxation. Thanks to former President Bill Clinton and the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act, homeowners can exclude the first $250,000 ($500,000 for married filing jointly) of gains from the sale of a primary residence. That's assuming they meet certain requirements. Pretty good deal, right?

With the median home price in the U.S. well below the $500,000 price point, a vast majority of sales will not have any capital gains taxes due when sold. Of course, more homeowners will see gains above the $500,000 mark in more expensive parts of the country. From there, they will only owe taxes on gains above the $250,000/$500,000 profit levels. This tax break could potentially save a married couple between $75,000 and $111,000 in federal taxes and more if you include taxes at the state level.

I also want to point out that losses are not deductible on primary residences. If you sell a home for less than the purchase price, you are just out of luck. Also, know that you don’t have to roll over the proceeds into a new property to get the tax exclusion. For whatever reason, that question still comes up quite often.

Who Qualifies For A Real Estate Primary Home Tax Break?

There is only one relatively easy hurdle to get over to benefit from this valuable real estate tax break. You need to live in the home as your primary residence for a total of two of the last five years. You potentially can claim this exemption every two years, thereby possibly sheltering millions of dollars in capital gains over your lifetime.

The Two-Out-Of-Five-Year Real Estate Rule: What Homeowners Need To Know

If you find yourself trying to sell your home before living in it for two years, you might qualify for a prorated tax exclusion. The early home sale should result from employment issues, illness or another unforeseen circumstance out of your direct control, which potentially would make you eligible for a partial tax exclusion.

For many homeowners, even a partial exclusion could be enough to not owe taxes on the sale of a primary residence. Let’s say you are single, lived in your home for one year and had a $125,000 increase in value after paying closing costs and real estate fees. You could assume a prorated exclusion of half of the $250,000 available to single homeowners. Voila! No capital gains are due. These numbers could be doubled for a married couple.

The Real Cost Basis Of Your Home

Most of us can remember what we paid for our home. You might falsely assume that this is your home's cost basis. You might also falsely assume your capital gains taxes will be based on the selling price minus your purchase price. The reality is a bit more complex. Capital gains taxes on real estate will be based on the home's sale price (minus real estate fees and closing costs) minus the cost basis of the house.

The purchase price will play a part in determining the property tax basis. You may be able to increase the cost basis when considering certain expenses that you’ve incurred while owning the home. Think of things like a new roof, adding more square footage or ADUs, or remodeling.

Work with your tax preparer and tax-focused CFP to ensure you understand how these rules apply to you before selling a home. Even if you aren’t planning on selling anytime soon, keep track of expenses that can increase your cost basis on your primary residence. As you can imagine, it’s easier than you think to miss expenses from last year or even decades ago. That might be especially true if you were trying to block out how much that kitchen remodel was over budget a few years ago.

Read more at Forbes

Related Links

• FHFA finalizes new housing goals for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

• The #1 Reason People Move: To Be Closer to Family and Friends

• No View, No Problem: How to Improve The View From Your Property

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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FHFA finalizes new housing goals for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

The agency announced the final rule on Thursday, establishing new affordable housing goals for loans purchased by the GSEs over the next three years.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week announced a new final rule establishing affordable housing goals for the loan purchases of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2025 through 2027.

The goals, originally proposed in August, are largely unchanged from the initial draft. They are designed to “support equitable housing access for low-income families and families in low-income areas,” according to an announcement.

On the single-family side, 25% of the purchase mortgages acquired by Fannie and Freddie must go to borrowers earning less than 80% of the area median income (AMI), a decline from the 28% required in the previously outlined goals.

In line with the August proposal, there is also a new goal for very low-income purchases (for borrowers earning less than 50% AMI). The GSEs must allocate 6% of their purchases in this area, down from 7% in the previous plan. The low-income refinance goal of 26% as proposed is unchanged, as is the purchase subgoal for low-income census tracts at 4%. A purchase subgoal for minority census tracts is now 12%, up from the current 10%.

“The affordable housing goals better enable the Enterprises to effectively advance their missions and support housing finance markets in a safe and sound manner,” FHFA Director Sandra Thompson said in a statement. “It is critical that the Enterprises meet these goals, as required by law and regulation.”

For the single-family goals, “the Enterprises must meet the benchmark level or the actual market level of loans for each category,” the agency explained. “The actual market level is determined retrospectively for the year based on Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data.”

The goals also establish what FHFA calls “measurement buffers,” which help to determine what to do if either GSE fails to meet a goal. In these instances, the enterprise “must develop a housing plan (which is an action plan to demonstrate how it will improve its performance),” the FHFA explained.

A housing plan may be required if Fannie or Freddie “fails to meet a goal and the gap between the Enterprise’s performance and the market level is greater than the buffer defined in the final rule,” the agency stated.

The final rule is scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 27, 2025, or 60 days following its publication in the Federal Register.

Read more at Housingwire

Related Links

• What the Fed's December rate cut means for mortgage interest rates

• The #1 Reason People Move: To Be Closer to Family and Friends

• No View, No Problem: How to Improve The View From Your Property

If there is a home that you would like more information about, if you are considering selling a property, or if you have questions about the housing market in your neighborhood, please reach out. We’re here to help.

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