Housing Chatter delivers the news you need to know about current events in the housing market in simple terms. We have no political or institutional affiliations so you can be confident that our content and commentary is unbiased. Housing Chatter is brought to you by your professional Realtor®.

4 mortgage secrets only your broker knows

Taking out a mortgage loan to buy a home is a huge investment — probably the biggest you’ll ever make. That’s why it’s important to cut as many costs of applying for a mortgage loan as possible. Who knows best how to reduce these costs? Mortgage lenders, of course. Here are four secrets that your lender should be sharing with you. Knowing these tips can sa ... Read More »

ASK A FINANCIAL PLANNER: ‘Should I pay off my mortgage early?’

Certified financial planner Sophia Berra answers: “Should I pay off my mortgage early?” YES. Done! Just kidding. Well, the answer is that it actually depends. When it comes to debt, mortgage debt is probably the best kind of debt that you could have, but it’s still debt. People like to say that you get a nice tax deduction, but it’s usually overrated for ... Read More »

5 Home Renovations You Shouldn’t Do Yourself (And Ones You Can Tackle Instead)

Might want to re-think that extra bathroom. With the new year comes resolutions for both yourself and your home. But before you tackle that big interior overhaul… don’t. Last month, real estate site Zillow Digs polled homeowners who had completed a DIY home renovation within the last three years to find out how they feel about their projects in the afterma ... Read More »

Cold And Flu Season Will Hit These 20 Cities Hardest In 2016

Happy New Year? The start of the new year is supposed to represent a clean and healthy slate. But for many Americans, it’ll be the beginning of a week of nose-blowing and phlegm-hacking, as cold and flu symptoms are expected to peak during the first week of 2016. Experts at WebMD predict the 2015-16 cold and flu season will spike in early January, with the ... Read More »

The 1 Thing More Important Than Happiness

Workplace happiness is overrated. What’s important is the meaning of the work you do. I’ve written fairly frequently on ways to make yourself happier in the workplace and elsewhere, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that I’ve been barking up the wrong tree. The pursuit of happiness may be a natural right, but it’s also self-centered. To achieve happ ... Read More »

The Real Reason People Who Set Goals Are More Successful

Research shows that the right kinds of goals really do lead to success. Goals are a big thing this time of year. Whether you believe New Year’s resolutions work or not, research shows that people who create goals for themselves are more successful. In fact, according to goal management solutions provider Workboard, people lose 30 percent of their capacity a ... Read More »

The DNA of Disruption: How to disrupt an industry in 3 steps

Building startups doesn’t have to be rocket science Disruption is what every entrepreneur hopes for when they start a business. This hope doesn’t only stem to create a viable business, but to make severe impact on their customers, and the world around them. Take a business that disrupted the taxi industry; Uber. They took the concerns with the traditional ... Read More »

Why ‘Smart’ Homes Are Creeping Out Consumers

Some people are worried about the consequences of hooking up everything in their home to the Internet. Here’s why. Just because companies are making it possible to hook up increasingly more devices in the home to the Internet, doesn’t mean that’s what consumers want. ... Read More »

8 Signs Your Cat Is Definitely An Alien

If you have a “cat” at home, you may have at one time or another asked yourself whether he or she is really a cat. Sometimes your pet does cat-like things, including playing with yarn and being all cute with a whooshy tail, but other times kitty does things that seem more … extraterrestrial. Use the video from Cole And Marmalade above as a guide to determin ... Read More »

Proof the housing market can survive a Fed interest rate hike

The reason behind the drop in mortgage apps Although mortgage applications significantly tumbled this week, the Federal Reserve’srecent interest rate hike is not to blame, according to a new report from Capital Economics. Capital Economics originally forecasted back in December that the housing market could withstand a rate hike, with this new Mortgage Ban ... Read More »