Homebuyers under the age of 25 are flocking to these metros. Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock.com
Members of Generation Z, we salute you. Not only do members of this age cohort — born between 1997 and 2012 — have more super savers than other generations, but 30% of 25-year-olds owned a home in 2022, according to real estate brokerage firm Redfin. That puts them on a faster pace to homeownership than their parents in Generation X. At the same age, 27% of Gen Xers owned a home.
A lot of household items get nasty, but don’t toss them out — try tossing them in your clothes washer instead. A3pfamily / Shutterstock.com
My washing machine is churning right now, busily working on a soapy load of jeans. It’s one of the most active appliances in our house, dutifully returning my daughter’s winter jacket to snowy white or whirring its way through another endless pile of dirty T-shirts. I usually just empty our regular clothes hampers full of standard dirty clothing into the washer and don’t think twice about it.
These states carry the highest burden per 100,000 residents. perfectlab / Shutterstock.com
Around 6.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, which is the seventh-leading cause of death in the country. But in some states, the burden is higher than in others. Recently, senior living website Seniorly looked at statistics to determine which states record the most deaths per 100,000 residents due to Alzheimer’s disease. Following are the states with the highest annual Alzheimer’s…
Living in a gated community has been a hassle when we have guests or order food, not to mention the strict rules and big expenses. Find out more.
Image source: Getty Images
Over a year ago, I bought a house and moved into a gated community. Gated communities were very common in the area where we were looking for a house and I actually wasn’t able to find a property I was interested in at the time that did not have this security feature.
After living there for a while, I have decided that I will do my best to avoid ever moving into a gated community again. Here’s why the next time I get a mortgage and pick a place to purchase, there won’t be a gate that controls entry to the neighborhood.
Living in a gated community may sound fun — until you have to deal with people coming over to see you. We don’t have a system where you can just have people call and get buzzed in (like some communities do), nor is there a guard at our gate who we can give our guests’ names to. Instead, we have to send our guests a pass they have to scan on their phone. This is annoying for everyone.
Even in communities with a better entry system, it’s still a hassle. You’d have to approve visitors with a guard, for instance, or be available to answer the phone when friends call at the gate and hope the system works perfectly so they can get in quickly.
It’s a whole lot easier to just be able to have friends pop by without this aggravation — especially if you’re having a big party like for birthdays or sporting events.
Dealing with deliveries and ridesharing services is also tricky. While UPS, FedEx, and other major delivery services can get in, drivers who deliver food or provide ridesharing services often can’t. This means we have to meet them at the gate if we want to be able to get our stuff when they don’t have an entry code.
In our neighborhood, we pay association dues to help cover the costs of maintaining the gate. Since we don’t have a guard, this isn’t a huge added expense per household. But, we looked at several other neighborhoods where there was a guard present at all times, and the HOA fees were much higher as a result of having to pay the guard their salary.
Finally, the biggest issue is that our gated community isn’t really that secure. Now, this might be different if we had a guard. But, in our neighborhood, we’ve seen cars follow other vehicles in and gain access to the neighborhood without scanning a pass of their own or otherwise proving they are authorized to enter. And we’ve even had some car break-ins here, which has never happened in other places we’ve lived.
Ultimately, we’ve decided the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits of a gated community and we’ll be steering clear in the future when we buy our next home.
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Making your own snacks just makes sense in terms of cost. Here are our top DIY tips for putting your ultimate snack packs together. wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Living on the Cheap. As a registered dietitian, I believe a 100- to 200-calorie snack between meals is great way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. Clearly, others agree as grocery stores, gas stations and convenience stores sell countless numbers of 100-calorie packs of crackers, cookies, candy and more.
It’s possible to sell a home you have negative equity in. Read on to see how.
Image source: Getty Images
These days, the average U.S. home is worth a little more than $334,000, according to Zillow. That’s a 5% increase from a year ago.
But home values can fluctuate over time. And you might end up in a situation where you have negative equity in your home.
While that’s not a great boat to be in, it really only becomes a bigger problem once you have to sell your home. Here’s what might happen in that scenario.
When you have negative equity in your home, it means the amount you owe on your mortgage loan exceeds the amount your home is worth on the market. If you owe your lender $260,000 on a mortgage and your home can only sell for $250,000, it means you have negative equity. Negative equity can also be described as being underwater on a mortgage.
The reason you might have negative equity in your home is that you bought it when prices were high, but now, the market has cooled off. Let’s say you paid $350,000 for your home and put 20%, or $70,000, down, leaving you with a mortgage of $280,000.
Perhaps you’ve been paying into that mortgage for a bit of time so your loan balance is down to $260,000 (keeping in mind that a large chunk of your mortgage payments, especially early on, goes toward the interest portion of your loan). But if the market has declined a lot since your home purchase so that your home is now worth $100,000 less than what you paid for it, you could end up with negative equity.
If you sell a home with negative equity, you might end up having to dip into your own savings account to make up the difference. Let’s say you owe your lender $260,000 on your mortgage but your home can only sell for $250,000. That means you could, in theory, take the $250,000 from your sale proceeds, supplement that with a $10,000 withdrawal from your savings, and call it a day.
Of course, this is an imperfect example, because selling a home for $250,000 doesn’t automatically mean walking away with $250,000. Even if you don’t use a real estate agent, you might have to pay something in real estate transfer taxes. The point is to illustrate what might happen if you can’t sell your home for a high enough price to pay off your mortgage in full.
But what if you don’t have the money available to make up the difference? In that case, you could ask your lender to agree to a short sale, where it accepts the amount your home sells for as the sum that will satisfy your remaining mortgage obligation.
Getting a lender to sign on for a short sale can be difficult, since it’s agreeing to lose money. And a short sale could also negatively impact your credit score. But it is an option when you have negative equity and need to unload your home.
You can’t necessarily predict when the value of your home will decline. And you can’t always help having to sell at the wrong time.
But one way to avoid a negative equity situation is to not overpay for your home. If the market heats up, sit it out until home prices come down. And also, don’t make too small a down payment. The more money you put down at closing, the more immediate equity you get.
Our experts vetted the most popular offers to land on the select picks that are worthy of a spot in your wallet. These best-in-class cards pack in rich perks, such as big sign-up bonuses, long 0% intro APR offers, and robust rewards. Get started today with our recommended credit cards.
We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Maurie Backman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Zillow Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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