The “Crossroads of America” Gears Up for a Busy 2024 By Carole VanSickle Ellis In January 2023, Zillow analysts released their much-anticipated “hottest housing markets” list. Not surprisingly, last year’s list was dominated by the south and southeast; only two midwestern cities even made the...
2024 Could be a Great Year for the “City of Kansas” By Carole VanSickle Ellis As early in American history as 1803, Kansas City, Missouri (KCMO), was attracting new residents thanks to its location, which was, as explorers Lewis and Clark put it, “a good place to build a fort.” Not long after this...
How Real Estate Will Surprise Us in 2024 By Carole VanSickle Ellis At the start of 2023, many real estate analysts expected the year to bring a “return to normal” for real estate the same way many Americans had hoped for a “return to normal” following the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in previous...
Once Again, Real Estate Investors Prove Absolutely Anything is Possible By Carole VanSickle Ellis In January of this year, things were, in some ways, very different than they are today. Interest rates on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage were hovering just under 6.5%; the national median sales price...
Hot Waters & a Hot Market for “America’s First Resort” By Carole VanSickle Ellis In Hot Springs, Arkansas, 47 natural thermal springs send about 1 million gallons of water measuring 143°F flowing through the area before emptying into Lake Hamilton. The city, which is sometimes referred to as...
In the Aloha State, Real Estate Gets More Complicated By Carole VanSickle Ellis Hawaii is a state that stands alone, literally. Of all the states in the United States, Hawaii is the only one located outside of North America, the only archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. It is comprised...
Investors, Homeowners Continue to Bank on The Valley of the Sun By Carole VanSickle Ellis Imagine describing the boundaries of your hometown city in this way: “The area is bounded by the shores of Lake Pleasant and the Superstition Mountains.” It sounds like a fairy tale, but the truth is that...
California’s Capital City Remains an Anomaly…In a Good Way By Carole VanSickle Ellis Just before the start of the 20th century, the residents of Sacramento decided to enact a sea change in the local geography. Believing the “City of Plains,” as the area was called in 1855, to be too flat and...
The City of Brotherly Love Faces an “Uncomfortable” 2023 Market By Carole VanSickle Ellis When a national expert like Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi starts your market’s year off with the observation, “We’re in the bad times,” a lot of local homebuyers get chills — and not in a good...
