Real Estate Round-Up

Lack of Inventory is the Story

What Homeowners Insurance Covers

Considering that your home is likely one of your most significant investments, protecting it from catastrophic damage and losses that a disaster or an accident may bring is of paramount importance.

By buying homeowners insurance, you will get the best possible protection for your home.

A typical home insurance policy covers property damage. It also covers the personal liability of homeowners and members of their family for personal injury or property damage to others that happen within their property. Let’s take a closer look at what your home insurance coverage will take care of when disaster strikes.

The Physical Structure of Your Home

Depending on the type and extent of your homeowner’s insurance, any visible or non-visible damage to the physical structure of your home is covered. Be it the roof, walls, or the foundation itself, your home insurance provider will take care of the repair, or if need be, replacement of those parts of your home.

Other structures within your property, including the detached garage, fence, tool shed, or gazebo, are also covered by home insurance.

Personal Belongings

Home insurance ensures protection for your appliances, furniture, clothing, jewelry, sports equipment, silverware, and other belongings in case of damage or loss, although the extent of the coverage is still subject to the limitations of the policy.

Personal Liability

As a homeowner, you may be held legally liable for any personal injury or property damage to others that may or may not have occurred within your property.

With homeowners insurance, you won’t have to pay out of pocket for instances where a visitor slips on your stairs or when your child throws a baseball through a neighbor’s window and breaks an expensive vase.

A home insurance policy provides...

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Top 10 Zip Codes by 2019 Sales, Cost vs. Value on Home Renovations

From the Access Louisville podcast + Business First: Real Estate Reporter Marty Finley brings us up to speed on a couple of big local residential projects, including a $100 million mixed housing development from RJ Thieneman planned along South Hurstbourne Parkway and Watterson Trail. This news broke last week and since then we've also had stories about two new planned developments from homebuilder Fischer Homes — one on the East End and another in southeast Louisville. An interesting trend here is that these developments will offer homes in the $180,000 to $300,000 range. That's important because that price range is in line with consumer demand right now. Previously, we were seeing a lot of announcements about new luxury homes coming into the market. Listen to podcast.

Will 40291 Again Be The Most Popular Zip Code in Louisville? There were 773 real estate sales in 40291 in 2019 making it the most popular zip code in the Louisville MLS area by number of transactions. Bisected by the Gene Snyder Freeway in southeastern Jefferson County and close to The Parklands’ Broad Run Park, the average sale price was $225,449.

Historically Low Mortgage Rates Will Continue – Leading housing economists suggest that 30-year fixed mortgage rates should stay around 3.8 percent for 2020.

Low Rates Give Buyers More Purchasing Power But Inventory Remains Elusive – In relative terms buying power has increased to historically high levels but there is still a shortage of inventory. In Louisville, the absorption rate has hovered around 3 months of inventory for the last several years and is even less, sometimes fewer than 2 months, for houses under $200,000 (A balanced market – one favoring neither sellers nor buyers – has six months of available inventory). New construction starts are still a fraction of what they were a decade ago and the new homes that are being built tend to be more expensive and suburban, outside the more urban, walkable neighborhoods favored by younger buyers.

Generational Buyer/Seller Dynamics – According to Realtor.com Chief Economist George Ratiu the largest population cohort in the country (those born in 1990) will turn 30 in 2020 and represent 4.8 million people hitting peak home buying age....

From Business Insider: Why is the housing market so different for millennials compared to the one their parents and grandparents faced? In large part it's because of how much housing costs have risen, but it's also because of the student debt with which many members of the generation are saddled. Some 70% of recent college graduates finish school with an average of $29,800 in debt to repay, plus the inevitable interest. Read more.

From GQ.com: Horses are a minor footnote in Hunter S. Thompson’s 1970 article, “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” The piece is less about what Thompson saw than what he hoped to see––the depravity that exemplified the culture of his hometown; the brouhaha, the drunken Kentucky colonels identifiable by whiskey-stained linen suits, but clean shoes. Read more.

From CityLab.com: When most people think of housing, they separate it into two types: single-family suburban homes that people own, and apartments, largely in cities and urban centers, that people rent. Until recently, the popular image was more or less correct. Most single-family houses provided homes for the families that owned them. Read more. 

Great video on all the cool things happening in Louisville's Butchertown Neighborhood:

Where will you get the best return on investment when renovating your house? Watch this short video to see six upgrades that will increase the value of your home.

From CNBC: Billionaire Andrew Carnegie famously said that 90% of millionaires got their wealth by investing in real estate. We wanted to know: Is this still true? Is investing in real estate still a good idea? According to these nine Advisors in The Oracles, who made millions by investing in real estate, the answer is a resounding yes. Read more.

From Forbes.com: Since ancient times, humans have lived in communities, and humanity has thrived by grouping. What New York is today for the world — arguably its capital — Rome was for the Roman Empire and Constantinople was for the Ottoman Empire. Cities have been hubs for creativity, economic activity and the evolution of humanity. They symbolize freedom, culture and civilization. Today, cities are evolving faster and faster. Read more.

From lendedu: Have bad memories from the 2008 financial crisis or even a lack of knowledge when it comes to mortgages prevented millennials from becoming homeowners? How long do millennials anticipate it will take to finally own a home, and will they put off other life goals to buy one? Read more.

From Architectural Digest: When philanthropist and art collector Steve Wilson and his wife, Laura Lee Brown, first dreamt up the 21c Museum Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, it was conceived as a one-off. Located in the city's historic district, the hotel also serves as a means to share the couple’s love of art, as well as their impressive and ever-growing collection (which is as challenging and progressive as anything New York has to offer), with a wider, underserved audience. Read more.

From Realtor.com: As we closed the books on May, even the hottest real estate markets in America were just coasting along, with the typical property selling no faster than at the same time last year. And with buyers on the lookout for affordability, smaller metros in the Midwest and Northeast outshone the more glamorous but high-priced California markets—topped by an unexpected name, an analysis of realtor.com data for the month shows. Read more.