Sitting between their millennial children and baby boomer parents, Generation X appears to be hitting their stride as they take on a new milestone: their 50s.

As such, Gen Xers are looking ahead to their next stage of life. According to a recent survey by Del Webb, America’s leading builder of active adult communities, Gen Xers who are celebrating their 50th birthday are looking forward to retirement.

Until they get there, they are enjoying their careers, building larger nest eggs and even getting ready for their next big move, which may require enough room for their boomer parents.

“It is hard to believe that start of the Gen X demographic is turning 55 and are closer in age to retirement than to when they were first introduced to grunge,”…

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For the first time in a long time, Denver’s bustling real estate market has slowed.

The top line: The steep rise in prices is slowing and there are more houses on the market.

That’s making it easier for buyers like Philip Wang, who was looking for a bigger house for his growing family this spring.

Wang, a marketing operations manager for a medical device software company, lives in a fairly large house in Arvada — more than 2,000 square feet — but the bad layout made it feel small.

“A wife, kid and a dog, and sort of getting a little cramped,” he said.

He and his wife found the place they wanted in Westminster, and they pulled off a feat that used to be almost impossible: they sold a home and bought another at the same time.

“We thought this…

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Sales of existing homes fell for a second straight month in April, but the market should rev up soon, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said on Tuesday.

Home sales dipped 0.4% from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million . Sales were down 4.4% from a year ago.

Student debt is still holding back many millennial buyers, says Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. And prices for the entry-level homes that age group targets have risen sharply because of low supplies.

Meanwhile, a big drop in mortgage rates didn’t boost home sales. The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.14% in April from 4.27% in March, according to Freddie Mac, the mortgage loan company. The average rate in 2018 was 4.54%.

Yun…

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After piling in when the market was hot, investors are facing losses from homes that take too long to sell.

Sean Pan wanted to be rich, and his day job as an aeronautical engineer wasn’t cutting it. So at 27 he started a side gig flipping houses in the booming San Francisco Bay Area. He was hooked after making $300,000 on his first deal. That was two years ago. Now home sales are plunging. One property in Sunnyvale, near Apple Inc.’s headquarters, left Pan and his partners with a $400,000 loss. “I ate it so hard,” he says.

A new crop of flippers, inspired by HGTV reality shows, real estate meetup groups, and get-rich gurus, piled into the market in recent years as rapid price gains helped the last property crash fade from memory. Many newbie…

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Where is housing headed in the Denver Metro Area?

Although of course she doesn't claim to have a magic crystal ball, Megan Aller of First American Title and A Girl and Her Graphs dug deep into the data this month to make some predictions:

Based on previous years in this cycle (2013-2018) the values in these Housing Heat Maps represent the best times to be in the market in 2019. 

(Yellow represents a Seller's Opportunity, and Blue represents a Buyer's Opportunity.)

The market is likely to favor those sellers who are ready to take advantage of early buyer activity. 

Sellers late to the market in the summer months are more likely to spend longer on the market, make price reductions and sell at lower prices than spring sellers.

Buyers are most…

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Spring has arrived which, for many homeowners, means spring cleaning and refreshing the house and yard.

If you’re in a new home, now is a great time to spend some time to really make it your own and give it your own special touch. Or, if you’re thinking of taking advantage of the hot spring/summer real estate market, there’s no better time than now to prepare your space for showings and open houses. No matter where you’re at in the cycle of homeownership, use this time to prioritize your biggest investment. Here are 6 ways to show your home some TLC and make it a priority this month.

Schedule A Power Wash

It’s no secret that curb appeal makes a big difference in a home’s value. Even if you’re not putting your home on the market any time…

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IF YOU'RE IN THE PROCESS OF BUYING A HOME, YOU MAY HAVE HEARD THE TERM "CONTINGENCY" BEING KNOCKED AROUND. WHEN MAKING AN OFFER ON A HOME, YOU CAN SPECIFY CONDITIONS THAT MUST BE MET IN ORDER FOR THE DEAL TO GO THROUGH, AND THESE ARE CALLED CONTINGENCIES. IF THESE CONDITIONS AREN'T MET, THEN THE DEAL IS VOIDED.

You should discuss different contingency options with your real estate agent, but in general, the most common are:

FINANCING CONTINGENCIES. 

This typically means your mortgage needs to go through final approval, and grants you time to complete an application and receive a loan to purchase the home.

APPRAISAL CONTINGENCIES.

Similar to the financing contingency, this means that the final appraised value of the home is close to the…

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Big equity gains may explain why people aren’t staying around as long

Out of the 50 largest metros in the country, metro Denver residents stayed in their homes the fifth shortest amount of time on average, according to a new study from LendingTree, an online mortgage brokerage.

Metro Denver homeowners sit on their abodes an average of 6.63 years, according to the study, which is based on the latest American Community Survey put out by the U.S. Census Bureau. That average includes all the stalwarts who have stayed put 50 or 60 years. So the households that do move around are probably spending less time than that average in one place.

Only owners in Las Vegas at 6.36 years; Phoenix at 6.43 years; Austin, Texas at 6.49 years; and Orlando at 6.59…

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What do Homebuyers Want?

Laundry rooms and Energy Star–compliant windows topped the list of what buyers considered the most “essential” or “desirable” features in a home, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ 2019 “What Home Buyers Really Want” report, released at the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas this week.

Most of the features that new homeowners or aspiring buyers ranked highest related to helping them save in utility costs, add extra storage, and spruce up the outside, said Rose Quint, the NAHB’s assistant vice president of survey research.

The NAHB surveyed nearly 4,000 consumers who either purchased a home within the last three years or plan to buy a home in the next three years to identify their top…

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