While reports of homebuyers fleeing cities for the suburbs due to coronavirus have sometimes been overstated, the trend is still clear for those with a close-up view of the real estate market.
"You've got to understand, we had nine million folks relocate over this pandemic, and they're going to more rural areas, more suburban areas," Mike Miedler, CEO of Century 21, a real estate agent franchise company, told Cheddar. "In fact, if you look at the inventory in those marketplaces, they're down considerably compared to the cities."
Miedler noted that places such as his native New Jersey have benefited from the out-migration, while major cities such as San Francisco, Boston, and New York have lost residents — though he predicts those same places will make a comeback after the pandemic.
"That's not to say the cities won't come back," he said. "New York will be strong and alive for many, many years to come — greatest city on the face of the Earth — but right now people are looking for more property in rural and more suburban communities."
Some of the hottest destinations, he added, are mountain towns with plenty of vacation homes.
"In fact, I just talked to our folks up in Jackson Hole[, Wyoming]," he said. "They're up 375 percent from last year because you've got a lot of people who are looking for, again, more property or vacation homes. Vacation homes are on fire across the country. I think they're up over 20 percent year-over-year."
Within Century 21, meanwhile, COVID has meant a period of adjustment, as agents transition to working with clients remotely for much of the real estate process. This does not mean that technology is taking over the agent-driven business, though, Miedler stressed.
"There's 180 steps in the real estate process, from the time that you actually look online and make an offer until the time you close and hand over those keys, and now more than ever you need a real estate professional who knows their local market inside and out to help navigate that process," he said.
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
