Tag: home ownership
Oct 12, 2026
Having spent years selling and appraising real estate, I’m familiar with the usual measures for valuing a house. Price per square foot, comparisons to similar properties, and the guideline of keeping housing at or below 25 percent of what a household earns are...
Mar 4, 2024
How much of your income should you spend on rent or a house payment? In my decades as a financial planner as well as my previous career in real estate, my standard advice has been to keep housing costs at or below 25% of your household income. In some places, today’s...
Feb 27, 2023
Even after 40 years of specializing in all things financial, I constantly learn new things, often from readers. My most recent teacher was Eugenia (Gene) Thornton, the Recorder of Deeds in Kent County, Delaware. She emailed me in response to an interview on identity...
Sep 26, 2022
Tyler and Kirsten’s family was growing. They had one child, another was on the way, and they agreed that they might eventually want a third. Their two-bedroom house would not suit their needs much longer; it was time to look for something bigger. Before they contacted...
Aug 30, 2021
Home title theft. This is a “threat” I only learned about from frantic radio commercials warning that your home can be stolen from you. They claim thieves can deed your property to themselves and then mortgage or even sell it without your knowledge. In...
