In many parts of the country, housing prices gave returned to pre-recession levels. That’s good news for sellers, bad news for buyers. But buried within the latest housing data is some good news for everyone — everyone on Main Street, anyway. All-cash buyers seem to be finally retreating. The percent [Keep reading]
Is renting a home the new American dream? A report by the Urban Institute projects that even after the housing crash and the Great Recession are a distant memory, homeownership rates in America will continue to decline. The report estimates that between 2010 and 2030, the majority (59%) of the [Keep reading]
While many Americans are ill-prepared for a financial disaster, women are far worse off than men, according to a new study by BMO Harris Premier Services. The financial services firm says that men with any emergency savings have an average of $58,061 put away to deal with the sitution, compared to only $33,558 [Keep reading]
Rents are increasing in most parts of the country. That normally nudges apartment dwellers into the housing market — as rents rise, so do reasons to buy a home — but that doesn’t seem to be happening in today’s topsy-turvy housing market. Instead, many renters are swallowing the increases and [Keep reading]
The summer vacation season begins this weekend — by tradition, anyway — as millions of you head out for Memorial Day fun. Regular readers of this space know that I think the classic American vacation season is under assault, thanks to a dastardly combination of a tough economy and always-on [Keep reading]
Roughly 7 million Americans lost their homes during the Great Recession. Now, seven years on, the first wave of those consumers might be ready to dip their toes back into the housing market, as their credit reports are finally clean of that negative entry. The group has been dubbed “boomerang [Keep reading]
It’s already hard enough to find an affordable home or apartment to rent (especially if you live in one of these cities). Rental prices are rising fast around the country, even in unexpected places like Kansas City and Portland. But as more people turn to online help to find a [Keep reading]
There’s something about computers that brings out the worst in us. And there’s something about retaliatory violence against these boxes of frustration that makes (many of) us cheer from a place deep inside. Computer rage is a real thing; there’s a whole section on it in my book proposal about [Keep reading]
In the 1970s Sci-fi movie Logan’s Run, viewers are let in on a dirty little secret about a Utopian society — everyone gets killed at age 30. Sure keeps labor costs down. America hasn’t quite become Logan’s Run, but we seem to be tilting that way. It’s no secret that [Keep reading]
It has been gnawing at me for a while. Why are are most professional sports leagues hurting for offense? After all, we live in the age of spreadsheets and video cameras. Every athlete has access to hundreds of angles on every action they take on the field, or in the rink. [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan