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LA and Long Beach are among the least affordable cities in the world for homebuyers

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego are among the world's least affordable cities for homebuyers, a recent report says.

When the price of a regular home is compared to regular local salaries, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Diego and San José were among the five least affordable cities in the world, according to a survey from financial ...Read more

Notorious Orange County dead mall is on track for redevelopment

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Westminster Mall, a once-popular shopping center that has been desecrated by graffiti and vandalism since it closed last year, is on track for demolition soon.

It will be replaced with housing, a hotel and some shops and stores, part of a nationwide trend that is seeing outdated, failed malls in high-traffic locations swapped for mixed-use ...Read more

US home resales fall most in four years despite lower rates

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell in January by the most in nearly four years, a month marked by a massive winter storm.

Contract closings decreased 8.4%, the biggest drop since February 2022, to a 3.91 million annualized pace in January, according to National Association of Realtors data released Thursday. That trailed the median ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: How I do get relative who was staying with me to leave my home?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: I let my cousin stay with me for a couple of weeks while she was having some issues. Those couple of weeks have now turned into a couple of months, and I can’t really deal with her anymore. How do I get her out? — Sheila

A: Sometimes situations that begin with good intentions become more complicated than expected. Offering a helping hand...Read more

Hail damage driving Colorado's high insurance rates

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Colorado is one of the most expensive states in the country for insurance and the hail that regularly batters roofs, cars and crops from one end of the state to the other is a big reason why.

Gov. Jared Polis and Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway said Wednesday that a survey of 20 homeowners insurance companies showed that hail is ...Read more

Thousands of apartments set to take over empty office buildings with new LA ordinance

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Los Angeles officials just made it easier to convert empty commercial buildings to housing, opening the door to the creation of thousands of apartments across a city clamoring for housing.

Developer Garrett Lee is already rolling.

After years of struggling to find white-collar tenants for a gleaming office high-rise on the edge of downtown, he...Read more

Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

19% of all home sales in Las Vegas Valley falling through, report says

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

The Las Vegas Valley has seen one of the biggest year-over-year jumps in home purchase agreement cancellations in the U.S., according to a new report from Redfin.

According to the report, 19% of all residential real estate transactions, a 3.5% jump, were canceled last December. This places the Las Vegas Valley as 8th in the country for largest ...Read more

Stuck with a Synergy gift card? Don't count on getting that money back

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

After Synergy World, a San Diego gift and loyalty card company, announced it was shutting down and planning to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the company told its customers they can no longer use Synergy’s gift cards.

Until a bankruptcy court filing, little will be known publicly about Synergy’s finances or the state of its gift ...Read more

Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

'Full-scale migration of wealth': Rich California and Washington residents flocking to Las Vegas

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Wealthy individuals from California and Washington are flocking to the Las Vegas Valley to escape tax policies and politics from their home states, according to several area real estate agents.

It a “full-scale migration of wealth,” said Virtue Real Estate co-owner, broker and CEO Darin Marques, who just opened a brokerage in Henderson.

He...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Nevadans have a lot of credit card debt. How would a cap on interest rates impact that?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Nevada has one of the highest rates of credit card debt in the country, according to a new study as the issue takes center stage during an election year.

A new Wallet Hub study found that Nevada households have the 5th highest rate of credit card debt in the country with an average of $12,832 and the state has approximately $13.7 billion in ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: My landlord is ignoring a damp spot on my wall. What should I do?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: In the apartment I rent, I recently noticed a damp spot on the wall near the ceiling. It was a little discolored, and I mentioned it to my landlord. Who thanked me but did nothing. The spot is now larger and changing color. I’m concerned about mold, and my landlord doesn’t seem to be taking any action. Is there anything I should be doing?...Read more

K.C. Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

'Rental market is largely frozen': San Diego rent prices fall in national rankings

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

San Diego’s status as one of the nation’s most expensive rental markets is on shaky ground.

The median rent for a San Diego County one-bedroom apartment was $2,220 a month in January, down 5.5% in a year, said Zumper’s national rent report. That ranks San Diego metro at No. 9 in the real estate website’s priciest markets — down from ...Read more

Renee C. Byer/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Sacramento is doubling down on tiny homes. Is it a bold move or a misguided one?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Sheleko Maynard was riding on a bus, worried about the possibility of spending another year living alone outside in a tent when she got a call: She had been accepted into a tiny home community in Sacramento and could move in the next day.

That was about a year ago. The 75-square-foot dwelling gave her a heater, a bed to herself and a desk she ...Read more

Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times/TNS

For these thrifters, their rental is 99% secondhand goods and that's 'part of the fun'

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

LOS ANGELES -- After moving to Los Angeles from Palo Alto in 2023 with only a standing desk and a bed frame, Tess van Hulsen and Andrew Chait learned quickly how to furnish an empty rental without buying anything new.

Because they love thrifting, decorating together was actually fun for them.

Two years later, their love of thrifting, antiquing...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Anthropic AI tool sparks selloff from software to broader market

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Once again, artificial intelligence is dominating investors’ attention in the stock market. These days, however, the focus is turning more and more toward companies that may get disrupted by the new technology rather than those who stand to profit from it.

A Goldman Sachs basket of U.S. software stocks sank 6% on Tuesday, its biggest one-day...Read more

Dreamstime/Dreamstime/TNS

Zillow cuts 200 jobs

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Think the real estate market is tough? Working for a real estate giant could be tougher.

The Seattle-based real estate giant Zillow terminated around 200 employees last month for failing to meet performance expectations.

The cuts coincided with widespread layoffs at several Seattle-area companies that sent shock waves through the local job ...Read more

Nick Wagner/The Seattle Times/TNS

Eviction levels hit an all-time high in WA, especially in Seattle area

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Washington state and King County recorded more evictions in 2025 than ever before — a sign that the affordability crisis is deepening.

The number of eviction cases filed in Washington courts rose to 23,965 in 2025, a 3% increase from 2024. The increase was significantly greater in the Seattle area.

Eviction cases grew by 12% to 8,732 in King...Read more

L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

'Time to do better': Las Vegas public housing complex to be torn down, redeveloped

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

When Marble Manor opened in the early 1950s, the Las Vegas public housing complex offered modern homes with up-to-date kitchens, bathrooms, heating and cooling.

It had everything needed for “comfort and clean living,” a newspaper columnist wrote, noting it served people who had been living, or just existing, in “paper-box or cardboard ...Read more

Kevin J. Hardy/The Detroit News/TNS

Rocket Companies accused of mortgage steering

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Rocket Companies, which acquired Seattle-based Redfin last year, allegedly pressured agents to steer buyers toward its loans — even if the loan terms were unfavorable for their clients, a lawsuit claims.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, three homeowners from Georgia, North Carolina ...Read more

Real estate Q&A: What should we prioritize as we look to buy our first home?

Consumer / Home and Consumer News /

Q: My partner and I have been together for a few years and have been living in a rented house. It’s time for us to buy our first house. Do you have any recommendations on what we should be looking for in our new home? — Christine

A: There is no shortage of advice when you are looking to buy your first home.

The first thing to understand is...Read more