The BYTE [5/8]

THE BYTE

Welcome to the BYTE, where we serve up the latest home and tech news from the last week for you to sink your teeth into.

This week we’re taking a BYTE out of a group finally starting to buy, a new tariff, the bounce back from the great recession, a shocking new wallpaper, and everyone’s confidence levels. Dig in!

Generally

It’s Finally Happening!

New study results from Fannie Mae show that not only are more millennials leaving their parents homes, but it’s happening faster and faster! As icing on the cake, once they do move out they are increasingly spending on their homes.

About Time

The Fannie Mae survey broke out each age range of millennials and compared it to the last eight years and found that the even youngest to the oldest of millennials were all moving out of their parent’s homes at a faster rate than before. Then adding to that Houzz came out with home survey results that showed that each year millennials are spending more at a faster rate than everyone else – boomers however, still spend the most. The Houzz report also found out smaller kitchen and smaller master bathroom renovations are the cool new things to renovate.

20%

It Woodn’t Be Nice

A new tariff on Canadian timber isn’t going to help the U.S. home prices. The current administration imposed a 20% tariff on all lumber from our northern neighbor last week. The NAHB estimates that homebuilders will have to cough up about an extra $3,600 for a new home. About a third of all lumber for new homes comes from Canada and a lot of people are thinking this won’t help with the already high demand and prices for homes across the country.

Take Notes

The Slow Recovery

Trulia put out a new report which says only 34.2% of homes have surpassed their pre-recession values. The rate of homes recovering is rising but not as quickly as you might think, only 5% – 6% annually. At this rate it would take until 2025 for all homes to get back to where they were. The number of homes that have recovered is very location dependent, for example 98.7% of homes in Denver have matched or surpassed their pre-recession peaks. Cha-Ching.

What A Bright Idea

A new collaboration project introduces wallpaper that doubles as a power source. It is starting out at an interactive art installation in NYC, but they are hoping this can open the door to a more mainstream uses. Imagine being able to install a new light without having to break open a wall or put in a bunch of new wiring.

Feeling Confident

In Redfin’s latest Home-Seller Sentiment Survey they found that 1 in 4 sellers have no concerns about selling their home. Which is a switch from just Q1 of 2017, where “No Concerns” was the 8^th highest on the list of 11 things that concerned home sellers. Also from the survey, 40% of home sellers said they feel like, “Sellers have a little more power than buyers.”

Totally Unrelated

Guardians Everywhere

Doritos is jumping on the Guardians of the Galaxy train by selling a Doritos bag that plays the soundtrack to the second movie. Rock on.