Emerald Coast Real Estate Blog

6 Things Professional Burglars Don’t Want You to Know

By Krystal Rogers-Nelson

Even though a burglary occurs every 20 seconds in the U.S., you can still protect yourself without installing top-dollar security features.

Home burglary generally has a pattern; criminals are looking for an easy target they can rob fast. Learn from the pros. Here are six tips from career burglars you can use to defend your home and prevent break-ins.

1. Nighttime Burglaries Aren’t the Best Time

Burglars like to break in to homes during daytime hours—the last thing criminals want is to encounter someone at home. Weekdays are ideal for thieves, since weekend schedules are too unpredictable. Between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. are the most popular times because there’s a high chance people will be away at work or school.

2. They Know When You’re Not Home—Thanks to Social Media

While it’s tempting to post about your vacation to your social media feed, wait to share those trip photos and exotic location check-ins until you’re back home. Criminals scout public social media accounts like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Foursquare to find victims.

Locating someone’s home address using basic information from their social media profile is surprisingly easy. In one survey of convicted burglars,...

Time Spent Searching for a Home is Rising
By Rose Quint on February 3, 2020

Of the 11% of American adults considering a home purchase in the final quarter of 2019, only 43% reported being actively engaged in the process to find and buy a home.  A year earlier, the comparable share of active buyers was a much stronger 54%.  This finding suggests that mortgage interest rates steadily below 4.0% in recent months have not motivated more prospective buyers to get started trying to find a home to buy.

Across generations, 46% of Millennial prospective buyers are actively looking for a home to buy, along with 43% of Gen X buyers, 41% of Gen Z buyers, and 37% of Boomer buyers.  Across regions, prospective buyers in the Northeast are the most likely to already be actively searching for a home (49%), followed by those in the South (43%), West (41%), and Midwest (39%).

Click here to find out more.

Homeownership Rate Reaches Six-Year High

By Na Zhao on January 30, 2020 on National Association of Home Builders “Eye on Housing” 

According to the Census Bureau’s Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), the U.S. homeownership rate increased to 65.1% in the fourth quarter of 2019.  This is 0.5 percentage points higher than the previous quarter reading of 64.8% and the highest the rate has been since the last quarter of 2013.  Even so, the homeownership rate remains well below the 25-year average rate of 66.3% and the peak of 69.2% reached at the end of 2004.  Decreasing mortgage interest rates have helped support the recent improvement in homeownership, along with housing affordability and sales of previously owned homes, which reached a two-year high at the end of 2019.

To learn more, including Household Formations and changes and Homeownership by Age of Householder click here.

r

eNJOY

Bring your blankets, sit back and enjoy the movie under the stars in the Amphitheatre.  Henry's Pizza Truck will be available for food & beverage.