Is renting or buying a home more expensive?

What are the best ways to address home safety concerns on your property?

Get answers to these questions by listening to this week’s Ilyce Glink Show. You can click the audio link below to listen to the full show, or download the podcast via iTunes.

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On this week’s show I talk to three guests: Ralph McLaughlin, a housing economist for Trulia; Danielle Hale, director of housing statistics for the National Association of Realtors; and Dan Goldstein, the real estate reporter for MarketWatch in New York.

More About This Show

The CoreLogic Home Price Index for March [1:18]
The CoreLogic Home Price Index for March shows good news for homeowners, as the broad-based rise in home prices persists into the spring.

Home values continued rising in all four price tiers measured by the CoreLogic Home Price Index, with the lowest tier, showing that values are almost equal to their 2006 housing market peak. Distressed sales continued to make up more than a tenth of home sales, but an increase in lower tier home values could help a sizable chunk of underwater homeowners avoid falling into foreclosure.

Which is More Affordable? Buying or Renting? [4:25]
Ralph McLaughlin talks about the findings in Trulia’s bi-annual “Rent vs. Buy” report and what they could mean for real estate investors. Buying remains a cheaper option than renting across all the metro areas surveyed, but factoring in homeowners association fees can make the choice much less clear.

NAR Report: Inequality Increasing [9:30]
The National Association of Realtors conducted research on inequality by comparing homeownership rates and home prices in 100 U.S. metro areas. Danielle Hale talks about the implications of these research findings. They show homeowners reaping the gains of rising home values, but they also show a concurrent drop in homeownership rates. These trends are concentrating wealth in the hands of fewer people, resulting in rising inequality.

Four Safety Concerns in the Home [18:12]
Home safety test: You need smoke detectors, but which one alerts you to a fire quickest? Dan Goldstein happens to be a former firefighter and EMT. He’s back to discuss four hazards in the home that homeowners need to know about.

Q&A: Converting a condo building into apartments or a hotel [32:23]
I answer a question from a listener of her old radio show who’s looking to buy a run down building that started out as a hotel and was later converted to condos. He’d like to buy the building and convert it back into a hotel, but wondered what steps he would need to take to make that happen, and whether he should start by buying some of the many units already up for sale.

If you have any questions about this show or in general, email me at [email protected].

Click the audio link below to listen to the full Ilyce Glink Show.

Thanks for listening!

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