Writer, editor, dog lover
Summer is around the corner, and it’s shaping up to be a scorcher.
According to the Farmers’ Almanac’s summer 2023 forecast, most regions in the United States can expect warmer-than-average temperatures. Thunderstorms are also on tap for the Southeast and south Central regions of the country, and heavy rainfall is expected in the Central states.
Kiplinger talked to home experts on how to prepare your home for this summer’s weather conditions.
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here has never been a better time to make your home more energy efficient. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year, is a game changer for homeowners looking to make green home improvements and save money on utility bills. “It’s a monumental piece of tax legislation” that’s packed with tax credits and deductions, says Mark Steber, chief tax officer at Jackson Hewitt.
At the same time, the new law has “a lot for homeowners to parse through, and there are a lot of nuances for what qualifies and what doesn’t qualify for a tax break,” Steber says.
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Seven out of 10 American households own a pet, according to the American Pet Products Association (APPA)(opens in new tab). And pet costs consume a significant portion of many people’s budgets. Dog and cat owners, for example, spend an average of $111 each month on their animals, according to a recent AskVet(opens in new tab) survey. Some surveys suggest pet costs may be even higher. According to a 2022 Lemonade poll(opens in new tab), pet owners spend an average of $276 on their animals each month.
Multiply the monthly cost by the typical lifespan of your pet, and you’re talking serious money. However, many people “underestimate the lifetime cost of owning a pet,” says Brandi Hunter Munden, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club(opens in new tab). “From emergency vet visits to food to doggy bags, these costs add up.” And 26% of pet owners said they were struggling to afford their pet due to inflation, an August LendingTree survey(opens in new tab) found. The good news is there are smart ways to trim your pet’s expenses.
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In a recent conversation with a long-term client, Rush Griffith, a Schwab financial planner in Dallas, discussed a decision she was grappling with: paying off her mortgage or keeping her money in the stock market. Rather than watch her investments weather the ups and downs of the market, the soon-to-be retiree sold a significant portion of her stocks and paid off her roughly $135,000 mortgage.
“When I asked her, ‘Which scenario would make you most happy?’ she quickly shouted out that no longer having a mortgage would be reaching a milestone she never thought was possible,” says Griffith.
No brainer. Many people strive to pay off their mortgage before they retire. It’s a legitimate objective, especially when you consider that 73% of seniors said their home is their most valuable asset, a 2021 survey by American Advisors Group found. “When you buy a home, your goal is to own it one day, and retirement is a good goal post for paying off your mortgage,” says Rob Williams, managing director of financial planning at Charles Schwab.
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Good news, house hunters: Home prices have started to cool. Prices are still rising, but annual home price appreciation slowed from April to June, with June marking the strongest single-month deceleration in home price growth ever, according to Black Knight, a mortgage data analytics firm.
The bad news: Rising mortgage rates are making homeownership less attainable for some buyers.
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After watching four homes go to competing bidders over the course of seven frustrating months, Shubham Nath and Ankur Srivastava finally nabbed a four-bedroom house in Warren, N.J., last June. The couple pounced on the property when it hit the market. “We saw the home on a Saturday, looked at it a second time that Sunday and made an offer Sunday night,” says Nath. And this time they were prepared to best the seven other bidders: They offered about $60,000 above the home’s $849,000 list price, plus a 2.5-month closing period so that the seller would have plenty of time to pack up and move. And when the property appraised for $7,000 below the price they had agreed upon in the purchase contract, the couple paid for the appraisal gap. “We jumped through a lot of hoops,” Nath says.
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The very thought of haggling, no matter what you’re haggling for, creates a crushing wave of anxiety in a surprising number of people. And while some personality types jump at the chance of striking a deal, many of us avoid negotiating at all costs.
But negotiating skills can be learned. And knowing how to negotiate when you’re buying a new car, making an offer on a house, asking for a cheaper cable or internet bill, or planning a wedding can save you a lot of money.
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Laura Gross knew that she’d be facing fierce competition this spring when she was getting ready to bid on a four-bedroom house in Troy, Mich., a suburb of Detroit. So she pulled out all the stops: She waived an appraisal contingency, offered $30,000 above the home’s $285,000 list price, wrote a letter expressing why she loved the home (it reminded her of the house she grew up in a mile away), and offered the seller a free 60-day rent-back.
The seller chose Gross’s offer over seven others. “I knew I had to offer above list price and waive contingencies to even have my offer considered in this market,” says Gross, an accounting manager at a manufacturing company.
Gross is just one in a tsunami of house hunters who have flooded the housing market since the coronavirus pandemic began. She experienced firsthand how tough today’s housing market is for buyers.
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Last spring, airport rental counters were eerily quiet as pandemic-wary Americans canceled their vacations and stayed close to home. But as spring turned to summer and fall, customers started returning, looking for vehicles for road trips as well as longer-term rentals at home to avoid using public transportation and ride-hailing apps. Business travelers also increasingly turned to rental cars. This summer, as more people receive a vaccine and the economy reopens, air travel is likely to pick up, too. That means customers will again be lining up at airport rental car counters—and navigating a maze of prices, fees and insurance coverages.
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For years, buyers have been flocking to cities and close-in suburbs, seeking a boost in quality of life by shortening their commutes and gaining easy access to restaurants and cultural events. The pandemic turned that trend on its head.
Last year, a number of city dwellers migrated to the suburbs and exurbs to get more space, both indoors and outdoors. Gaining the freedom to telecommute gave more buyers the ability to move from urban centers. A survey from the American Institute of CPAs found that 42% of employed Americans worked remotely at some point during the pandemic. Companies such as Twitter, REI and Square have announced plans to let employees work remotely indefinitely.
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Daniel Bortz 