Tim Latterner

While you might feel ready to invest, a bad credit score can make mortgage lenders wary and cause your interest rates to soar through the roof.

Before you pack up that lemon tree in the yard, you’re going to have to make sure it’s not a “problem plant” that could get you a hefty fine.

Why are they always dropping marbles?

They come few and far between in NYC.

Rainy day funds are important, but so is spending on joy, says behavioral economist Daniel Ariely.

The Orange County property is listed for $1.799 million.

While you may love your barn red kitchen, a new report released today by Zillow finds that it could cost you when looking to sell your home someday. The report found that painting your front door, kitchen, or bathroom with certain color palettes can drastically depreciate your home value by more than $2,000.

Don’t go trying to play ball in this house. For the first time in nearly half a century, one of TV’s most famous homes is back on the market. The home used as the exterior for The Brady Bunch, a 3 bed, 3 bath that supposedly held six kids, two parents, and a housekeeper, is located just north of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley, and is listed by Ernie Carswell of Douglas Elliman for $1.88 million.

Hollywood’s Star Tour buses race around the windy streets of 90210 pointing out the homes of Brad Pitt, Gwen Stefani, or Quentin Tarantino. The glitz and glam of Hollywood looks a bit different now than the old Hollywood of yesteryear, where houses weren’t massive structures behind gilded gates, but charming homes tucked between trees.

Meryl Streep’s home, like Meryl Streep, could be or do anything. It could be a designed in the Grecian bohemian styled laid back vibe like her persona in Mamma Mia, all the way to the more proper and posh digs of her character in Florence Foster Jenkins. In actuality, the Tribeca home—a penthouse in the River Lofts at 92 Laight Street—is somewhere in between, and it’s been listed for a whopping $24.6 million.

If we’re all being honest here, there’s a stage in anyone who’s under 30 and recently moved to New York’s life that happens: we assume it will be something like an episode of “Girls.” Maybe a significant other dumps you before/after your short story reading, or you get splashed by a cab right before a job interview and have to explain why you’d be a good something or other, and then you come home to your weirdly gigantic apartment for a freelance writer.

Just ten miles south of his historic Graceland mansion, Elvis’ honeymoon hideout at the Circle G Ranch was a respite from super stardom. The 60s mobile home on the property was a serene getaway for “The King of Rock and Roll,” even if it was a modest trailer. It’s the magic that Elvis and Pricilla Presley brought to it that turned it into the treasure it is now—a treasure that just sold at GWS Auctions for $67,650.

After years of living in the Hollywood Hills, actress Drew Barrymore has sold her Los Angeles estate to a mystery buyer represented by Swedish firm Hillcrest AB, the LA Times reports. The 8,000 square foot home features 18 rooms, four bedrooms, a separate guesthouse, a pool, and four fireplaces. The property was sold off-market (therefore no listing photos) for $16.5 million—just over $11 million more than she paid for it in 2002.

Apartment viewings kind of make no sense when you think about it. If you live in New York, like I do, an apartment viewing is about a 10-15 minute period in which you’re supposed to ask a couple questions, look around for any big problems, and then leave to see another apartment. Most of the time, since apartments come and go so fast, you only have one meeting to make your decision—or you risk losing it to someone who moved faster.

It doesn’t matter how much you smash that piggy bank—your first home is going to be really expensive and it’s going to take a long time to save up for that down payment on your own. According to a new study from HotPads, most renters will spend nearly six and a half years saving to put a down payment on a home. Since the median home price in the United States is $216,000, the average 20-percent down payment comes out to $43,200.

A new study from Zillow shows that most Americans are willing to pay for this amenity.

Buying a house is stressful enough, but when you add in the unfamiliar lingo and mounds of paperwork, it can be overwhelming.

You might not think an empty house or apartment as an especially beautiful thing. There’s a reason why houses are staged when they go on the market, and that is because people usually think of empty houses and apartments as sad and lonely. But, after you’ve signed on the dotted line and the home is yours, the emptiness can be a spectacular vision. Instead of loneliness, the space is a blank slate for all the happy memories (and awesome decor) to come.

The housing market ebbs and flows: It’s just a fact of life. Sometimes it’s a buyer’s market, and sometimes it’s a seller’s. But if you’re looking to buy your first home, the unpredictability of the market can feel closer to an existential threat than a fact of existence. The cities with low housing prices you can actually afford might not be places where you want to settle down, with high unemployment rates and stagnant home values.

Sure, that old Victorian home seems great now. It has original floorboards and the crown molding is so charming. But once you purchase, every creaky step will send a shiver up your spine: One wrong move and the whole place could crumble down faster than you can say “poor house.” It’s a scary thought, but you’re not alone. In fact, threat of costly repairs is the number one stress for homeowners.