It’s time to pay your utility bill, so you go online to find the, say, water company’s website to make your payment. Up pops a site that looks official. It has the company’s logo, professional layout and even the company name in the URL. So, you enter your payment information -- and within hours, your bank account is drained dry.

It’s the latest scam levied against unaware homeowners. And what makes it so dangerous, says Genady Vishnevetsky, chief info security officer at Stewart Title Guaranty in Houston, is that criminals aren’t just blasting out random emails.

Instead, “They’re building websites that appear in your search results when you’re actively trying to pay a legitimate bill,” says the security expert. “You’re already in payment mode, ready to enter your banking information.”

In some cases, the thieves actually pay your utility bill so you won’t find out your money is gone until your balance hits zero.

To protect yourself, Vishnevetsky says go directly to the utility’s home page. “Never search for the payment portal,” he advises. “Type the official URL into your browser. If you don’t know the official address, call the number on your bill.”

The security pro also warns people to give the URL a hard look before entering it, noting that scammers often use similar addresses to that of your utility but using different letters, added words or phone numbers that are off by a single digit. And beware if the site promises to pay your bill for a “small fee.”

“Your utility company doesn’t need an intermediary,” Vishnevetsky warns. Nor will the utility ask for banking information over the phone.

Gathering places like coffee shops and neighborhood parks have long been the staple of larger master-planned properties. But beer gardens?

Local breweries are a big draw for younger homebuyers, developers told the trade journal BUILDER recently. Indeed, they are vital, said a researcher. “People are craving ways to feel connected and supported in their day-to-day lives, and if a community can offer that, they’ll have a real advantage,” she said.

A Texas builder told the magazine that his firm designs its properties “around human connection, not just homes.” A brewery or beer garden concept “fits naturally into our philosophy of building ‘cultural living rooms’ that promote joy, belonging and everyday interaction,” he said. “For us, it’s about creating an anchor for social life rather than simply adding another trendy amenity.”

If you are planning to sell your home this year without the help of an agent, consider these statistics from Clever Real Estate:

Four out of 5 do-it-yourselfers regret going it alone, with 1 in 5 citing the most common lament: a lack of offers. Half felt overwhelmed by the process, and slightly more than that said buyers don’t trust them. Clever also found that sellers with an agent earned an average profit of $207,500, $79,000 more than the average FSBO (For Sale By Owner) gain of $128,500.

More than a third of nontraditional sellers wished they had used an agent, while 2 in 5 wished they had priced their homes differently.

If these numbers don’t stop you from going it alone, Clever has compiled a library of articles to help with the process: “How I Sold My House Without a Realtor,” “Paperwork for Selling a House by Owner: Full List of Documents,” “How to List on MLS by Owner in 2026” and “Best Flat Fee MLS Listing Services in 2025.” These can all be found on the Clever website (listwithclever.com).

About 7% of all single-family houses built last year were on sites where another house was demolished to make way for the new one, according to data from Home Innovation Research Labs.

Called “teardowns,” the new structures are mostly built in older neighborhoods where the houses they are replacing are largely out-of-date, derelicts or abandoned and the ground they sit on is worth more than the houses themselves. With teardowns, it’s usually more financially feasible to just knock them down and start over than to try to fix them up.

A whopping 85% of the folks responding to a Nationwide Insurance survey plan to stay in their homes forever. The other 15% view their places as starter homes.

It’s not done so much anymore, but years ago, homeowners used to celebrate paying off their mortgages with mortgage-burning parties, in which they actually set fire to their loan papers.

The concept of paying off a mortgage was so important, reminds Joe Garrett of the Garrett McAuley mortgage advisory firm, that in the great American play, “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman waited to take his own life until after he made his final house payment.

Shopping for mortgage rates can save borrowers a lot of money -- $222 a month on average, according to a June report from LendingTree. But there’s a trick to browsing the field for the best rate.

For one thing, compare rates on a single day -- ideally, around the same time of day, advises David Reed, a loan officer for 20-plus years.

Rates react to market conditions, which can change over the course of a day -- let alone several days. So a quote you secured on Monday could be very different from a quote from the same lender on Thursday, explains Reed, who has written several books on mortgages.

If you are reviewing rates online, pay attention to when they were posted, Reed advises. If they were put up a few days earlier, he says to pick up the phone and ask for the current numbers.

It’s equally important to compare rates at the same time of day: Market conditions can change so quickly that a quote in the morning could be different from one in the afternoon.

Next, be certain you are comparing apples to apples by getting quotes for the same mortgage program, Reed counsels. For example, a 30-year mortgage is not comparable to a 15-year loan, nor is a fixed-rate loan comparable to one where the rate adjusts every few years.

Also, lenders offer various rate guarantees, or locks, for set periods of time. When shopping around, get quotes that lock in the rate for the same specific period -- say, 15 or 30 days -- from each lender. But be aware that the longer the lock-in period, the higher the rate.

Finally, along with the rates themselves, compare the fees each lender will charge. The lender with the best rate might tack on higher fees to compensate.

Life events -- divorce, death and bankruptcy, to name a few -- often dictate when someone has to sell a home. Now, a new tool alerts real estate agents to listing opportunities that result from these life-altering events.

Daily Lead Alerts monitors public records for such events as mortgage defaults, divorce filings and involuntary liens. Agents can sign up for alerts within a 3-mile radius of a location of their choosing and will be alerted when these situations are recorded.

According to a statement from Benutech, the real estate technology company offering the feature inside its Title Toolbox platform, "most 3-mile radiuses will include between 10,000 and 40,000 properties, generating a sizable list of potential new listing leads for agents to pursue."

Benutech’s Brian Fox calls the feature “a true game changer,” noting that "there’s a clear link between major life events and real estate decisions ... this tool empowers agents to connect with potential clients at exactly the right moment.”

Sellers are yanking their houses off the market at record levels, mostly because they have been unable to obtain the prices they are looking for. But for some, removing their properties from the multiple listing service is a marketing ploy designed to give their outdated listings a fresh start.

They are taking down their listings, then relisting them later at a lower price. That way, house hunters won’t see it as a “price drop” or be alarmed by the high number of days the property has been on the market.

According to Redfin, the majority of "delistings" in September had been on the market for more than 100 days -- far beyond the 60-day definition of a “stale” listing.

Apparently, the technique works. Redfin reports that almost a third of the houses delisted in July sold when they were listed again.

Gated communities are falling out of favor with buyers of new homes, according to NewHomeSource data that tracks house hunters’ amenity searches.

The listing site for newly constructed houses says searches for gated communities have been slowing since 2024, while interest in community pools has more than doubled.

Gated communities gained popularity in the 1970s and '80s, as rising crime rates increased some buyers' perceived need for an extra layer of security. But now that crime rates are down, would-be buyers are paying more attention to the costs associated with gates and guards. Those costs are usually included in homeowner's association dues -- which are increasing, right along with insurance premiums and property taxes.

"Many consumers are finding that the high homeowner's association fees and the premium price often attached to gated communities have made them less favorable for the time being, as they grapple with rising housing costs,”

says economist Ali Wolf of NewHomeSource.

Robots are moving beyond 3D printed walls to take on such finishing projects as painting and finishing drywall.

One model can paint a four-room apartment in 60 to 90 minutes, according to the manufacturer, and two units can be run simultaneously by one operator. Another robot, says its maker, can paint about 1,000 square feet per hour, about 10 times faster than a human. And a third is said to paint 14 times faster than a human.

Robots can drywall, too. One model muds and sands the gypsum, sprays compound on the joints and, once dry, sands the seams -- while capturing 99% of the resulting dust. And another applies plaster, finishes drywall and paints. The all-in-one model, which is designed to work alongside human laborers, can finish 1,000 square feet an hour -- about 10 times faster than manual methods.

Most homebuyers figure that their property taxes will be the same as those paid by the house's previous owner. That’s a common mistake.

They might be the same for a few months, or even a year, but eventually they’ll be recalculated. And when they are, they’ll most assuredly increase -- sometimes substantially.

But what if it's a new house that no one has ever owned before you? How can you know what the tax levy will be?

Most homebuilders make a good-faith estimate of the taxes their buyers can expect to pay. But some notoriously underestimate these fees to make their estimated mortgage payments appear more affordable.

Some builders go even further, basing their tax estimates not on the finished house, but on the value of the lot before a shovel was ever turned. And now a class-action suit protesting that practice has been filed in Florida.

Filed by a group of unhappy buyers, the suit charges the nation’s largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, and its mortgage affiliate, DHI Mortgage, with a “deceptive scheme” that led to unexpectedly higher mortgage payments.

The buyers didn’t learn that their payments would be hundreds of dollars higher until after they closed on their mortgages and the loans were sold to new servicers on the secondary market, the lawsuit maintains. Once the new servicers took these loans under their wings, they adjusted the monthly payments so that they were based on the property tax assessment of the finished house -- not the empty lot.

In one instance, the suit alleges, a Horton homebuyer chose DHI Mortgage because the estimated monthly payment was lower than comparable houses with similar sales prices. But less than a year later, the new loan servicer conducted an escrow analysis that included all property taxes -- as well as back taxes to cover the previous shortfall.

The buyer’s monthly payment jumped nearly $1,000.

The lawsuit alleges that the builder and lender were "running a 'Monthly Payment Suppression Scheme' to mislead first-time homebuyers into thinking their total monthly housing costs would fit their budgets," said Jennifer Wagner, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), in a prepared statement. The NCLC is co-representing the buyers in this case.

Only time will tell what becomes of the lawsuit. But it should stand as a warning to all homebuyers to make sure their property tax estimates are as accurate as possible. Buyers should try to determine on their own what their taxes will be. You can call the local assessor's office to find out, or you can ask for the tax rate and do the math yourself.

Realize, too, that your tax levy is not static. It's going to go up -- if not right away, then the next time the local tax assessor reviews your house. Housing prices are still rising, and property tax assessments are rising right along with them.

Part of the problem with underestimated property taxes lies with loan officers, who should make a concerted effort to determine what borrowers will pay prior to closing. Lenders should qualify borrowers for a mortgage based on the taxes at closing, not on what the seller is currently paying. But some don’t, and as a result, their clients' monthly charges will definitely go up, sometimes by hundreds.

Although you can pay your taxes annually on your own, most borrowers set up escrow accounts at closing to collect one-twelfth of their property taxes and homeowner's insurance fees each month. Then, when those charges are due, the loan servicer pays them on the homeowner's behalf, thereby removing the burden of coming up with that lump sum every year.

Eventually, the servicer will run an escrow analysis to make sure your payments are accurate. If not, it will adjust them accordingly. If you haven’t been paying enough since you took on your loan, you will be required to make up the difference.

You may be required to pay it all at once, or the servicer may agree to divide what you owe into equal amounts and add it to your monthly payment. Either way, the hit could be devastating to someone on a tight budget.

The tax collector will reassess your property at least once every three years. If values are rising in your area, you should expect your taxes to rise. But you also should expect your servicer to make annual adjustments to your escrow accounts.

If you disagree with either the tax assessment or your servicer, you can ask for a review. But in the end, there’s no way to avoid an increase, and it is your responsibility to pay it. It is one of the costs of owning a house.

To guard against unexpectedly large increases, some people pay a little extra every month into their escrow accounts. Others deposit money into a separate savings account so they’ll have funds set aside when the new bill arrives.