Home prices continue to rise across the United States, leading to affordability issues among a wide swath of potential homeowners. But savvy buyers are finding deals by purchasing homes that require renovations.
According to data from leading real estate listings site Realtor.com, the national median listing price in August was $429,990. However, buyers are realizing significant savings when purchasing fixer-upper homes—especially in the South and Midwest, where homeowners saved between 56 and 78 percent by buying properties in need of renovations, Realtor.com reported on Sept. 23.
Realtor.com’s technology team trained an artificial intelligence tool to scour July home listings for terms such as “renovation ready,” “good bones,” and “needs some love” to parse out property listings that were being marketed as fixer-uppers. It found that the best buys are typically single-family homes that were built at least 20 years ago, as well as smaller properties whose square footage is below the median size for their respective areas, Realtor.com reported….