Love, Money + Real Estate #37
Are your parents paying their bills on time?
There’s a direct relationship between paying your bills and the health of your credit history and score. Pay your bills on time, preferably in full, watch how much debt you’re taking on, and your credit score will be higher. But if you forget to make your payments, your credit score will begin to decline.
Simple, right? It turns out, when your credit score begins to decline, it can point to something else going on - memory issues.
This may not come as a surprise to those of you whose parents are becoming forgetful. Or, perhaps more than a little forgetful. I mean, who doesn’t forget to pay a bill from time to time?
But, a study published earlier this year by the New York Federal Reserve found that years prior to an eventual diagnosis of a memory disorder (think Alzheimer’s or any of the other types of memory issues), average credit scores begin to decline. In other words, if your parents’ credit scores begin to drop, it could mean more than just a single “I forgot to pay it” occurrence.
The study looked at credit data merged with Medicare data.
The harmful financial effects of undiagnosed memory disorders exacerbate the already substantial financial pressure households face upon diagnosis of a memory disorder.
Consider this a warning if you have aging parents and relatives. It might be time to have a serious conversation about how they’re handling their bills and what are some simple ways to make them easier to manage. They might resist, by the way. And, the whole conversation might leave you feeling like your parents are fine. But then again, maybe not.
My mother had the most incredible memory. She could remember things that happened in her childhood as clearly as she remembered how much she won/lost in her weekly card game. In the last week of her life, she was still doing the New York Times crossword puzzle in pen. But a couple of years before then, we discovered she had missed paying a couple of bills. That’s when we convinced her to put just about everything onto auto pay direct from her checking account or her credit card. Then, we set the credit card bill to auto pay each month, and unless something came in separately, it worked like clockwork.
For my mom, it really was just being a little forgetful in your later 80s and finding ways to make it easier to manage her financial life. But that might not be the case for your parents. Better to be sure.
You never need credit until you do, so don’t let the idea that your aging relatives don’t need credit sideline this important task.
And What About the (Adult) Kids?
Meant to include this startling statistic awhile back: Today, 46% of Gen-Zers rely on financial assistance from their family, according to a report from Bank of America.
Meanwhile, Bankrate reports that 39% of U.S. adults have side hustles.
Real Estate News
The Wall Street Journal and Realtor.com say that the top housing market for Fall 2024 is Canton Ohio. The median home listing in Canton was $259,000, which is surprisingly affordable, given that the median home price is now over $400,000 (see below). The rest of the top five markets includes Akron, OH, Milwaukee, WI, Manchester, NH and Kalamazoo, MI.
Mortgage applications declined last week to their lowest levels since July. The culprit? Rising mortgage rates.
Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, says that home sales could hit the lowest level since the mid-1990s. For the second year in a row. Existing home sales declined 1% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.84 million, down 3.5% from a year ago. Median existing-home sales price climbed to $404,500, the 15th consecutive month of YOY price increases. And, there is a 4.3 months’ supply at the current, rather depressed, rate of sale.
“Home sales have been essentially stuck at around a four-million-unit pace for the past 12 months, but factors usually associated with higher home sales are developing,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “There are more inventory choices for consumers, lower mortgage rates than a year ago and continued job additions to the economy. Perhaps, some consumers are hesitating about moving forward with a major expenditure like purchasing a home before the upcoming election.”
Home remodeling slowed down in Q3, but Houzz says more firms expect a bigger rebound in Q4. Meanwhile, the median spend on bathroom remodels ticked up 11% to $15,000 last year.
From Clever’s latest survey on home renovation trends: 94% of homeowners have completed a major renovation in the past five years and 78% went over budget on their last project. 63% of homeowners went into debt to pay for a renovation
62% of renters worry they’ll never be able to own a home, according to a LendingTree Report.
93% of Americans think owning a home is part of the American Dream, and
83% would rather own than rent
Among those who rent but prefer to own, 65% say they can’t put together the down payment
Also, 82% of renters think there should be a cap on the amount a landlord can increase rents, according to a Redfin survey. Which is fine because many states do cap the amount rents can increase.
Finally, Clever Real Estate reports that 54% of Americans would purchase a haunted house.
14% of homeowner believe they’ve lived in a real haunted house
11% say they knew the house was haunted and still chose to live there
36% say they felt unsafe in their homes and 50% say they felt scared
How scary is the election? 42% of Americans say they’d rather live in a haunted house than next door to outspoken Republicans, while 36% would rather live in a haunted house than next door to outspoken Democrats.
The latest from ThinkGlink.com and Best Money Moves
Yes, I’m pretty proud of this one.
It’s peak (peek?) week for leaves in Chicago, about a week later than normal, I think. (Purely unscientific, btw.) We’re having some lovely Autumn weather, with nights in the 40s and daytime highs in the 60s. Couldn’t ask for anything better this time of year. We’re expecting rain tonight, though, so most of these beauties will be gone by morning.
Hope you take a few minutes out of your day to take a deep breath and enjoy something beautiful. Thanks for reading and being part of the ThinkGlink community.
Ilyce
Great piece. I’ve followed you for years - since I worked at Friday Home Guide @ the Washington Times. Great to see you on this new-ish media!