By Kim Cook Associated Press Avid home cooks often want to outfit their kitchens with the kind of high-end appliances and gear used by professional chefs. There’s that aspirational notion that somehow having the right equipment will lead to better food. So what’s in a pro kitchen that ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices in 2018 climbed 4.5%, while incomes grew 3.2%, according to CoreLogic real estate figures and government wage data released Friday. The gap suggests that affordability is worsening. Still, this gap appears to be narrowing relative in much of the country as ...

By Kim Cook Associated Press There was a time when designers and decorators considered floor coverings to be background elements in a room. Rugs and tile were meant to be practical, not attention-getting. That’s changed. Now, the floor is often one of the strongest elements in a space. ...

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Lynn Osborne has been remodeling two homes. They are different styles, in different states, with different contractors. But there has been one constant: delays due to a shortage of skilled labor. The two-year remodel of her primary home in Fort Collins was to ...

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press Can your home help you get healthier? Interior designers say clients don’t just want help creating a more beautiful home anymore. They want to create living spaces where they will cook healthier foods, breathe healthier air and improve overall ...

By Katherine Roth Associated Press When it comes to painting rooms, gray is red-hot. Benjamin Moore carries over 150 shades of gray, and Sherwin-Williams says that of their top 50 colors for interiors, 30 are grays. “The trend toward gray started in Scandinavia, became big in the U.S. ...

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press What if your home had a spare room you’d never noticed before? Your garage, even if it has one or more cars in it, can pull double-duty as a gym, a crafting room and even a place to socialize. Designers and architects tell us that gaining more living ...

By Melissa Kossler Dutton Associated Press When Melissa Smuzynski learned that she was expecting, she wanted a nursery that reflected her family’s love of travel. But when she and her husband, Damon Lane, went shopping for appropriate decor a few years ago, they didn’t find much. So ...

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press Designers often talk about the perfect “outdoor living room” — a deck or patio that combines the comfort and style of indoor decorating with the pleasure of relaxing outside. But what separates these outdoor entertaining spaces from more typically ...

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press Conventional wisdom says to use neutral colors or simple wood stains for anything as permanent as kitchen cabinets. Homeowners craving a burst of color have generally been advised to bring it in through easily changeable items like curtains or seat ...

By Dean Fosdick Associated Press New technology is easing the way we garden, store equipment, monitor watering and re-shape landscapes. And some of those tasks can be done remotely, using phones or tablets. The innovations extend well beyond downloading a few apps. New to the horticultural ...

By Melissa Rayworth Associated Press Even the simplest window treatments have an important role to play in the look of a room. “They really soften and furnish a space much more than most people imagine,” says interior designer Betsy Burnham of Los Angeles. Yet she often has to reassure ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of homes under construction fell 8.7 percent in February, as ground breakings for single-family houses plunged to their lowest level in nearly two years. The Commerce Department said that builders started construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.16 ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home sales soared 11.8 percent in February, aided by accelerating wages and falling mortgage rates that are improving affordability. The National Association of Realtors said existing homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.51 million last month, a ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose at their slowest pace in more than six years in January, as higher mortgage rates last year weighed on sales. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 3.6 percent in January from a year earlier. That’s down from a 4.1 ...

By Holden Lewis of NerdWallet Cities in the Pacific time zone have the least-affordable housing in the country, and the Central time zone has the most-affordable housing. Each quarter, NerdWallet calculates the home affordability for 178 metropolitan areas, matching the list of metros for ...

By Kim Cook Associated Press As the weather improves and our winter hibernation ends, the urge to refresh and renew a room or two often follows. It may be as simple as adding a few new decorative items or changing a worn-out piece of furniture. Or maybe it’s something a little more ...

By Courtney Jespersen NerdWallet You signed the papers, got the keys and opened the front door. Now, that quaint little place is all yours. But more freedom comes with more responsibility. A lot changes once you’re a homeowner. Here’s how to prepare for a few of the adjustments — ...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new U.S. homes climbed in December to their highest pace in seven months, a sign that lower mortgage rates are helping the real estate market. The Commerce Department said new-home sales rose 3.7 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 621,000. ...

By Kim Cook Associated Press Back in the days before TV and air conditioning lured people indoors, Americans often hung out on front porches, enjoying the fresh air and socializing with neighbors. In later decades, when they wanted to relax outside, people tended to do it in the backyard, ...