The Most Expensive Zip Code in the U.S. is...

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The most expensive zip code in the US? It’s not in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Aspen or Palm Beach…it's in BOSTON! The 02115 ZIP Code had the priciest median residential real estate as ranked by price per square foot in the U.S., at $2,663/sf in December 2023. (WSJ)

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Last fall, the average rate of the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage pushed close to 8%...today it's around 6.69%. Lower rates are possible with better credit scores: a homeowner with a credit score of 760 or better can get a roughly 6.33% mortgage rate while someone with a credit score between 660 and 679 gets about a 6.95% rate. Buying points can also help those planning to own longer: One point on a $300,000 loan costs $3,000. Each point lowers the interest rate by a quarter percentage point for the life of the loan. That adds up over the years! (WSJ)
 
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Microsoft becomes the second company ever to top $3 Trillion valuation, $3.004 Trillion to be exact, and Apple is slightly more valuable with a $3.03 Trillion market cap…

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A new twist on WATERFRONT living: Developers are building huge, multi-acre lagoons - mostly in Texas and Florida - to deliver many of the joys of waterfront living without the negatives such as flooding, high insurance, rip tides, sharks, etc. Another opened in 2021 in Utah, and Disney will do one in a new community in Rancho Mirage, Calif. On average, they are 8-feet deep, with shallower edges for swimming, and some have lifeguards. Lagoons need fewer chemicals than regular pools and 2% of the energy required for pool-filtration systems. Lagoons are filled once and need more water only to offset evaporation, like regular pools. Monthly maintenance for a medium-size lagoon averages $9,600 per acre. Homes sell for a premium in this setting. (WSJ)

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Everything in society — housing, healthcare, the workplace, inflation and even the way urban planners design city streets — will be affected by the sheer volume of Americans turning 65 this year. More than 4.1 million people are expected to retire this year. (Marketwatch)

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While spending was strong in December and triggered a notch-up in inflation, lots of that was fueled by buy-now-pay-later consumers....and the time is approaching to pay..... or pay huge interest rate financing credit card for debt. The average credit card interest rate is over 20%...

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The SNUG room is making a comeback as people realize huge rooms are great for large gatherings and impressing friends, but when it's just you or two or three peeps, they are less appealing than a small, cozy place to snuggle up. Snugs originated hundreds of years ago as quiet alcoves in cacophonous British pubs, and shadowy hideaways in English country estates, where vast halls designed for balls hogged all the windows and natural light and were not conducive to everyday life. Such stately homes needed a separate, informal room where people could comfortably sew, play instruments or read. Darker but less drafty than other common areas, the snug generally welcomed readers and needle pointers with a fire, a cocoon of the home, that has been a staple of British interior design in nearly every era, and in all sorts of homes—city and country, upper and middle class—sometimes as a little den off the kitchen, sometimes as a more remote spot offering happy isolation. (WSJ)