Erick Blackwelder's (erickblackwelder1) Blog

© Courtesy of Aaron ColeAaron Cole and his wife and two children stand in front of the home they nearly lost in Canby, Ore.,after Cole was swindled out of the family's $123,000 down payment in a wire fraud scheme. Buyer Bilked Out of $123K: ‘Just Like That, It’s Gone’ Falling prey to a wire frau...

Existing-home sales showed improvement in July, a welcome sign for what has been a mostly sluggish summer real estate market. Reversing course last month, sales climbed 2.5% over June, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday. The Northeast was the only major region of the U.S. to...

    New-home construction for single-family homes saw an improvement in July, despite builders’ concerns about affordability headwinds. Single-family housing starts rose 1.3% to 876,000 units last month, the Commerce Department reported. The largest regional increases in single-family homebuildin...

August 19, 2019 Ray Hartley, owner of Intrepid Wildlife Services in Westchester County, N.Y., uses the company tagline “Your castle shouldn’t be a zoo.” Hartley recently recounted to The Wall Street Journal the many calls he receives from homeowners about animal invaders, from squirrels and skunk...

By Rhone Resch, president & CEO, Solar Energy Industries AssociationWarm weather tends to draw people out hunting for a new home or to inspire others to make home improvements. It turns out home owners with solar energy systems may have the upper hand.In 2006, my family installed a 6-kilowatt pho...

Real estate has surpassed stocks as Americans’ favorite long-term investment, according to a nationwide Bankrate survey of about 1,000 respondents. Thirty-one percent of survey respondents named real estate as their favorite investment for building wealth that they don’t need access to for a deca...

A new trend in home building and home renovations has come into full swing in the first two decades of the 21st century, the demand in the market for multigenerational homes.  Home builders across the fruited plains are adding new floorplans that offer main level master suites in markets like the...

You want to buy a new home in Northern Virginia, and you want to know that you have gotten the best deal possible.   Erick Blackwelder has helped over 300 nice folks like you purchase new homes over the past 30 year.  Erick's clients got the best prices, the best terms, and the most concessions p...