The Mortgage Bankers Assn. (MBAA) reported last week the average interest rate on new 30-year fixed-rate loans nationwide was 4.97%, nearing the lowest level in decades. And on Thursday, Freddie Mac reported that the average fixed rate on a 15-year home loan had dropped to 4.46%, the lowest level on record. Not surprisingly, loan [...]

There's a Yiddish word, "kvell," which means beaming with pride and enjoyment, it is generally used when referring to the accomplishments of ones children. Since I consider everyone at RPL to be my extended family, I am fortunate to have many kvelling moments, last week at the Squantum Club I witnessed just such an event. My good friend [...]

Mayor Cicilline Launches Comprehensive Effort to Double City's Recycling Rate. Starting Monday, November 2nd, green and blue recycling bins will have to be placed with the big green cans or trash will not be picked-up. Watch the Mayors press conference to learn more:

Last week on Real Estate Insight, Sally sat down with Rich Epstein and Steve Tetzner to discuss the First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit and Energy related tax credits. The conversation was both educational and entertaining. Listen to the Podcast commercial-free below: Real Estate Insight can be heard live Sunday mornings 10:00am -11:00am on WHJJ Radio [...]

Delicious is a social bookmarking application that allows users to tag, save, manage and share their Bookmarks to a website. Delicious also allows you to save your Bookmarks from multiple computers, which is extremely advantageous. Ive been using Delicious for years now and always recommend it. Residential Properties utilizes Delicious to [...]

I know it is only Monday, but there are several events coming to Providence this weekend that everyone should know about. If you listened to Real Estate Insight with Sally Lapides yesterday on WHJJ, you already know about the Apeiron Institute for Sustainable Living's Providence Sustainability Festival. The festival will take place in [...]

For the past eight years, The Apeiron Institute has held its annual Sustainable Living Festival in Coventry. The Institute's goal is to make Rhode Island the nation's first sustainable state, and they are a great resource for people looking to make their homes more energy efficient. On September [...]

Last blog, I ended saying I would discuss what you would get from our company and the national organization of Realtors. However, how a client is represented has come up as a topic and I feel it is more important to write about this now. Rhode Island has a new agency law about which your Realtor must inform you. As members of our state [...]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009s tax related provisions are well-documented successes. By some estimates, one-third of recent home sales can be attributed to the [...]

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009's tax related provisions are well documented successes. By some estimates, one-third of recent home sales can be attributed to the $8000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, and the cash for clunkers was also very popular. If you plan on taking advantage of the credit, you should have an [...]