When looking for a first home, people take a lot of things into consideration, but where you’re househunting could play a major role in whether that home search is an easy or difficult one. Well, WalletHub has just come out with their picks for the Best and Worst Cities for First-Time Home Buyers, so if you’re looking, you may want to listen up.
The site looked at 300 different U.S. cities, judging them on 27 key indicators, including affordability, and quality of life, from cost of living, to real estate taxes and more. With all that in mind, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma tops the list, with a score of 67.09, getting high marks for affordability, with Tampa, Florida coming in second with a 65.79.
Best Cities For First-Time Home Buyers
- Broken Arrow, OK
- Tampa, FL
- Centennial, CO
- Boise, ID
- Grand Rapids, MI
Worst Cities For First-Time Homebuyers
- Berkeley, CA
- Detroit, MI
- Flint, MI
- San Francisco, CA
- San Mateo, CA
Click here to see where your hometown falls.
While a lot of us may already be dreaming of the day we can retire and put work in our rearview mirror, the truth is more and more people see themselves working a lot longer than you may expect.
A recent poll finds that 53% of workers believe they will work past 65, with 13% saying they don’t expect to retire at all. Of course, at some point, people may be seen as “too old to work,” but the survey finds that may not actually be true.
When people were asked what age they thought would be too old for someone to still be working, more than half couldn’t identify a specific age. Of those who did, 75 was the median age given. As for what age is considered “old” overall, 40% either said it depended, or wouldn’t give an age. For those who did give an age, the median age was 70.
Interestingly, baby boomers are most likely to say 75 is considered “old,” and also the age when someone is too old to work, while Gen Xer’s say 70 is old, although 75 is when they are too old to work. As you can imagine, Millennials have a totally different view of “old,” with 65 the median age, and 70 the median age when someone’s too old to work.
- ONE MORE THING! The survey also asked people how long they expect to live until, and the median age for all generations was 90.
Source: CBS News
We all know kids are addicted to their devices these days, and it seems all that screen time is keeping many of them from enjoying the great outdoors.
According to a new UK report, which could easily translate here, the average six to 16-year-old is only spending about seven hours a week outdoors, and that includes the weekends. Instead, these kid are spending more than two hours a day online playing games on their phones or other devices.
As you can imagine, this lack of fresh air is troubling for parents, with two thirds admitting they worry their kids don’t spend enough time outside, and 40% saying they have had to force their kid to leave the house and play. What's more, 60% say that addictive video games make it harder to convince their kids to go outside.
Source: SWNS Digital
High-heeled Crocs now exist: While Crocs are pretty comfortable, they aren’t exactly stylish, and that certainly holds true for the newest edition to their shoe line. The plastic shoe company has just come out with high-heeled crocs and they are pretty awful, although apparently pretty popular. They come in two colors, black and platinum, and wild orchid, with the wild orchid option almost sold out. They aren’t exactly cheap either, ranging in price from $80 to $225.
Source: New York Post
Sometimes life feels like a lot and between the news and the bad tweets, it feels like too much to handle. That’s when we need to tune out all that negativity and focus on feeling good. Need some help in that department? Try this self-care routine to boost your mood even when everything feels kinda bad.
- Put clean sheets on your bed - Sure, it’s a pain to strip the bed, wash the sheets, and put clean ones on, but the happy, relaxed feeling you’ll get when you slip into bed is totally worth it.
- Do some kind of sweaty workout - Dealers choice, yoga, running, dancing, or even sex. Just release some of that energy and stress while working up a sweat and you’re bound to feel better.
- Dry brush your skin - Dry brushing exfoliates your skin, stimulates your lymphatic system, unclogs pores and “decongests skin,” plus, it only takes five minutes.
- Take a shower - Long or short, hot or cool, shave if that’s your thing, just get in there and enjoy it.
- Moisturize your body with coconut oil - After the dry brushing and shower, applying some coconut oil will give you soft skin for days, or at least 24 hours.
- Put on a robe - Don’t rush to get dressed after your shower, pretend you’re at a spa and lounge around in the robe of your choice for as long as you like.
- When you do get dressed, put on comfy, clean clothes- After your coconut oil is absorbed, pick out something fresh, not something from that pile of recently-worn clothes we all pull from, and get dressed. Choose something soft and cozy for max comfort.
- Head to the couch or your bed - You’ve relaxed your body and now it’s time to enjoy your luxurious state of comfort. Light a candle, read a book, do your nails, watch “Planet Earth,” meditate, or write in a journal - anything soothing that pleases you. And at least for the next few hours, everything is going to feel okay.
Source: Buzzfeed