Luxury real estate development has flooded new housing inventory across the country, particularly in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

These upscale homes have not only transformed where people are living and who’s buying, but they have also changed the way many real estate agents do business.

For Jared Seligman, a licensed associate real estate broker and leader of the Seligman Team at Douglas Elliman Real Estate in New York, new development has taken the real estate market to new heights – and buyers' expectations have risen along with it.

[See: The 20 Most Desirable Places to Live in the U.S. ]

As the luxury real estate market evolves, more buyers at all price points expect move-in ready homes, or a fair enough price cut to make up for needed updates and changes. Seligman offers insight into how he does business– and how a luxury broker’s approach can serve you well when selling your home.

SEE ALSO: 7 smart questions to ask before you buy a home

Create a profile of the buyer

With any home sale, you want to appeal to as wide a market as possible, but it’s natural that you can rule out certain homebuyers because the home simply wouldn’t fit into their lifestyle. Maybe the location isn't close enough to desired schools for their children, or for an individual who works long hours, a space might not be conducive to a focused working environment.

For the penthouse at 10 Sullivan, a new development nearing completion in Manhattan's SoHo district, Seligman worked with a team to determine the buyer demographic most likely to be attracted to the price range, number of bedrooms, prime location and other details about the space, building and neighborhood.

“We felt the buyer would either be a single or young trophy-asset buyer and/or someone with a large family and/or staff,” Seligman says. “So we found it almost not being anywhere in between, so what we wanted to do is create a floor plan that would work for both, which is the hardest thing.”

He notes there are neighborhoods in New York that are attractive to such a specific type of individual or family that it allows agents to determine the most likely buyers, down to which preschool their children attend and which stores they frequent.

For your own home, consider staging and renovations that may cater best to a buyer likely to look in your neighborhood and the price point for the market value of your home. A home just down the block from an elementary school, for example, could easily appeal to buyers with young children who could walk to and from school. Staging additional bedrooms as kids' rooms and the finished basement as a playroom will help buyers to see the space's potential.

For a home centrally located near nightlife hot spots, single buyers or small families may be more likely to show interest in the area. Staging a spare room as a home office or home gym could paint the picture for the most likely buyer, without ruling out the possibility that it could be used as a child's bedroom or guest room.

[See: 10 Unorthodox Ways Your Real Estate Agent May Market Your Home .]

Understand what your home offers compared to others

As high-end development continues to enter the market in New York, pricey penthouses are no longer a rarity.Buyers have options, and they may not be pressed to relocate right away.

“When you’re dealing with luxury and trophy assets, these are people who do not need to move. They are fine," Seligman says. "The buyer has a lot of power because now we’re in market where instead of four properties in that price point, there’s 12.”

Negotiations can get complicated and drawn out as buyers see no need to make a purchase until they have everything they want out of the deal. Seligman says the key to a successful sale at top dollar is to offer something the buyer can’t get anywhere else.

The penthouse at 10 Sullivan, for example, has extensive views of the city, including a glimpse of the Empire State Building from the tub in the master bathroom. “That’s when buyers will bite the bullet and be willing to sign,” Seligman says.

Adding something to an otherwise standard property could provide the distinction your home needs to stand out among others on the market. In Chicago's luxury market, Sheldon Salnick, a real estate agent for Dream Town Realty, says many high-end buyers are drawn to large lots – more than 3,000 square feet plus an outdoor space. Sellers who may not have the yard space are furnishing roof space above the garage. "One of my clients did a pizza [oven] up there, and another landscaped it with plants and a tree," Salnick says.

If you're putting your home on the market, consider what features set your home apart from others nearby – be it a functioning fireplace, solar panels or that it's walking distance to shops and restaurants – and highlight those in the marketing materials.

Be a perfectionist when you can

Especially if you live in an area with a lot of new condos or housing developments or where many sellers are flipping homes, pay close attention to the competition as you prepare your own home for the market.

“In resale it’s not uncommon you have paint chips everywhere. For a new development apartment, it’s an entirely different story,” Seligman says.

You won’t always have the same buyers looking at both new development and existing homes on the market, but it can be fruitful to view your home with the same eye a person would in new construction: Nothing can be out of place. Salnick notes a seller should make the property look its best, highlighting the unique features that set it apart from competing homes on the market. "Lighting plays a big role in this," Salnick says.

Salnick adds that staging will help ensure that a buyer's list of must-haves, like a media room for many luxury buyers, doesn't have to be imagined when they tour the home.

[See: Weird Home Features That May Confuse Homebuyers .]

Jon Buscemi's beautiful new Los Angeles home has it all. The 3,300-square-foot Spanish villa in the neighborhood of Los Feliz features beamed ceilings, stained glass windows, perfectly manicured grounds, and a view of downtown LA from the master suite balcony. 

Buscemi, a former Wall Streeter turned apparel and shoe designer, recently purchased the home for $2.86 million, the Los Angeles Times first reported. Buscemi joins the ranks of a few other famous names with his purchase: actresses Olivia Wilde and Natalie Portman have at different times lived in the house, as well as singer Joe Jonas and Oscar-winning puppeteer Brian Henson. 

Compass agent Ryan Sarkissian represented both the buyer and the seller. Let's get an inside look into Buscemi's new digs. 

SEE ALSO: Matt Lauer just picked up this gorgeous $36.5 million estate in the Hamptons from Richard Gere — take a look inside

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The tri-level home was built in 1929 and still maintains some Roaring Twenties elegance and flair.

The house's interior decor is accented by exposed beams and custom ironwork throughout.

Stained glass windows and colorful rugs bring life to the rustic furniture.

Twin brothers Drew and Jonathan Scott—also known as HGTV's Property Brothers to anyone with a cable subscription—make a great team.

As a realtor and a licensed contractor, respectively, they've been buying and flipping houses on and off the camera for more than a decade.

But their latest project, "Brother vs. Brother," now in its fourth season on HGTV, pits the twins against each other as each one works to buy, renovate and sell a house in Las Vegas to see who can make the most on their flip.

The brothers sat down with Apartment Therapy and gave me a chance to pick their brains about real estate, renovating, red flags and how to make the most of your square footage, but first, I had an equally important question: What's the strangest thing in your toolbelt?

"Jonathan makes fun of me, I have everything except for tools in my toolbelt," Drew said with a laugh over the phone. "I'll have snacks, I'll have a banana, I'll have a drink. I have bandaids. I have my cell phone. I have a charger. But I still leave room for tools like a hammer and a wrench."

Jonathan aims to be a crowd-pleaser. "I almost always have something for the kids," he said of his clients' children that sometimes stop by the work site. "If I know my clients have kids, I’ll have something funny for the kids in my toolbelt, like crayons or a balloon animal."

Besides crayons, Jonathan also likes to keep tunes flowing from his toolbelt. "They call me the singing contractor because I always have my phone on, playing music," he said. On his playlist? Tegan and Sara, Magic!, Keane and Mika. "It's a good, eclectic mix," Jonathan said. "A little bit of everything. I think Wildest Dreams from Taylor Swift was one of my favorite songs from last year. And Adele's new song is fantastic." And Drew? "Drew likes to listen to Christmas music all year round," Jonathan let slip.

The Property Brothers, they're just like us.

Now that they've each gotten to flex their muscles on both sides of the Property Brothers machine on "Brother vs. Brother," we asked Jonathan and Drew to share their best advice for amateur flippers or anyone who wants to invest in their space.

SEE ALSO: The best time to buy anything for your home, according to HGTV's 'Property Brothers'

1. Run far, far away from structural problems.

The brothers have to speed up their renovations for filming—a project that would normally take 25 weeks is sped up to just 8 or 10 weeks for the show. So they're extra cautious about digging into a property that will require lots of extra time and money - and you should be, too. "Major structural problems can just be this unending problem that keeps getting worse and worse," Jonathan warns, "That's a big red flag."

2. Find a house that already has a great footprint.

It's easy to get excited about an addition or second story, but those sorts of renovations require extra money and extra time. "I try to find a house where the outer shell of the house is already what we need it to be," Jonathan suggested. Drew agrees: "It just makes it a lot easier. The moment you’re trying to change the outer wall or add a level, you’re just getting into so many more possible time delays, and so many more possible budget blows."

3. Add space without adding square footage.

"A lot of times, people think that if the house isn’t big enough for them, they have to add square footage," Drew said. "But they don't. All they need to do is make better use of what they have." And for inspiration on how to make lemonade from lemons, Drew suggests watching their show. "That’s basically what we do on every episode of Property Brothers. Maximizing the use of what’s already there."

After a wait of 417 calendar days, or 286 trading days, the S&P 500 finally set a new record high on light volume. Bonds have soared, and yields have dropped to ludicrous lows. The 10-year Treasury yield hit an all-time low on Friday of 1.366%. Globally, nearly $13 trillion, or 29% of total bonds outstanding, are trading with a negative yield. So those asset bubbles remain intact.

Commercial real estate has been soaring since March 2009, and that bubble remains intact, though some markets are already causing fear and trembling due to office-space gluts that are now coinciding with withering demand, such as in Houston and in San Francisco. Home prices too have been soaring for years, though in some major cities, the tide has turned.

Rents have been rising in parallel. It’s in real estate where an asset bubble becomes a real-life issue for people who don’t even own any assets – they’re paying the price for the bubble.

Other asset bubbles abound. Central banks have accomplished a lot. Blowing so many bubbles to such an extent for so long has been an astounding feat. In total, central banks created $24.6 trillion, according to BofA Merrill Lynch estimates. When they bought financial assets with that new moolah, they put $24.6 trillion of cash into the hands of investors and speculators concentrated in the major financial centers of the world.

Yet the global economy remains languid. Demand is sluggish. Job growth in the US can barely keep up with population growth. And a good part of American consumers – those on fixed incomes and savers – have seen their incomes transferred to others. So they’ve gutted their consumption.

But economic reality doesn’t matter to stocks and bonds. No one has to live in them. Economic reality matters to housing, however: the market needs to have enough people who can afford to pay the mortgage or rent. So the housing bubble is subject to another force: the reality of incomes. And those incomes have been a dreary sight for the past 16 years.

The median annual household income in May, not adjusted for inflation, fell 0.7% to $56,853, the second month in a row of declines, but was still up 2.9% from a year ago, according to Sentier Research, which uses Census data as base for its monthly updates. Adjusted for inflation, “real income” fell 0.9% for the month and rose 1.8% year over year, but remains 1.5% below where it had been in January 2000.

This chart by Doug Short at Advisor Perspectives shows the changes in nominal (red) vs. real (blue) median household incomes from January 2000. Note the sudden downturn:

In the press release, Sentier Research’s Gordon Green put the current decline in income this way:

“A cause of concern is what happens to inflation, which showed an uptick of 0.2% between April and May, driven by rising fuel prices. We are now at a point where the May 2016 median is 0.3% lower than the median of $57,024 in December 2007, the beginning month of the recession that occurred more than eight years ago, and 1.5% lower than the median of $57,701 in January 2000, the beginning of this statistical series.”

Kudos, central banks!

But there is a fly in the ointment: when incomes stagnate as housing costs soar, and as people can’t pay those soaring rents, something has to give. And that’s already happening in some cities, such as San Francisco. But mostly, rents are still soaring, though maybe not quite enough….

Year-over-year rent inflation in June, nationwide, was down to 3.5% from over 5.2% in June last year, laments Axiometrics, an apartment data services provider. During the glory days of 2014 and 2015, rent inflation ran over 5%. “But the sky isn’t falling,” it said. “The extremely high levels of 2014 and most of 2015 were not sustainable.”

Year-to-date in June, rent inflation amounted to 3.8%, below the post-recession June average of 4.0%, and down from 4.5% over the same period in 2014 and 4.7% in 2015.

This chart shows the 17 metros among the Axio Top 50 metros (based on number of apartment units) with the highest annual effective rent inflation. Note how rent inflation declined for 13 of those metros from the obscene levels in June 2015 (black bars) to the slightly less obscene levels of June 2016 (red bars). And Portland? Oops…

Sacramento, CA, leads the pack with 10.9% year-over-year rent inflation in June. But Oakland, “which spent more than a year at No. 1 in 2014 and 2015,” well, it “fell off the table.” In San Francisco, soaring rents led to the “Housing Crisis,” but a phenomenal construction boom has led to a condo and apartment glut. Rents are now stagnating, with a year-over-year increase in June of 0.5%. And it’s off the table. Another Bay Area hot spot, San Jose saw rent inflation drop to 1.0%, its “lowest rent growth since April 2010.”

According to Axiometrics, “all three Bay Area metros” – Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose – “were among the five largest decreases.” Mercifully, Houston is not on the list either. Rents actually fell 2.1% in June from a year ago, as the oil bust drags on while apartment “oversupply is still an issue.”

Booming rents and cheap money over the years triggered and then nurtured a construction boom nationwide. But incomes have stagnated. And that reality is beginning to raise its ugly head.

Just when there’s a condo glut building up in the teetering housing markets of San Francisco, Manhattan, and Miami, with sales and prices already dropping, and with everyone in the industry praying for foreign investors to bail out those markets, these foreign investors are suddenly pulling back – for the first time since the Financial Crisis. Read…   Is this What Hit Housing in San Francisco, Manhattan, and Miami? Suddenly, Foreign Investors Pull Back…

SEE ALSO: Homes in Brooklyn and Queens are 'selling at record speeds'

Join the conversation about this story »

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There are a few ingredients that create a credit bubble.

Lenders need to be cranking out more and more loans, taking on debt to their books. Underwriting standards, or the ease at which borrowers are able to get a loan, have to be decreasing. (This means less qualified borrowers are getting loans.) Finally, for the bubble to pop, you need an economic slowdown that causes borrowers to not be able to pay back their loans.

Bubbles are damaging, which is why the US government has a myriad of agencies and regulators assigned to look out for them.

One of those is Thomas Curry, who heads the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC, which is the section of the US Treasury responsible for overseeing banks in the US, released the Semi-Annual Risk Perspective for the banks on Monday.

In it, Curry and the OCC highlighted risks to both banks' operations and their lending businesses. One part of the economy in particular, according to Curry, is worrying, and even if he didn't say it, a bubble may be forming.

A new, but different, real-estate bubble

While Curry emphasized that the banking system was "strong and healthy," part of his job is to worry about what could go wrong. Based on where we are in the credit cycle, Curry said in remarks accompanying the report, worrying trends are beginning to appear.

"It's at this stage of the cycle that we also see strong loan growth combined with easing underwriting to result in increased credit risk," said Curry, whose office works with the Federal Reserve and FDIC to regulate banks.

Based on that cycle, Curry said he was starting to see changes in the lending standards of banks, particularly in commercial real estate, or CRE. Here's Curry on the recent shifts for lenders (emphasis added):

"While leveraged lending and auto lending remain concerns, CRE lending and concentration risk management has become an area of emphasis for regulators. CRE portfolios have seen rapid growth, particularly among small banks. At the end of 2015, 406 banks had CRE portfolios that had grown more than 50 percent in the prior three years. Of note, more than 180 of these banks more than doubled their CRE portfolios during the past three years. At the same time we are seeing this high growth, our exams found looser underwriting standards with less-restrictive covenants, extended maturities, longer interest-only periods, limited guarantor requirements, and deficient-stress testing practices."

So on the bubble checklist you've got significant growth in loans, easing of underwriting standards, and funky tricks to allow less-qualified candidates access to loans. The OCC report also noted that vacancy rates for apartments were creeping up, and it expects the same to happen for industrial and retail spaces as well.

To be clear, Curry and the OCC report don't use the word "bubble," but generally one of the government regulators in charge of watching the banking system isn't going to throw around that term too often. Also, calling it a bubble would most likely bring to mind the 2008 real-estate crash, which probably isn't a great thing to draw connections to.

Regardless of whether the word was used, the assessment by Curry and the OCC suggests that a commercial real-estate bubble just may be forming.

SEE ALSO: There's a $1 trillion bubble that's ready to burst

Join the conversation about this story »

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Hope may be coming for desperate first-time homebuyers in the form of historically low mortgage rates.

The interest rate on standard 30-year mortgages has sunk and is approaching an all-time low, according to Nishu Sood and Rob Hansen at Deutsche Bank, which could open up the market to first-time homebuyers who have been unable to tap into the housing recovery.

According to a note from the research analysts Wednesday, there are a few reasons to think mortgage rates could reach a record low, and the circumstances of the drop could be similar to those of 2012 when the record was last set. For one thing, bond rates are falling.

"First, there are structural macro factors (e.g. low rates abroad) pressuring US rates," the analysts wrote. "These are reflected in Deutsche Bank's fixed income team's central forecast for a 1.25% 10-year yield in the second half of 2016."

Additionally, mortgage rates are based on the seven-year bond yield, but current rates are higher relative to this benchmark than historical norms.

"The post-crisis range has been roughly 180-230 basis points," the note said. "Based on last week's reported mortgage rate of 3.41%, the current spread is 221 basis points, near the high end of the post-crisis range."

Thus, Sood and Hansen believe that mortgage rates will eventually fall to close the gap between the two rates.

These conditions are incredibly similar to those of 2012, the note said, but the beneficiaries then were those who were trading up their houses. Instead of a boon for the high end of the market, Sood and Hansen predict an influx of new buyers.

The biggest difference this time around is that credit is easier to access. In 2012, access to a mortgage was restricted to only those with good credit ratings, so younger people who make up the bulk of first-time buyers probably found it harder to get a mortgage, according to the analysts. Additionally, these first-time buyers were not seeing wage growth that would allow them to save up for a house.

With credit conditions looser now and wage growth at a postrecession high, these new buyers can access the mortgage market and get into homes. Additionally, most upper-end buyers are in the "7th/8th inning of recovery" according to Sood and Hansen, since much of these higher-income brackets have experienced much of the economic improvement they will gain in this cycle.

There are still problems, such as the looming undersupply of these first-time homes (which has been dubbed the 'new housing crisis'), but the Deutsche Bank analysts believe that the builders' supply will increase with demand.

While the analysts may just be hand-waving a legitimate supply issue, there is some evidence that homebuilders are aware of the underbuilding issue and could be addressing it as Sood and Hansen believe.

Regardless, it is apparent that mortgages will be cheap. It just remains to be seen whether buyers take advantage.

SEE ALSO: A strange phenomenon is making the 'new housing crisis' even worse

Join the conversation about this story »

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Matt Lauer is listing another home in the Hamptons.

The "Today" show host recently bought Richard Gere's former Hamptons home and has placed his Sag Harbor estate on the market for $17.995 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The home is in a stunning traditional style with plenty of space for entertaining guests and a backyard pool to lay out by. Lauer has also put a three-bedroom Southampton cottage on the market for $3.95 million.

Susan Breitenbach of Corcoran Real Estate has the listing.

SEE ALSO: 14 of the most luxurious homes you can rent in the Hamptons this summer

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The 8,000-square-foot home sits on top of a 25-acre private lot.

A cobblestone driveway paves the way to the home's red front door.

Inside, the dining room is the perfect place to host the "Today" show cast.

Vice CEO Shane Smith has a new Los Angeles crib. 

An LLC apparently controlled by Smith recently purchased a home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, property records on OpenHouse Realty show. The purchase price was $3.825 million.

It's quite the property, with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and 2,615 square feet of living space. 

The house is only about a mile away from Smith's $23 million mansion in Santa Monica, which he purchased last year. 

The LLCs that purchased both of these houses have the same mailing address as Smith's Manhattan property. Smith did not immediately return a request for comment about his new house.

Smith's net worth has been estimated to be as much as $400 million. Vice Media, the company he runs, could be worth billions. 

The Pacific Palisades house isn't as massive as Smith's other LA property, but the modern-design-inspired house looks like quite a nice place to spend a weekend.

SEE ALSO: Matt Lauer just put this gorgeous Hamptons mansion on the market for $18 million

The 1950s-era house is located in Santa Monica Canyon.

The property has three bedrooms and a fourth room that can be used as a guest room. The bedrooms have excellent views of the canyon, with floor-to-ceiling windows.

The 2,615-square-foot house would be perfect for a family. Smith and his wife, Tamyka, have two daughters.

Every winter, the small town of Wellington, in southeast Florida, experiences a tremendous influx of some of the wealthiest people in the world.

From the Springsteens to the Bloombergs, to the families of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, to Arab sheikhs and South American billionaires, it's a congregation of people with spectacular quantities of money.

No, they aren't gathering for some sort of business affair. They're coming for WEF: the Winter Equestrian Festival, which takes place every year from January to April on the hallowed grounds of the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. The 12-week WEF has been the longest equestrian event of its kind for several years running, and it attracts riders at all levels of the sport.

Because of the costly nature of all things equestrian, it's no surprise that rich people and horses go hand in hand. But while some wealthy riders and owners are just in it for the glamour and prestige, some — like Georgina Bloomberg and Jessica Springsteen — are serious and successful competitors.

As WEF has grown over the years, it has turned Wellington into a winter oasis for the upper crust, who come to ride, mingle, and bask in the warm weather. But while the human amenities are nothing to sneeze at, the real luxuries are reserved for the horses. Here's an inside look at this star-studded fantasy world, where celebrities come to play and their four-legged companions reign supreme.

SEE ALSO: Matt Lauer just picked up this gorgeous $36.5 million estate in the Hamptons from Richard Gere — take a look inside

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Wellington, Florida, is a community of about 60,000 people in southeast Florida, about 15 miles west of West Palm Beach.

Without a doubt, horses rule in Wellington. Here, some elite horses cross the street on special paths.

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Many roads and neighborhoods are equestrian-themed.

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If you're picking out your wallpaper, it might already be too late.

But for those who haven't yet bought their first home, avoid these cities.

WalletHub conducted research on 300 US cities and came up with the 13 worst cities for first-time homebuyers.

The website looked at housing affordability, cost of living, real estate taxes, foreclosure and violent-crime rates, and 14 other measures to determine their list. Affordability was weighted the most heavily out of the 19 total data points, and the affordability ranking is included with each city in the list below, along with the quality of life ranking WalletHub gave each city, both out of 300.

In some areas of the country, it may even make more sense to rent a home or apartment, instead of buying.

"Before you consider buying, calculate the financial returns on buying vs. renting in your area under a variety of assumptions," Andra Ghent, associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Business, told WalletHub.

"It's not always a better financial decision to own than to rent."

Read on to find out which cities were the worst.

#13 Carson, CA

Overall rank: 288

Affordability rank: 227

Quality of life rank: 137

Data provided by WalletHub

#12 Elizabeth, NJ

Overall rank: 289

Affordability rank: 252

Quality of life rank: 65

Data provided by WalletHub

#11 Yonkers, NY

Overall rank: 290

Affordability rank: 269

Quality of life rank: 242

Data provided by WalletHub

At 1,000,000,000 Chinese Yuan (£113 million/$149 million), this mansion is the most expensive home ever sold in mainland China.

The 1,663-acre estate is named Taohuayuan, which translates to "Utopia" or "Peace Blossom Land," located on a private island on the city of Suzhou’s Dushu Lake.

It comes complete with 32 bedrooms, a cavernous wine cellar, a lakeside swimming pool, and breathtaking gardens modelled on a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Take a look inside the home which is available through Sotheby's International Realty.

This is Taohuayuan. The record-breaking home is surrounded by Dushu Lake and covers a staggering 1,663 acres.

Traditional Chinese landscaping gives this three-year-old home a heightened sense of age and grandeur. All 32 bedrooms are south-facing for optimal sunlight.

The gardens — including this mist-covered pond — are modelled on the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, which have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The housing bubble burst nearly a decade ago, but many people have still not recovered from it — and many people's attitudes toward buying homes are still quite negative and cautious.

In 2015, the National Association of Realtors reported that only about a third of buyers of primary residences were first-timers, below the historical average of about 40%. And according to a recent Gallup poll, 38% of those who don't own a home in 2016 don't plan to buy a home in the foreseeable future.

But many people are still buying homes, and as millennials grow up and settle down, they will have to as well.

With this in mind, the personal-finance website WalletHub has ranked US cities for new homeowners.

WalletHub looked at 300 US cities and ranked their attractiveness for first-time homebuyers based on three key dimensions: affordability, real-estate market, and quality of life.

To determine the ranking of each of these aspects, as well as a city's overall score, WalletHub looked at 19 "relevant metrics"— such as housing affordability and cost of living for the "affordability" ranking; foreclosure rate for the "real-estate market" ranking; and recreation, weather, and crime rate for the "quality of life" ranking.

It used data from the US Census Bureau, the Council for Community and Economic Research, Zillow, the FBI, the Insurance Information Institute, Renwood RealtyTrac, and WalletHub research.

You can read the full report and rankings here.

Below are the top 11 cities for first-time homebuyers along with their overall scores (out of 100) and rankings in affordability, real-estate market, and quality of life.

11. Salt Lake City

Total Score: 62.80

Affordability Rank: 11

Real-Estate Market Rank: 95

Quality of Life Rank: 75

Data from WalletHub

10. Lexington, Kentucky

Total Score: 62.84

Affordability Rank: 45

Real-Estate Market Rank: 57

Quality of Life Rank: 36

Data from WalletHub

9. Centennial, Colorado

Total Score: 62.98

Affordability Rank: 122

Real-Estate Market Rank: 33

Quality of Life Rank: 7

Data from WalletHub

“Real Estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, US President.

That is quite the statement. I believe, as do many Americans, that real estate is one of the best investment vehicles to preserve and grow wealth.  I am a commercial real estate broker and have worked in Chicago Land for 10 years, representing many buyers and tenants. However, now more than ever, buyers must keep a close eye on the rising real estate taxes.. While according to FDR “real estate cannot be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away” Cook County, through tax increases, could significantly erode equity for many property owners.

The second installment of property tax bills have recently come out in Cook County. Since real estate taxes are paid in arrears, the bills being paid in 2016 are the taxes from 2015. Cook County has had serious budget issues and, along with Chicago, is running out of money and accruing bills it can’t pay. These challenges, combined with Illinois’s budget crisis, have created a perfect storm for property owners and tenants across Cook County.

While the county attempted to warn the citizens that there would be an increase of possibly 10-12% in their real estate tax bills, owners were not prepared for the harsh reality when they opened the envelopes. A client of mine purchased a property for $900,000 in 2015 and put down $100,000. He just received his new tax bill and his taxes increased 70% from last year. His real estate taxes went from $42,000 per year to $72,000 per year. How? Why? Where does the county think everyone is going to get the money? Can owners afford to pay more? Can tenants afford to have this expense passed on to them?

In my client’s example, that additional $30,000 in new annual tax expense could cover $600,000 per year in debt service. This increase in taxes is equivalent to the bank tacking on another $600,000 to the mortgage.

Let’s look at the ratio of his old monthly payment versus the new:

Old Monthly Expenses (excluding insurance and maintenance)

$800,000 mortgage at 4.5% on a 20 year amortization:          $3,333.33 per month

$42,000 tax bill:                                                                                $3,500.00 per month

Total Monthly Payment:                                                                  $6,833.33 per month

Mortgage Payment (debt service)                                                  49% of payment

Real Estate Taxes                                                                              51% of payment

New Monthly Expense (excluding insurance and maintenance)

$800,000 mortgage at 4.5% on a 20 year amortization:          $3,333.33 per month

$72,000 tax bill:                                                                                $6,000.00 per month

Total Monthly Payment:                                                                   $9,333.33 per month

Mortgage Payment (debt service)                                                  36% of payment

Real Estate Taxes                                                                              64% of payment

Nearly 2/3 of my client’s monthly cost of occupancy is real estate taxes.

Let’s say, for example, that instead of my client using this warehouse for his business, he leased it to a tenant as an investment on a gross basis. Let’s say, with his debt service and real estate taxes at $6,833.33 per month, he leased it to the tenant for $8,500.00 per month gross, leaving roughly $1,667.00 per month in net income. That equates to a $20,000.00 net profit per year. Not too bad for only putting down $100,000.00 in cash, eh?

Now the new taxes come out. The tenant’s rent doesn’t change. He has a lease for 5 years. My client would go from making $1,667.00 per month to losing $833.33 per month. He would go from making $20,000.00 per year to losing $10,000.00 per year.

Did that property become more valuable or less valuable? I think we can all confidently say that the property is now less valuable. There is an increased cost of occupancy with no corresponding increase to utility or amenity. The free market will discount the property accordingly. In this particular case, the discount would likely be significant.

Think about that. Let that sink in. In addition to a $100,000 down payment and losing $10,000 per year in negative cash flow, the overall value of the asset has decreased, and possibly to the point where there is negative equity!

Some may not feel too much sympathy for my client in the above example, being a successful business owner who had $100,000 in cash to begin with. Maybe he will just have to take a few less vacations and trade his Porsche in for a Honda.

Wait a minute; let’s change the narrative. What if instead of a successful business owner, this was an elderly couple that owned an apartment building. In addition to their fixed income, they counted on that $20,000 per year net profit to supplement their retirement. Now they go from having their fixed income plus $20,000 per year to having their fixed income minus $10,000 per year. What if that couple was your parents? Grandparents?

THAT is what Cook County is doing to its citizens. Believe me, this narrative will become all too common and many people who worked their entire lives to build equity and live the “American Dream” will be faced with tragic loss of income and equity. For what? Bloated government salaries? Waste? Corruption?

We as citizens need to hold our elected officials accountable. Government spending cannot go on unchecked and unquestioned.

The government, after having spent all the money we have given them, cannot come back and take more out of our wallets when we aren’t looking. Call it what you like, but these tax increases are just that.

Business Insider has reviewed the property tax bill that is discussed in this article. 

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump's childhood home is for sale

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Buying a new home is a challenge in itself, but renovating one can have just as many hurdles. Look to HGTV's "Property Brothers" and co-authors of "Dream Home," Drew and Jonathan Scott, for what to keep in mind when hiring a contractor to do work on your home. 

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Last month, speculation ran wild that an unnamed member of the Saudi Royal family was looking to partner with a British investment firm to buy the Plaza Hotel for $352 million. But that was last month! The new rumors, courtesy of the New York Post, have it that Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal and his investment vehicle Kingdom Holding plan to purchase the 282-unit hotel alongside Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund for around $550 million.

But any deal would have to wend its way through the web of owners and stakeholders with often-competing interests, including majority owner Sahara India Pariwar,the Chatwal Family Trust, which holds a small stake; Sant Chatwal’s Dream Hotel Management, which operates the hotel’s restaurants and bars; Fairmont, which manages the hotel; the union United Here, Local 6; and Prince Al-Waleed, who already has a 25 percent stake in the hotel. Because it’s such a labyrinth, we created something of a primer to sort out what’s going on with the iconic hotel.

What’s in play? The hotel portion of the Plaza Hotel is up for sale, meaning the 282 rooms at 768 Fifth Avenue, not the 800 rooms converted to condos by the prior owner, the Elad Group.

Why the need to sell? Majority owner Sahara India Pariwar, led by embattled Subrata Roy, bought a 75 percent stake in the Plaza from Elad for $575 million in 2012. Roy is currently in jail over an alleged real estate fraud scheme. He’s trying to sell the Plaza and Dream hotels, as well as London’s Grosvenor House, to repay debts to billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben, who hold an $800 million note on the Plaza and Dream hotels. A sale of the Plaza, the Dream Downtown and a London hotel for $1.55 billion would get Roy out of the big house.

What are QIA and Kingdom planning? Kingdom — whose minority stake would give it a role in the hotel’s refinancing should a sale go through — and QIA want the Plaza to protect an agreement with Fairmont, which manages the hotel, according to the New York Post. QIA, Kingdom and an Ontario pension fund owned Fairmont’s parent company FRHI Holdings Limited until its recent sale to France’s AccorHotels for $3.2 billion last week. QIA and Kingdom, however, hold Accor stakes of 10.4 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively. Both QIA and Kingdom have members on Accor’s board.

Fairmont’s management contract must be a big deal then, right? You bet. Managing the Plaza is worth millions each year, and Fairmont — which won control in 2007 — “would fight to the death to keep their name on the property,” Lodging Advisors President Sean Hennessey told the Post. If the hotel is sold, a new owner would likely replace Fairmont.

Will the Oak Room and Oak Bar return? The Plaza’s iconic eateries closed in 2011 after Donald Trump sold the hotel to Elad. Culinary director and chef Geoffrey Zakarian, who re-launched the Palm Court, hadn’t re-opened the Oak rooms before being let go from the job he took in 2013. Following his ouster, Zakarian sued Sahara (with whom he had a contract) for $1.5 million, alleging Sahara owed him a termination fee and started a “whispering campaign” against him. The suit has since been settled. While sources said the delayed re-opening had to do with negotiations with Local 6 union, a Plaza spokesperson said renewed plans for the Oak Room are being discussed.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump's childhood home is for sale

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50 Cent recently settled his yearlong bankruptcy case by agreeing to pay $23.4 million to his creditors over the course of five years. 

As a result, the rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, is now looking to reorganize his finances and assets to chip away at this hefty debt, and it appears as if his decadent Connecticut mansion will be one of the first things to go. 

The 50,000-square-foot mansion was originally listed at $18.5 million in 2015, but Jackson dropped the price significantly to $8.5 million in the fall of last year, months after he declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

Now the rapper has again lowered the price of his house to $5.995 million, according to an Associated Press report. 

The Farmington, Connecticut, home boasts "21 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms, an indoor pool and hot tub, a substantial night club, an indoor court, multiple game rooms, a green screen room, a recording studio," among many other opulent features, as described in the listing from Douglas Elliman Real Estate. 

Let's take a look inside 50 Cent's incredible mansion.

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The mansion opens into a shining foyer with dueling, wood-paneled staircases.

One of its living rooms features gold curtains, gold-trimmed tables, and Persian carpets.

In a carpeted meeting room, Jackson's record plaques, magazine covers, and posters line a red wall.

It's no secret that real estate isn't cheap anywhere these days, but these palatial homes give expensive a whole new definition. 

With listing prices well over what most people make in a lifetime, the most expensive homes currently on the US market feature perks like full spas, enormous movie theaters, custom marble staircases, design details fit for royalty, and enough bedrooms and bathrooms to get lost in. 

With the help of real-estate-listing site Point2Homes, we've put together a list that exposes some of the most exquisite mega-mansions, penthouses, condos, and compounds around the country. 

With all that these residences offer, there's no need to ever leave the house. And when you've paid this much, why would you want to?

SEE ALSO: This relatively unknown town in Florida has become a playground for the richest of the rich

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31. (TIE) This 130-acre ranch on Lake Tahoe in Nevada has just about every imaginable amenity, including an indoor pool and steam spa, access to some of the world's best skiing, seven guest homes and cabins, horse stables and paddocks, and a 5,000-square-foot entertainment barn.

Price: $69 million

It's also the site of the historic Glenbrook Rodeo, which draws celebrity guests and spectators to the property every year.

31. (TIE) La Casa Pacifica in Southern California has a storied past. Often referred to as the "Western White House," the Spanish Colonial Revival compound was once home to President Richard Nixon.

Price:$69 million

It boasts almost 500 feet of waterfront and breathtaking views in the region that is famous for being the "most idyllic climate in the world."

Click here to tour the home »

29. (TIE) This incredible 14-room Manhattan duplex offers 360-degree views of Central Park and the city skyline from its perch atop the prestigious Pierre Hotel on 5th Avenue.

Price:$70 million

Custom details are featured throughout, including two enormous, wood-paneled dressing rooms attached to luxurious master suites

The real-estate market is one of the most important parts of the American economy.

And there's a lot of disagreement about where it's going next.

Housing is one of the largest sources of wealth for Americans, it drives other parts of the economy such as consumer spending, and the credit given out for mortgages keeps many financial institutions profitable.

Given the housing market's importance, economists and analysts spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out where the market is and what will happen next. As it stands, however, there appears to be no consensus on the matter.

On the one hand, some economists think the market is only just now entering its full-throated recovery from the housing crisis. In its latest "Macro Insights," the Goldman Sachs Asset Management team said the housing market was still early in its cycle.

"We think the US real-estate market remains firmly in the expansionary phase of the cycle, with the commercial property market running somewhat ahead of the residential market," the note from GSAM said.

The GSAM note points to the low vacancy rate in commercial real estate, the early-in-the-cycle-looking number of single-family housing starts, and the still relatively loose lending standards for banks as indicators that real estate still has room to run.

Others, however, are not as encouraged.

For instance, in its second-quarter earnings, PulteGroup, one of the largest homebuilders in the US, said it was planning for a slowdown in the future because "homebuilding is a cyclical business."

"After four years during which our investment in new land grew significantly, we plan to slow the rate of growth in our new investment in 2017 and beyond," CEO Richard Dugas said during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call.

Scaling back investment in new property, which in turn takes a few years to develop, would indicate that the company believes that the housing cycle is headed toward completion rather than just beginning.

But on the commercial-real-estate side, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released a report that seemed to indicate that the sector was looking bubbly, which usually ends with a pop.

"While leveraged lending and auto lending remain concerns, CRE lending and concentration risk management has become an area of emphasis for regulators," Thomas Curry, the head of the OCC, said in remarks accompanying the report.

Both of these statements suggest a mid- to late part of the housing cycle and certainly would indicate a shorter time frame for the housing recovery's end.

So, who's right?

There are arguments to be made on both sides. You could be a believer in the housing market: Intention to buy a home is at record highs, and wages are increasing and the labor market is strong, allowing people to afford homes.

Or you could take the other side and say that undersupply has already pushed prices so high that young people trying to buy their first homes won't be able to. Recent reports on the ease of credit show that lenders at least intend to tighten their standards. Further, the Federal Reserve is (slowly) embarking on raising rates, which will make it harder to borrow for a house.

And while saying that both sides have a point may not be the most satisfying way to resolve the question, there simply isn't a definitive answer. It all depends on how you weight the various economic factors.

And for now we all have to watch the frequent housing data — permits, starts, the home price index, and the like — and see what they tell us about the real-estate market.

SEE ALSO: A new real-estate bubble is forming

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Anyone who’s ever rented in New York City knows how hard it is to get reliable information about an apartment. How much has the unit rented for in the past? Does the building’s history entitle tenants to rent-regulated leases? If so, for how long?

These are important questions that every renter should be able to answer before they sign a lease. Except that there’s no one place to find the information.

But there could be. And, in fact, according to New York law, for many apartments, there should be.

Since 2007, there’s been a statute on the books that requires the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to collect and make public key data on the thousands of new apartments built each year under the city’s single-biggest housing subsidy. But the provision has been ignored by HPD: The agency simply hasn’t done it.

The requirement is part of section 421-a of New York’s property tax law— the legislation that can slash landlords’ tax bills by upwards of 90 percent. In exchange, owners of the estimated 83,000 city apartments covered by the tax break must agree to limit rent increases on all their tenants and set aside a portion of the units for “affordable” below-market rents in certain high-priced city neighborhoods.

The housing department’s decision to ignore the law’s reporting requirement has deprived New Yorkers of vital information on the apartment buildings that benefit from the subsidy, which costs taxpayers $1.2 billion a year in lost revenues.

The missing information is particularly important in a city like New York, where policymakers use subsidies to try to keep a lid on rents but tenants are often in the dark about their rights.

An example: In January, the state launched what it called a “major initiative” to help tenants who had been wrongly denied rent-stabilized leases by landlords who collected another city tax break known as J–51. As we reported, the state isn’t directly informing tenants they could receive rent adjustments or refunds. Instead, it’s asking landlords to pass the word.

Public reporting requirements like those set out in the 421-a law are meant to empower tenants by giving them access to important information about their apartments. That’s why Ben Kallos, a City Council Member representing the Upper East Side, sponsored a bill that would beef up housing data collection and reporting by HPD.

But when the Council held a hearing on the bill in February, HPD said Kallos’ bill was “unnecessary” and a “waste of taxpayers’ resources” because the agency was already doing a great job keeping track of the city’s taxpayer-subsidized housing.

So in February, right after the agency testified against Kallos’ proposal, ProPublica asked HPD to make a copy of the 421-a reports available for inspection, as required under the law.

Six weeks after the request, the agency’s records access officer wrote back to say “HPD does not possess or maintain any records responsive to your request.”

Kallos, whose bill hasn’t gone anywhere, wasn’t pleased.

“It is time for HPD to release the data it has, share which data it doesn’t have and start following the state law,” Kallos said in an interview.

So what kind of information is the public missing out on? A lot, it turns out.

The law governing the 421-a program requires HPD to produce a report “no less than annually” which “at a minimum” contains the following information“for every building” receiving the tax break: The building address, the total number of residential units, the number of “affordable” units, the rent for each unit in the building, and the beginning and end date of the tax benefits. The latter is important for tenants because — once the tax benefits end — so do the rent protections attached to the property.

Once completed, the reports “shall be available for public inspection” in a format that doesn’t compromise tenant privacy, according to the law.

That public disclosure requirement is crucial: Apartment-level data gathered by the state, such as the rent charged by landlords, normally can’t be disclosed under the state’s Freedom of Information Law, thanks to a long-standing exemption in New York rent law.

When they required HPD to publicly report on rents in 421-a buildings, state legislators effectively created an exception to this non-disclosure rule, allowing New Yorkers a rare glimpse into an important chunk of the city’s taxpayer-subsidized apartments.

We asked HPD whether its records officer was correct in asserting that the legally-required public reports did not exist. HPD spokespeople ignored those inquiries.

And so we took our questions to Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is pushing to build tens of thousands of new affordable apartments through the tax subsidy.

We asked whether the Mayor was concerned that his housing agency was not tracking basic information about apartments already benefitting from the subsidy. We also asked if the Mayor intends to order HPD to follow the law and report the information.

Austin Finan, a spokesman for de Blasio, declined to address either question. In a statement, he said only that “we’ve taken unprecedented steps to strengthen requirements and oversight of 421-a, to protect and expand affordable housing.”

That assertion is accurate but incomplete. While it’s true that Mayor de Blasio haspushed for significant reforms to the 421-a program— such as expanding its affordability requirements citywide — his proposed reforms ultimately did not become law.

On the other hand, the requirement to track the rents paid by tenants in each unit — and to report when the tax benefits will end, so that renters know when their protections will disappear — remains on the books.

SEE ALSO: Cook County is destroying wealth one tax increase at a time

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Sometimes, the rent is too darn high. In fact, the number of households in the United States spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent is on the rise, according to a report by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. The report points to a rental housing affordability crisis.

But there are still some places in the U.S. with affordable housing. GOBankingRates looked at cities throughout the country, big and small, and found 20 with rents averaging $1,000 per month or less. Then, it factored in possible mortgage payments should a renter decide to buy in the future, plus the town’s walkability and its number of kid-friendly parks to rank those affordable cities.

If you're looking for a great place to live where you can get more for your money, consider a move to one of these places where rents are $1,000 or less.

SEE ALSO: What the median rent in New York City buys you in 25 big US cities

20. New Bern, N.C.

Median rent price: $1,000
Monthly mortgage payment: $873
Walkability score: 28
Kid-friendly parks: 14

A major port and trading center during the late 18^th and 19^th centuries, New Bern, N.C., is steeped in history. In addition to having formerly held the title of North Carolina’s first permanent capital, New Bern is home to another historic marker: It was one of the first cities in the South to fall to Union forces during the Civil War.

Because of its historic significance, this city is perfect for Civil War buffs. Southern gentlefolk can also enjoy its many restaurants and arts and entertainment venues.

19. Rock Hill, S.C.

Median rent price: $1,000
Monthly mortgage payment: $840
Walkability score: 29
Kid-friendly parks: 88

Photographers and contemplative types will love the natural elements of Rock Hill, S.C. Find tranquility in the city’s Glencairn Garden, which offers open green space and waterways with idyllic bridges. People looking for more thrills can visit Carowinds, a roller coaster park in nearby Fort Mill.

18. Tallahassee, Fla.

Median rent price: $990
Monthly mortgage payment: $873
Walkability score: 32
Kid-friendly parks: 55

Tallahassee, Fla., offers plenty of outdoor activities and fun for the family. But the town also hosts the Swamp Stomp Music Festival in July, which is billed as “an acoustic music lover’s dream.” The festival features folk, blues, contemporary and other genres, plus games, ziplining and other activities.