Real estate may be the basis of all wealth, but a growing number of millionaires are forsaking homeownership and renting their residences instead.

"Between 2019 and 2023, the number of renter households with an income of $1 million or more grew from 4,500 to 13,700 -- a staggering increase," reads an analysis from RentCafe, an apartment search engine.

The lion’s share of millionaires still own their homes. But the much faster growth rate among millionaire renters marks an inflection point, RentCafe says: “Affluent individuals are increasingly drawn to the flexibility and amenity-rich offerings of high-end rental properties.”

Buyer beware: Recent Federal Trade Commission actions show that scam artists are still out there, trying to separate you from your money.

In one instance, the FTC is sending checks to nearly 40,000 consumers taken in by scammers who pitched real estate-based get-rich-quick schemes. And in another, the consumer watchdog agency is returning money to almost 1,000 homeowners swindled by door-to-door contractors pitching a home improvement financing scam.

In the get-rich-quick case, which includes $2 million in refunds, the FTC charged several people with peddling kits and coaching systems that dealt with real estate. But they failed to deliver as promised, the agency found. “In fact, consumers often lost money after paying for the kits, monthly subscriptions, and expensive coaching programs,” the agency said.

In the other case, the agency is returning $2.9 million to consumers harmed by a home-improvement financing company that made false claims about the potential financial impact of its services. It deceptively sold financing by claiming the loans would not impact the sale or refinancing of their homes, and often used high-pressure sales tactics, even forgery in some cases, to sign up customers.

People change their minds all the time, even when they’ve inked contracts to buy a house. In June, though, a whopping 57,000 sales agreements were canceled nationwide, equating to approximately 14.9% of homes that were under contract at the time. That's the largest share since 2017, according to Redfin.

Usually, buyers get cold feet because their financial situations change. But lately, more buyers are calling off their deals to look for better ones. With the inventory of houses for sale growing, and more sellers willing to negotiate, some buyers think they can cut better deals on houses that are more closely aligned with their needs, Redfin data journalist Dana Anderson explains.

“There are hundreds of thousands more U.S. home sellers than buyers, giving buyers more options to choose from and more negotiating power,” Anderson says. “Buyers have room to be picky; they may back out during the inspection period if a better home comes up for sale or they discover an issue they don’t want to fix.”

Some lenders are now able to figure out if you’re a strong candidate to refinance before you even consider it.

With a new program from Optimal Blue, a capital markets platform, lenders are able to scrub their portfolios to identify who among their clientele could benefit from turning in their current mortgages for a new one. The platform also spits out what it would cost to refinance, giving borrowers a full picture of the benefits.

For lenders, the program eliminates much of the legwork involved in finding borrowers likely to refi. When it spots a possible refi customer, it displays the probable savings -- and costs -- under various loan scenarios and creates outreach emails to borrowers, all without loan officers having to lift a finger.

The program “enables loan officer(s) to automatically respond swiftly and precisely,” the company says. They “can initiate communications with recommended borrowers and assess their current loans by entering referral information directly” into the program.

One more piece of evidence that the housing market has slowed significantly: The supply of developed building sites is at its highest level in five years, according to research and marketing firm Zonda.

But even with the increase -- 20% from a year ago in the second quarter -- the national market remains “significantly undersupplied,” the company reports.

The rise in build-ready lots means builders have scaled back on their starts. That’s a 180-degree turn for builders who, at the beginning of the year, had planned to increase production in 2025.

Zonda also found that the pipeline of developed building sites also is growing. The number of lots in various stages of development increased almost 8% from a year ago, with something on the order of 400,000 alone in the excavation stage. These lots should be ready for builders sometime in next year’s first half.

Finally, a new research study from Moody’s Analytics warns that policies based on national figures counting the shortage of houses “are almost inevitably misguided.”

While opening public lands for development in remote parts of the West may increase supply enough to close the gap at a national level (at least nominally), as the Trump administration wants to do, “it would leave untouched the vast majority of local shortfalls driving the availability and affordability crises,” the report's authors maintain.

House hunters who visit homes that look like they belong in Architectural Digest need to take a closer look. Those places have been staged to accent their positives -- and hide their flaws.

Staging to make houses look like model homes is a big business. Collectively, sellers spend millions to stage their properties, and buyers usually end up paying the freight -- and then some.

On the median, according to research from the National Association of Realtors, sellers who hire professional stagers spend $1,500 to dress their houses for sale. Some spend less, but some pay much more -- especially if the place is likely to be difficult to sell.

In the NAR survey, 19% of sellers' agents said staging resulted in a 1% to 5% increase in the price offered by buyers, compared to similar, unstaged homes. In monetary terms, a 5% increase in the price of a staged house that's priced at $500,000 works out to $25,000.

There’s nothing wrong with a seller putting their best foot forward. It’s called marketing. Homebuilders do it -- outfitting their model homes, inside and out, to lure in buyers -- and homeowners should do the same.

But buyers would be wise to take a sharp eye to any house that looks like a model home. The perfect furniture, the pristine floors -- who lives like that? Very few of us. Remember that you’ll be buying empty space, not the decked-out rooms you see before you.

Unfortunately, NAR’s sample of around 1,200 active agents seems to indicate many buyers are not terribly discerning. Around 86% of buyers' agents said staging had at least some impact on buyers. Staging, they said, made it easier for buyers to visualize the place as their own. More telling, perhaps, is that some agents said that when a house is staged, buyers are more willing to overlook the property’s flaws.

Spotting a staged house is relatively easy: It looks like it hasn’t been lived in. According to the NAR survey, the living room is the most important spot for staging, so let’s start there.

The furniture has likely been pushed back to make the room look more spacious. Alternatively, it might be grouped into small, conversational settings. Nice pillows sit on either end of the couch, perhaps with a blanket draped over the back. The curtains are open wide to let in the sunshine, and fresh-cut flowers sit on the coffee table. The place has been stripped bare of any personal items, like family pictures, so visitors won’t be distracted.

In an empty house, where the seller has already moved out, stagers will bring in key pieces of furniture. But beware: The furniture will likely be smaller, apartment-sized pieces to make the rooms appear larger. Another technique: using tables with glass tops, so that your eyes go right through them.

The primary bedroom is the second-most important room to stage. Here, the bed is always made, and big, fluffy pillows make it look inviting. Maybe a couple of houseplants sit in the corners, and a nice bouquet rests on the dresser. Again, there’s nothing personal to distract buyers.

Kitchens come next. Look for empty countertops -- another tactic to make the room seem larger. But whose counters are actually empty? Don’t we all keep small appliances there, along with canisters and such? Another telltale sign of staging: The dishes are put away, nice and neat, and there’s absolutely no clutter. Maybe there’s even a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen table.

Stagers don’t ignore the exterior, either. With the latest emphasis on outdoor living, stagers put up shutters where there weren’t any (or replace existing ones). They’ll stick a fancy gas grill on the patio, perhaps a hammock, and a table-and-chair set.

They’re all props designed to accentuate the positive, fool the eye and get potential buyers emotionally invested.

As Curtis Seltzer, a Virginia author and land consultant, wrote on RealtyTimes.com last year, “It’s not dishonest ... But it is intentionally manipulative.”

One way to avoid all this is to refuse to look at staged properties. But that would defeat your purpose. If you're on the hunt for a new place, you want to see as many houses as possible, staged or not, before making up your mind.

Besides, more and more sellers are resorting to staging, and 58% of buyers' agents told NAR their clients were disappointed when the houses they visited did not look like those on TV.

A better way, as Seltzer suggests, is to become familiar with how stagers work their magic and learn how to ignore their props. Read up on the staging process before you go house-hunting.

A few more things to look for: super-clean places; rooms painted in warm, neutral colors; sets of pictures arranged in odd numbers, which have the most visual appeal; clearly unused rooms set up as home offices or workout spaces.

If it looks like extra lighting has been added, that, too, is likely due to staging. If you buy the place, make sure the lights come with it.

Remember, what you see is not always what you get.

The beginning of hurricane season should serve as a reminder to homeowners in affected areas -- all roughly 33 million of them, according to data from Cotality -- to make sure their homeowners insurance is up to date. But it should also be a reminder for everyone to review their policies once a year.

For starters, shop the market to be certain you aren’t paying too much for coverage. The premiums for nearly identical policies can vary by hundreds of dollars, depending on the carrier. You don’t want to skimp on coverage, but you still want to pay a good price.

Ask friends and relatives for recommendations, and do your due diligence on the ones they suggest. That means checking the financial health of each one by comparing information from independent rating agencies, and asking your state insurance department for each company's consumer complaint ratios.

Once you settle on, say, three companies, call each one for a price quote, making sure you are able to compare the policies line for line. Your state insurance agency may also provide price comparisons, but only from major insurers.

In comparing estimates, look at the policies’ limits: These represent the largest amounts the insurer will pay for covered damages or a full loss. Not only do you want to be certain the amounts match, but also that they are large enough that you won’t be underinsured.

Most insurance companies go by the 80% rule, meaning that customers must purchase coverage equal to at least 80% of the property’s value. Otherwise, homeowners run the risk that their insurance company will only pay 80% (at most) of their claim.

The issue is that house values and their replacement costs have been marching ever higher, even as sales have slowed in the face of high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty.

Most insurers calculate policy limits by taking into account the size of a property and the local replacement costs. And according to the Insurance Information Institute, replacement costs rose 55% between 2020 and 2022. With tariffs setting an uncertain picture for 2026 and beyond, it’s important to sit down with an agent to calculate the right amount of coverage for your property.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when doing an insurance checkup. One is the deductible, which is the amount you’ll have to kick in before the insurer pays a dime. Of course, the higher the deductible, the lower your monthly cost.

Consider how much of a deductible you can afford. If you've been in your home for a long time, you may have originally chosen the lowest deductible possible -- perhaps things were tight back then, and now your financial situation has improved. Insurance costs, meanwhile, have exploded, so it's a difficult balancing act.

According to LenderDock, if you currently have a $500 deductible, raising it to $1,000 could lower the cost of your policy by as much as 25%. Raising it higher could lead to even bigger savings.

Keep in mind that if you live in a natural-disaster-prone area, your policy may have separate deductibles for certain kinds of damage. If you live on the East Coast, for example, you may have a separate windstorm deductible. If you live in an area vulnerable to hailstorms or earthquakes, you may have separate deductibles for those.

There are other ways to save money on homeowners insurance: Buy your home and auto policies from the same insurer, for one. Update your home’s security by adding smoke detectors, burglar alarms and deadbolt locks. Maintain a good credit rating. Ask for a military or senior discount, if applicable.

Not every company offers these and other discounts, and those that do may vary the terms or amounts by state. But the savings can be considerable -- anywhere from 5% to 20%.

So far, we’ve discussed how to save money. But you might want to spend some extra cash to purchase flood insurance. Homeowners policies do not cover flood damage, so to protect yourself from that catastrophe, you’ll have to buy a separate policy.

Lenders require flood coverage in flood-prone areas. But even if you are not in one, and even if you don’t have a mortgage, at least consider buying coverage. According to Insurify, floods are the most common natural disaster in the country -- and the costliest.

"Just 1 inch of water can cause around $25,000 in damage to a home," reads a report from the company.

But non-weather-related water damage -- from leaks, ruptures and water heater failures, for example -- make up a large portion of flood losses. Overall, from 2016 to 2023, the average insurance payout for water damage through the National Flood Insurance Program was $66,000.