Alcynna Lloyd

Beyoncé and Jay-Z break music records — and real-estate records.The couple, which Forbes reports is worth a combined $3 billion, are linked to many multimillion-dollar homes across the United States.In 2023, they picked up a 42,000-square-foot Malibu estate with a minimalist concrete aesthetic designed by famed Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The price? $190 million — the largest sum in California history.Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s impressive portfolio of homes also includes another LA-area mansion and…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Lori Coryell, 62, a retired US Air Force veteran who bought two homes in Oregon with assumable mortgages. (She’s selling one of them, also with an assumable mortgage.) An assumable mortgage allows qualifying buyers to acquire the interest rate, current principal balance, and other conditions of a seller’s existing loan. Not all loans can be assumed. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.I’ve lived in Oregon for most of my life. In…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Burton, a 28-year-old quantity surveyor from Ireland who moved to London in 2023. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m from Enniskerry, a town in the countryside, up in the Wicklow Mountains. It’s probably the most rural place you can live that’s somewhat close to Dublin.Until I was eight, I grew up on a farm with my mom and my grandparents. It was a pretty good life; we had a lot of animals, and I had quads and mo…

When Mauricio Umansky married Kyle Richards in 1996, he also married into the Hilton family. He quickly went to work for the family business.Then, in 2011, he stepped out from under the wings of his brother-in-law, Rick Hilton — the husband of Kathy Hilton and grandson of the Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton — to start his own real estate brokerage.That caused a decadeslong feud between the two families.Umansky’s departure from Hilton & Hyland and his firm’s success, along with his tension wit…

Many of the factors that motivate people to move today — including the desire to be governed by laws that resonate with their values, to live in an affordable neighborhood, and to secure a better job — are the same reasons our parents, grandparents, and great-great-grandparents packed up and moved, too.Take the flow of people leaving pricey California cities for cheaper spots in Texas hoping to buy more affordable homes or politically conservative residents relocating from progressive cities in…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amy Yzaguirre, 40, a student and barista. She and her husband purchased a home with an assumable mortgage in Tigard, Oregon, in March 2023. An assumable mortgage allows qualifying buyers to acquire the interest rate, current principal balance, and other conditions of a seller’s existing loan. Not all loans can be assumed. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.I grew up in the Portland, Oregon, area but moved to Boise, Idaho, in 201…

Booker Washington dreamed of building a community where everyday people could afford to buy a homeEnter South Park Cottages, a village of 29 tiny homes just outside Atlanta that opened in 2023 with prices from $190,000 to $230,000.Compare that to the typical home sold in Atlanta, which Redfin found cost $431,250 as of February 2024.The demand was clear: All 29 homes — one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 400 to 650 square feet — sold out over a year before they were even built and less than t…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Edwards, who blogs about her family’s life abroad. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m originally from Dublin. I left when I was 18 and moved to London. I attended university in the country and stayed there for a long time after graduating.In 2010, I met my husband, and by 2014 we had our first child. Today, we have four in total, and they’re all under the age of 10.Before we had kids, we traveled a lot. It’s someth…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nadia Crevecoeur, a 26-year-old project manager from New York who traveled to and lived in many countries, including China, Portugal, Ireland, Germany, France, Denmark, and Italy, before moving back to the US in 2023. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I have always had a strong interest in international culture and politics, and saw myself as somebody who would be a global citizen. It was the vision that I had for my life,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Grace Lucchese, 23, a behavioral analyst, and her partner, Mickey Ricard, 24, a veteran and an HVAC technician, who purchased a home with an assumable mortgage in Westford, Massachusetts in January. An assumable mortgage allows qualifying buyers to acquire the interest rate, current principal balance, and other conditions of a seller’s existing loan. Not all loans can be assumed. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.Grace: We live…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kate Boardman, a 36-year-old former teacher and current content creator from Massachusetts who has lived abroad for the past 12 years in countries including Vietnam, Australia, Guatemala, and Bahrain. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m from a tiny town of 1,300 people in middle-of-nowhere Massachusetts. There’s not even a store in my town.Going back as far as eighth grade, my goal has always been to travel the world.In t…

A modest Montana house is turning heads not for its grandeur or uniqueness, but for its price tag: $1.1 million.The three-bedroom home in Whitefish — a city of about 9,000 people and the gateway to scenic Glacier National Park — doesn’t look special. It has white paneling, a two-toned grass lawn, and a fence out back.But after it listed for sale on February 8, Kirk Rossiter, a real-estate agent in Whitefish, posted a video of the property — and its comparably outsize price tag — on Instagram. So…

Jasmine Cambridge, a 25-year-old steakhouse server with aspirations of working in marketing, moved from Atlanta to Austin in 2023.Cambridge, a Black woman, said she moved to the city in pursuit of better job opportunities and the potential of greater social mobility.“Austin is up-and-coming, fertile soil,” Cambridge said. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who have moved to Austin — especially people of color — about how there’s so much financial opportunity here.“Pengyu Cheng, a program manager fo…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Arlo Washington, a 46-year-old Arkansas barber who started a college to train barbers, a loan fund, and a credit union. Washington is the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary short film, “The Barber of Little Rock.” The following has been edited for length and clarity.I’m from Central Arkansas, the west side of Little Rock. I was born and raised there.The city is diverse, but it’s also economically segregated. Growing up, I lived in a l…

Thinking about buying a home this year with kids already in the picture? Get ready to dig deep.A recent study from Zillow found that potential homebuyers with children are likely to spend 66% of their income on mortgage payments and childcare expenses — an increase of nearly 50% from 2019. The real-estate company estimated city- and state-level childcare costs from 2009 to 2022 for the typical American family with 1.94 children by analyzing data from the Women’s Bureau of the US Department of La…

A one-bathroom home in Nutley, New Jersey, listed for sale in December and visited by more than 100 people, just sold for $253,000 above its original asking price.The four-bedroom home, built in 1906 by local architect and developer William Lambert, debuted at an initial price of $599,000. However, after $11,000 of renovations, its value soared to $852,000, local news publication New Jersey.com reported.“I grew up in Nutley,” Lorraine Hurlbut, the listing agent for the home who works with Keller…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Helen Boxwill, a 77-year-old retired educator who runs a nonprofit that supports education and water access in Ethiopia and Burundi. Boxwill built an accessory dwelling unit on her property in Huntington, New York, in 2003. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.I bought my house for $145,000 in 1989. It had three bedrooms and one and a half baths, with a living room, kitchen, and a bedroom downstairs.In 2003, I decided to add an AD…

In 2022, Cassidy Moore and her husband were searching for their first home together.Moore — a 31-year-old former nanny who grew up on the outskirts of Dallas-Fort Worth in McKinney, Texas — said she had no desire to purchase a home in Dallas itself, where the couple would have to deal with heavy traffic and a higher cost of living.“It’s a stressor being in that type of environment,” Moore told Business Insider. “We were open to go wherever, but looking at prices and affordability. We just wanted…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Deepa Andleigh, a 73-year-old retired bank worker who in 2020 moved into Priya Living, a senior community grounded in Indian heritage but also open to individuals of all races and religions. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.I am retired and have lived in the US for about 50 years.My family and I lived on the East Coast for about 23 years, and I have been living in the Bay Area since 1994.I have two boys. My younger son attende…

When Jasmine Cambridge moved from Atlanta to Austin, she was thrilled to meet more people like herself.Cambridge said most Black people she’s met since her 2023 move to Texas are, like her, originally from somewhere else.“Austin is up-and-coming, fertile soil,” said Cambridge, a 25-year-old server at a steakhouse who wants to work in marketing. “I’ve talked to a lot of people who have moved to Austin — especially people of color — about how there’s so much financial opportunity here.“Cambridge s…