🏠 Leo DiCaprio's house in the Hills & backyard saunas

What goes up must come down. We're talking mortgage rates, people. Keep up! 👏

At the end of 2022, the average 30-year, fixed rate mortgage reached 6.42%. And while mortgage rates may not drop as low as 3% or 4% any time soon (if ever), forecasters are predicting they could reach the 5% range by the end of 2023.

SPILLING THE (REAL)TEA

An oven that uses AI. An AC unit disguised as art. A shower head with aromatherapy. These are just a few of the smart home tech trends that debuted at CES 2023 this weekend.

Remember when you'd hang out at the mall with your friends on a Friday night? Just us? Insider captured the complete history of the shopping mall — from its rise to its decline, and its looming irrelevance.

The best and worst housing markets for 2023? According to Veros, the top performers will be Fayetteville, North Carolina; Wichita, Kansas; and Lincoln, Nebraska. Meanwhile, the cities that will take the biggest hit are St. George, Utah; Provo-Orem, Utah, and San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, California.

Don't freak out, but tax season is right around the corner. Now's the time to figure out whether or not claiming a mortgage interest deduction is the right move. Here's how.

WINTER (RE)TREATS

Grab your gear and start the New Year off with a ski trip! Here are a few Airbnb properties where you can ski in, ski out — and sip warm an après-ski spiked cocoa after a full day on the slopes.

Big Bear Lake, California

Jackson, Wyoming

Breckenridge, Colorado

Park City, Utah

WHAT'S BREWING

📚 What we're reading: Is it your 2023 resolution to buy property? We're pre-ordering "90 Days to Your First Investment" by Ashley Kehr of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Rookie podcast.

🎧 What we're listening to: Ramit Sethi (author of "I Will Teach You To Be Rich") had British dating coach Matthew Hussey (author of "Get The Guy") on a recent episode of his podcast to talk about the how their worlds — money and relationships — intersect.

👀 What we're watching: The ratings aren't great, but Kaleidoscope is all anyone's talking about. The heist drama has eight episodes, but the first seven are scrambled up into a different order for every Netflix user.

🛒 What we're adding to our shopping cart: Are backyard barrel saunas the new amenity guests want to see when booking an Airbnb? They're certainly trending right now.

SEEING STARS

Leonardo DiCaprio, TikTok's favorite celeb to catch at the club, just expanded his 4,500-square-foot hilltop mansion in Los Angeles by buying the property next door for $10.5 million in an off-market deal. Here are a few other celebrity real estate transactions that took place in 2022:

- Ryan Seacrest sold his Beverly Hills estate for $51 million. - Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo sold their Pacific Palisades home for $51 million — then they paid $52 million for a Montecito estate. - Adele bought Sylvester Stallone's Beverly Hills mansion for $58 million. - Kim Kardashian bought a beachside Malibu estate for $70.4 million. (pictured below) - Drake paid Robbie Williams $75 million for his 20-acre estate in Beverly Crest. - Evan Spiegel and Miranda Kerr spent $145 million on a Holmby Hills mansion.

Find a full list compiled by Architectural Digest here.

BUYING A HOUSE IN 2023

Entrepreneur published a guide to buying your first property in 2023. Here are the CliffsNotes in 10 steps:

Step 1: Do your research. Ask yourself what you want in terms of footage and features, and where you want to live. Having a clear idea of what you're looking for will expedite your search, and help you find the right fit. Step 2: Contact a real estate agent (if you plan on using one). An agent will take a commission from the asking price, but searching on your own can be complicated — unless you already have a property in mind and have a rapport with the owner. Step 3: Go through the pre-approval process with a lender, like a bank or credit union. A pre-approval letter will help you know how much you can spend as you're house hunting.Step 4: Now for the fun part — actually getting to tour potential homes. Your real estate agent will set up the viewings, so all you should have to do is show up. Step 5: Once you've found the house that ticks all of your boxes, you'll make an offer. It should be a competitive offer (your agent will help you come up with one that takes your budget into consideration as well as the how much the surrounding homes in the area are going for).Step 6: You'll negotiate with the seller until you settle on a price. You may also be settling who pays the closing costs (insurance payments, commission fees, and other related costs). Step 7: Set up an inspection and home appraisal. You may have to go back to bargaining with the seller after this step if, say, the inspector finds a major issue or the appraisal report says the home is overpriced.

Step 8: Apply for the loan. You already got pre-approved, but now it's time to make things official.Step 9: Cross your Ts and dot your Is. Get a real estate attorney to look over the closing documents. Contact a title insurance company to ensure your purchase is protected. Get homeowners insurance. And contact any contractors you'll need prior to your move-in date.Step 10: Do a final walkthrough of the property, and then FINALLY close the deal, making sure to sign the documents that transfer ownership to you and file them with your local county clerk's office.