Emerging trends in the home design and real estate marketplaces highlight innovative materials, systems and products to live more sustainably and benefit the planet. Consider how these trends can influence whether homeowners reside in single-family or multifamily housing.

Short-form video, the fastest-growing social content format, should be prioritized by marketers this year, along with experimenting with private messaging in a non-intrusive way to tout deals or exclusive offers and content, Andrew Hutchinson advises. Hutchinson also advises moving away from X, formerly known as Twitter, and considering alternatives like Reddit, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Threads, as well as honing skills with generative AI tools and building 3D or augmented reality environments.

New ad products and attention from brands boycotting X, formerly Twitter, are among factors driving higher demand at LinkedIn and pushing advertising rates up by as much as 30% with returns on investment as high as 20%, say Financial Times sources. Insider Intelligence estimates LinkedIn ad sales increased 10% year-over-year last year and predicts 14% growth for 2024.

Try these looks to cozy up your home staging in the colder months of the year.

Deck: Calling all young, ambitious real estate professionals! Fill out an application by Jan. 17 for your chance to be a part of the 2024 class of 30 Under 30.

A property that featured life-size, animatronic dinosaurs and a condo designed with stacked cubes are among the listings shared by these agents.

Generative tools with far-reaching business implications—including the companies that produce them, like OpenAI—should be monitored by experts. NAR's strategic business, innovation and technology group makes the case.

Anxiety is a given in leadership, but when it leads you to micromanage or burn out, it can affect your team as well, says consultant and author Morra Aarons-Mele, who recommends leaders be vulnerable, help their team navigate company culture and systems and involve human resources when necessary. "I think it really comes down to setting boundaries, setting clear goals, defining what success is, so people really know what success is and aren't anxiously overworking to try to get there, and reigning things in a little bit," Aarons-Mele says.

Community Bank of the Bay has found success in supporting California nonprofits that are working to address affordable housing and other community needs.

The Consumer Bankers Association has written in a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the agency should withdraw an advisory opinion concerning banks' compliance with consumer requests for their account information under Section 1034(c) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. CBA says the advisory opinion exceeds the scope of the law and that the CFPB should follow the Administrative Procedures Act's notice and comment requirements.