Question: I am tired of paying rent and thinking about buying a home, but I’m worried about the added cost and responsibility. How do I know if I am ready?—Kate

The transition from renter to homebuyer is a big one.

Owning your own home gives you assurance that your monthly housing costs will never go up, (assuming you get a fixed-rate mortgage). Landlords can jack up your rent when you are least expecting it.

But home ownership also comes with added responsibility. When something breaks in your rental unit, it’s a quick call to the landlord to get it fixed. Homeowners are on the hook for both making and financing any repairs.

It’s a big financial leap to becoming a homeowner. Experts recommend asking yourself these questions before you start out house hunt:

Take the time to calculate how much home you can afford to buy.

This isn’t the time to ballpark numbers. Overcommitting to a mortgage payment can leave you house poor, meaning there’s very little money left over at the end of the month for other things.

Add up all your spending, including current rent, food, transportation and discretionary expenses like travel, eating out and entertainment Don’t forget to include debts like student loans and car payments.

Once you know how much you have coming in and going out each month, determine a number you can afford to spend on housing.

Related: 5 ways to afford your first home

Generally, personal finance experts recommend aiming to spend around 28% of your monthly income on housing.

Getting pre-approved for a loan will also help give you a sense of your housing budget. But note that just because a bank agreed to give you a loan, doesn’t mean you have to spend that much.

“In my experience, [lenders] are always trying to get [buyers] to buy a home for more than they can afford or are comfortable with,” said Francine Duke, a certified financial planner in the Chicago area and former mortgage underwriter.

You don’t need a 20% down payment to get a loan. But putting more down can work in your favor. It can help you get better lending rates, beat out the competition in hot housing markets and will lower the amount of interest you pay over the life of a loan.

You can get a mortgage with as little as a 3.5% down, but anything less than 20% means paying private mortgage insurance (PMI), which will increase your monthly payment.

Working to save for a large down payment shows financial responsibility and gets you used to living on a strict budget.

“When you really work to save enough to get 15%-20%, it shows you have a meaningful commitment,” said Bill Van Sant, certified financial planner and senior vice president at Univest Wealth Management.

Your bank account shouldn’t be zero after closing.

You should still have an emergency savings fund that will cover around three to six months of living expenses on hand.

Related: Home prices are on an epic run

In addition to the emergency fund, Van Sant recommends having six to nine months of mortgage expenses available.

“First-time homebuyers are typically looking at older homes because of their lower price point, and they require more work. You need that ‘hanging around’ money, in case the A/C or heater goes.”

You want to get your credit score as high as possible when shopping for a mortgage. The higher the score, the better the lending terms and rates.

A credit score of 750 and up is generally considered excellent and will make you the most attractive borrower.

Your debt-to-income ratio plays a major role in the health of your finances.

You can calculate your debt-to-income ratio by adding up all your monthly debt payments and dividing it by your gross monthly income.

The general rule of thumb is your debt should not exceed 43% of your available credit to take out a mortgage.

Related: Even rising mortgage rates won’t stop homebuyers

If you don’t plan on staying in an area for more than a couple of years, buying a house might not make financial sense.

The huge upfront investment including the price of the home, plus the added costs like taxes, closing costs and escrow fees, might take a while to pay off.

“Make sure you have roots there and will be staying,” said Van Sant. “Some Millennials have no problem not being tied down to an area and jump around the country … buying might not be the best bet if you don’t plan on sticking around.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published April 26, 2018: 10:01 AM ET

There’s good news for travelers who find it a challenge to sleep on planes. For the price of a premium class ticket, you may just get a space that’s comfortable, private, and quiet enough to ensure a good rest.

This year saw the introduction of the first double bed in business class — dubbed the Qsuite by Qatar Airways — as well the unveiling of two revolutionary first-class bed products, with Singapore Airlines’ all-new A380 Suites and Emirates’ fully-enclosed 777 seats.

Here are great airplane beds to look for next time you fly.

Some cracks may finally be starting to show in the foundations of what has been a very strong housing market.

Home Depot reported quarterly sales that missed forecasts Tuesday and the CEO specifically cited “a slow start to the spring selling season.”

Shares of Home Depot (HD) fell about 2% in early trading on the news. Rival Lowe’s (LOW), which will report its first quarter earnings on May 23, slipped 1% as well.

Home Depot’s same-store sales, which measure how well locations open at least a year are doing, rose 4.2% in the quarter. But Wall Street was expecting a 5.4% jump. This was the first time Home Depot failed to top analysts’ estimates in nearly two years.

Rising mortgage rates could be a problem for the company. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond, a key benchmark for mortgage rates, is back above 3% and is at its highest level since July 2011.

If mortgage rates continue to climb, that could make it more difficult for people to buy a house — which would not be great news for Home Depot.

And Wall Street is starting to worry that the housing boom could be coming to an end too. Shares of big builders Lennar (LEN), Toll Brothers (TOL), KB Home (KBH) and D.R. Horton (DHI) all dipped Tuesday and they are each down between 10% and 20% so far this year.

Related: Here’s what’s killing Sears

The weather was also a factor in Home Depot’s disappointing quarter.

While many retailers often trot out bad weather as an excuse for poor sales, it’s a legitimate concern for a company that sells building products to people constructing homes outside.

The word “weather” was mentioned 14 times during Home Depot’s conference call with analysts.

Home Depot cited “extreme winter weather” as something that hurt gardening supply sales. Sales in the northern part of the US and Canada were particularly weak.

The sluggish sales growth is particularly surprising since Home Depot has been one of the better-performing retailers for some time now.

Home Depot has outperformed the Dow and the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT), by a wide margin for the past five years. Home Depot is a Dow component.

The company has benefited from the fact that many prospective home sellers have been looking to make improvements on their homes in order to help boost the sale price. Strong demand for new homes has helped fuel Home Depot sales too.

Related: Bed Bath & Beyond is in serious trouble

Home Depot also continues to be part of a small group of so-called “Amazon-proof” retailers.

Home Depot shoppers, particularly professional builders, are more likely to go to a store for plywood, lumber, concrete and other critical construction materials so they can actually see and touch them as opposed to simply buying them online from Amazon (AMZN).

And when customers are buying online, many prefer to go to the store to pick up the products. Home Depot’s online sales rose 20% in the quarter.

So Home Depot’s biggest challenge going forward isn’t likely to be Amazon. It’s rising mortgage rates.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 15, 2018: 11:01 AM ET

The new Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 will have over 700 horsepower, making it be the most powerful street-legal production car the company has ever made.

Ford made the announcement at the Detroit Auto Show, and screened a dimly lit teaser video that gave a glimpse of a few of the car’s parts, including a large rear wing.

The GT500 will exceed even the power output of the Ford GT, Ford’s $450,000 exotic supercar. That car can produce 647 horsepower from a turbocharged V6 engine.

Since the GT500 will have over 700 horsepower, it also has a good chance of out-powering the Dodge Challenger Hellcat muscle car, which has a 707-horsepower supercharged engine. And the GT500 will probably be hundreds of pounds lighter than the Hellcat, which will make it even faster.

The first Shelby GT500 appeared in 1967. That car had half the horsepower of this one. The most recent Shelby GT500, which went out of production in 2015, produced 662 horsepower from a 5.8-liter V8 engine.

Ford (F) has a complicated but fruitful relationship with Las Vegas-based Shelby American company. Shelby Mustangs were originally made by Shelby using Mustangs supplied by Ford as a starting point. Shelby still does does these sort of performance conversions. In fact, there are already Shelby Mustangs, such as the Super Snake, available with over 700 horsepower.

But those Shelby-made cars aren’t considered Ford production cars, so Ford’s “most powerful” claim still stands.

In recent years, Ford has also been making some Mustang models with the Shelby name entirely in its own factories. For instance, the last Shelby GT500 was an all-Ford product, as is the current 526-horsepower Ford Shelby GT350. The new Shelby GT500 will be made by Ford, as well.

Ford offered no details on the new GT500, such as exactly what sort of engine it will have or when it will be fully revealed to the public. It will be available some time in 2019.

CNNMoney (New York) First published January 16, 2018: 12:45 PM ET

If you’re hoping to buy a home in Seattle, be prepared for rejection.

A lot of it.

Homes frequently sell for well over asking and receive multiple offers.

“For buyers, we are typically making six to 10 offers before we get a house,” said Rob McGarty, who has been a real estate agent in Seattle for 14 years. “The amount of emotional energy going into preparing these offers is huge.”

Home prices in Seattle are on fire: rising nearly 13% in February from the same time a year ago, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

Prices have risen so fast that it’s led to an affordability crisis, with no relief in site.

“Seattle seems to be defying all the laws of housing market trends,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at real estate data firm ATTOM.

Related: Home prices are on an epic run

The problem is simple: there are more people looking to buy homes than there are homes available for sale.

Seattle’s population has been rapidly growing recently thanks in part to its large homegrown businesses like Amazon (AMZN) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Amazon in particular has played a major role in Seattle’s economic growth and strength. The company employs more than 40,000 workers at its Seattle headquarters and pays out nearly $26 billion in compensation.

“Amazon has amassed a huge talent pool of employees that has caused other companies to open offices here,” said McGarty. “We have a ton of [San Francisco] Bay area companies that now have offices in Seattle … those transplants have driven prices up.”

Home values in King County, which is where Amazon is located, have appreciated twice as fast as the national average, according to Blomquist. Average annual home price appreciation from 1995 (when Amazon first launched) to 2018 was 6%, according to ATTOM. Over the same time period, the national average was just 3%.

After months of online searching, open houses and having several offers rejected, Kayela Robertson and her husband, Cody, had hit their limit.

She said it was common to see the homes they lost out on go on to sell for at least $100,000 over the asking price with multiple offers. They were about to expand their search radius when they made their seventh offer.

“If we were going to be in Seattle, we had joked that we needed to get this house. This was the make it or break it offer,” she said. “If we didn’t, I would have to cave and move farther out.”

Fortunately, their seventh offer was accepted. To close the deal, they offered $140,000 more than the list price of $590,000. They also dropped all contingencies, included an escalation clause, put $100,000 in escrow and promised to close within two weeks.

Related: Looking to buy your first home? Good luck with that

The couple sold their home in Spokane in January for full asking price, and the money from the sale helped make their offer competitive. They closed on the new home a month ago.

“The house we sold was much nicer and bigger and was much less [than the Seattle home],” Robertson said. “It is still an adjustment that we are paying more than two times more for this house.”

Despite being a seller’s market, Seattle homeowners are hesitant to sell.

Last year, the city was among the best markets to sell a home, and the average home seller return on investment was 64%, according to ATTOM. But even if they get a good price, sellers are struggling to find a home to trade up to.

While the demand is clearly there, there’s only so much room to build in Seattle. It’s bounded by water and mountains.

The city also has strict regulations when it comes to building apartment and condos, and 70% of the land mass in the city is zoned for single family homes, according to Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate.

“We aren’t very dense at all,” he said.

The home affordability problem could make the city less appealing to businesses. The city recently passed a new tax on big businesses that will help pay for affordable housing and fight homelessness.

At some point, the housing affordability issues and high cost of living, plus the new business tax, could cause companies to think twice about starting or expanding in Seattle.

“The two most important things when companies think about growing in a market is whether there is a suitable talent pool and how much they have to pay people, and the biggest part of salary is the local cost of living,” said Gardner.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 16, 2018: 12:08 PM ET

The antique look of the Mercedes-Benz G-class SUV is a big part of its rugged charm. So much so, in fact, that even though the 2019 version is completely new, Mercedes designers have made sure it still looks old.

Most passenger cars are completely redesigned roughly every five years to keep up with changing tastes. But is the first time the G-class has been fully redesigned in 40 years. There have been improvements over the decades — but never a thorough wheels-to-roof makeover like this.

To make the point, Mercedes placed a current-generation G-class encased in a massive cube of amber-colored resin outside the auto show. Not coincidentally, it looks like a dinosaur-era bug trapped in amber, a la Jurassic Park.

G-class fans like the SUV’s classic truck-like appearance. It is definitely not a crossover SUV, even though many of its owners in the United States may use it the same way someone might use a Honda CR-V.

But the G-class not only looks and drives very differently from a CR-V, it also costs a good bit more. Prices for the current version start at about $124,000 in the U.S., its biggest market.

The G stands for Geländewagen which means, literally, “terrain car” or, less literally, SUV.

The all-new version was unveiled at an event inside a decayed abandoned theater in Detroit. The introduction featured towering jets of flames, a G-class climbing an impossibly steep looking hill, and an appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger. (The connection is that Schwarzenegger was born near Graz, Austria, where the G-class is built. Also, he’s strong.)

Mercedes designers made every effort to maintain the Lego-built appearance of the G-class, including exposed door hinges, and even the resonating metallic thunk sound of its doors closing. Engineers also went to the trouble of designing the turn signal lamps that stand up on the front of the car so they retract on impact. That retains the classic look while still complying with modern pedestrian protection regulations, which require anything that sticks out on the front of a vehicle that could stab or poke a person must collapse out of the way in a crash.

They did make some changes to modernize the vehicle and add a little more comfort. For instance, it’s slightly larger all around. Despite its size, though, rear seat legroom remains a little snug by SUV standards. But there’s still enough headroom to comfortably go off-roading in a top hat. The modern LED headlights, while still round, are noticeably more complex.

The differences on the inside are much more noticeable. For instance, it has a large central screen, like other Mercedes cars, and the gauge cluster behind the steering wheel has also been replaced by a computer screen. It displays classic-looking round gauges, however, so the new tech doesn’t ruin the old looks.

CNNMoney (New York) First published January 16, 2018: 3:27 PM ET

I want to buy my first house, but I live in an expensive area and I don’t want to end up house poor. What can I do to lower my monthly mortgage payments?—Frank

The leap into homeownership is a big change, especially on your finances.

Buying a home is likely the biggest purchase you’ll ever make, so it’s important to keep your payments in line with what you can afford.

When your mortgage eats up too much of your budget, it can affect your long-term financial security by limiting your ability to save for retirement, pay down debt or follow other dreams like traveling or starting a business.

The general rule of thumb is to aim to have your monthly housing costs add up to less than 30% of your monthly before-tax income.

No doubt that in the country’s more expensive housing markets that’s hard to do, but buyers can take steps to help reduce their housing payments.

Your credit score plays a major role with lenders in deciding the terms of your home loan (or whether they’ll give you one at all).

The better your score, the more likely you are to get a lower interest rate, which means you will be paying less over the life of your loan.

A credit score of 750 and up is generally considered excellent and will make you the most attractive borrower.

Calculate: How much home can your afford?

Home buyers with credit scores below 620 tend to have very high interest rates and risky features on their home loans, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But a good credit score doesn’t happen overnight.

“It means that for a couple years before you really want to purchase a house, you start working to get your score as high as possible, said Nicole Theisen Strbich, a certified financial planner and director of financial planning with Buckingham Financial Group. “It’s not a switch you can flip.”

Start by reviewing your credit report to identify outstanding debt and create a game plan on how to reduce it as quickly as possible. Be sure to also look for any errors on your report since they can take time to fix.

When it comes to getting a mortgage, it pays to shop around.

The interest rate for similar loans can vary by more than half of one percentage point from one lender to another, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And while that number might sound small, it can save you thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage.

The difference between the average person’s mortgage rate and the lowest rate available to them came to an extra $300 a year, a CFPB report found. That means paying an extra $9,000 over a 30-year mortgage.

Get quotes from a variety of lenders, traditional banks, online-only banks and community banks to find the best rate, the experts advised.

Don’t worry about hurting your credit score: Multiple credit checks from mortgage lenders within a 45-day window are recorded on your credit report as a single inquiry.

Related: 4 things first-time homebuyers need to know

The larger your down payment, the less you need to borrow and the smaller your monthly mortgage payments will be.

It also means paying less in total interest.

If you can put down at least 20% of the home price, you can also avoid paying private mortgage insurance — which protects the lender in case you default — saving thousands of dollars a year.

If you put more money down, you can also avoid paying points and other loan fees.

While you’re saving to hit that 20% mark, be sure to keep those funds safe.

“If you are planning on purchasing in the next five years, save it in a place not subject to stock market volatility,” recommended Strbich. “Find the highest interest-bearing account with FDIC insurance. Online banks are a great option for that.”

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage is the most common home loan, but there are other options available.

“I try to steer young people away from 30-year mortgages,” said John Cooper, certified financial planner in South Carolina. “The extended maturity on the loan gives buyers a lower monthly payment, but it may in reality cause them to buy more of a home than they can afford.”

A 15-year mortgage comes with higher monthly payments, but also has a lower interest rate, which can bring significant savings.

Related: Looking to buy your first home? Good luck with that

Shorter loans also mean more of your payments are going toward the principal of your loan and less toward interest compared to a 30-year loan, so you’ll build equity faster.

For some buyers, an adjustable-rate mortgage could also make sense.

ARMs offer a fixed, lower interest rate for a set period of time. But after that introductory period expires, the rate can rise (or drop) to current rates. So it’s important to evaluate the risks and make sure your income will be able to cover a higher interest rate.

Cooper said an ARM could work for buyers who know they won’t be living in the home long term, or are in occupations where they aren’t making a lot of money at the start, but will see a significant increase in a few years.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 24, 2018: 12:00 PM ET

Lamborghini is trying out a new slogan. “We are not supercars. We are Lamborghini”

Wait. What?

That statement, on the cover of the company’s new sales brochure, sounds contradictory. If any company is supercars, it would have to be Lamborghini, right? The Italian ultra-luxury automaker pretty much invented the modern supercar, with famous cars like the Lamborghini Miura and Countach in the 1960s and ’70s.

But now they are Super SUVs, too.

Right below that crazy statement on the brochure is a picture of the Lamborghini Urus SUV, a high-riding, four-door vehicle that just went into production on a brand new assembly line at Lamborghini’s Italian headquarters. Lamborghini is billing it as something entirely new, the world’s first “Super SUV.” (The Urus is actually Lamborghini’s second SUV model. There was only a limited run of its first, the LM002, in the late 1980s.)

And the Lamborghini brand may have some more room to grow, said CEO Stefano Domenicali. An SUV is a big stretch for a brand with Lamborghini’s image, but he said there could be other unexpected products in Lamborghini’s future.

Asked if Lamborghini is content to stop with just the SUV, Domenicali hinted that there’s more to come in years ahead, but wouldn’t share any specifics.

Lamborghini is following the path pioneered by its sister brand Porsche. (Both are part of Germany’s Volkswagen Group (VLKAF).) Porsche successfully introduced an SUV in 2002, something that many purists decried as a sort of sacrilege. In the long run, Porsche’s image as a maker of top-flight sports cars suffered no lasting damage, while its balance sheet benefited enormously. Porsche has pointed out that profits from the Cayenne SUV have allowed Porsche to spend more on the development of its sports cars.

Like the Porsche Cayenne, the Lamborghini Urus, according to early reviews, has the performance capabilities to credibly carry the Lamborghini logo. Lamborghini expects the new model to double the brand’s sales. In Lamborghini’s case, that means it will sell a total of over 7,000 vehicles a year. It also means bringing in many new customers who would never have considered owning a Lamborghini before.

Porsche followed the Cayenne with the Panamera four-door car and, later, the smaller Macan SUV.

A four-door Lamborghini car has been considered in the past, such when the company unveiled the Estoque in 2008. That idea never went anywhere at the time but, perhaps, it could find its place in the future.

New body styles won’t be the only change. There will be new power sources to drive the company’s famous sports cars. Late last year, Lamborghini showed off an electric sports car concept it created with the help of MIT scientists.

CNNMoney (Detroit) First published January 23, 2018: 9:52 AM ET

After the thrill of buying a new home wears off, new owners can get overwhelmed thinking about all the new costs incurred.

You may be tempted to outsource it all. But maybe you’re not made of money? Besides, there are things that are worth doing yourself.

“If you want to DIY changing out the vanity in your bathroom, okay, but that may be above the average person’s skill set and time,” says Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie’s List, the home services site. “But do you know that you need to change your furnace filter once a month? And did you know that if you drain a quart of water out of your water heater every couple of months that will extend the life of your water heater?”

Those are easy things to do yourself that can save you money, says Hicks. “But if you don’t know what to do, you’ll just end up having bigger expenses down the road because you’re not taking care of things.”

For homeowners embarking on something new, it may not be clear what to take care of or how, and when to try to do it yourself and when to call the pros. Here are some of Hicks’ guidelines.

Hicks recommends taking an annual inventory of your home projects, independent of cost or time commitment.

“When you are getting ready to buy a home, you look at it with a more critical eye than you ever will again,” she says. “Once you’re in it, you start thinking about your budget or you don’t have the time.”

She suggests taking a day once a year to list all the projects you need to do. And then rank and categorize them: structural problems, mechanical problems, cosmetic issues, down to the wish list of a new kitchen or deck.

Outsource jobs totally over your head

Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s in your wheelhouse, especially if you fancy yourself a handy person.

Hicks has some suggestions: “You shouldn’t do electric work. And the worst enemy of your house is water, so don’t DIY your plumbing, unless you know what you’re doing.”

Another thing that’s usually pretty affordable to outsource and can save you time and your health in the long run: anything on a ladder.

“People are like, Oh yeah, I’ll just clean out my gutter. This is a task anyone can do. I just have to climb up this ladder and scoop the leaves out. But if they don’t have the right sized ladder, or a secure base, that’s where injuries happen.”

One of the scariest things about homeownership is a financial surprise. So knowing the age and level of operation of systems in your house can help you anticipate upcoming costs.

If you know your water heater is 15 years old, you might want to get it checked before committing to a brand new deck.

“That’s what makes a bad situation worse,” says Hicks, “when something breaks and you’re already committed.”

A good rule of thumb, Hicks says, is if your appliances are seven or eight years old and it will cost half as much to fix them as it will to replace them, replace them.

“Because you’ll end up nursing it along,” she says. “And the new technology and efficiency of a new system can make total sense.”

Updating your home with smart technology — programmable thermostats or video doorbells — is a fairly easy DIY way to not only increase the home’s value when it comes time to sell, but can deliver immediate savings on energy or security bills, says Hicks.

“For $1,200 you can buy the most popular smart home technology,” she says. “That could increase the value of your home by 5%.”

For larger, non DIY improvements, kitchen and bathroom remodels are always very popular and generally boost the value of your home.

But be careful not to over-renovate, says Hicks. “When you think about remodeling, you want to keep up with the Jones’s, not outdo them. You don’t want to price yourself out of the neighborhood.”

If outsourcing a task allows you to tackle a project or spend more time with important people in your life, then that’s a good use of your time.

But Hicks cautions that outsourcing these chores shouldn’t turn into a stressful financial situation. You shouldn’t go into debt outsourcing your lawn care or house cleaning.

“If you’re spending $50 or $60 to have your lawn mowed, you need to be okay with that as an expense you want to incur and endure every week for the 20 weeks of summer.”

Once you’ve concluded you’re going to pay for a service, your work doesn’t stop with the first service rep you meet.

“It always can be a negotiation,” says Hicks. “And don’t rest on getting one estimate. Get two or three estimates. It gives you an opportunity to negotiate and also to see if you have an outlier.”

You should always have a contract in writing when paying someone to work on your home, she says. And she adds, the terms of the contract are also negotiable.

Underplay your budget, too, she says.

“If you’re thinking about remodeling your bathroom and your budget is $10,000, tell the contractor it is $8,000. Have them work a plan at $8,000. Because something will come up. It always does.”

“The time to DIY is when you have the skills, the time and the know-how to do it,” says Hicks.

And always start small, she adds.

“We’ve turned home improvements into entertainment,” Hicks says. “A lot of the things we see or read about make it seem so simple. But no project is ever as simple as it is presented on TV.”

If you’re not an experienced DIYer, try painting a small bedroom, she says. “Start with something you can finish in a weekend.”

CNNMoney (New York) First published June 5, 2018: 10:47 AM ET

The Winter Olympics start this week in Pyeongchang, South Korea. But don’t expect to see hordes of Americans in the bleachers.

High travel costs and a shortage of hotel rooms have put Americans off attending the marquee event. Tensions with North Korea haven’t helped, either.

“Our travel sales to this Olympics have been very light,” said Anbritt Stengele, founder of specialist travel company Sports Traveler.

Pyeongchang — with a population around 44,000 — is not a model tourist destination. It’s a two-hour train journey from the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Stengele had hoped that clients would be able to stay in Seoul and commute to the Olympics. But then she factored in the time required for trains, event lines and security.

“We decided not to recommend this option to our guests,” she said.

Flights bookings from the United States to South Korea in February were up 24% compared to the previous year, according to data from travel intelligence firm ForwardKeys. But that’s a small bump for such a big event.

“You would expect triple-digit growth,” said David Tarsh, a spokesman for ForwardKeys.

So who is going? Residents of China and Japan have run the most searches for flights to South Korea, according to data from the travel app Hopper.

Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo were the cities with the highest search volume for Olympic travel.

Only two U.S. cities made the top 10: Los Angeles (6th) and New York (9th). The average price for round-trip flights from these cities was $800 to $930.

Related: Team USA’s Olympic uniforms are wearable heaters

Weak demand may not be limited to the U.S.

Global flight bookings to South Korea in February were up about 15% compared to last year, according to ForwardKeys. But that’s not as much as you’d expect for a major sporting event.

A long-running feud between China and South Korea over the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system has hurt Chinese tourism in South Korea.

“The real origin market that matters for [South] Korea is China,” said Tarsh. “The market from China has completely collapsed.”

The countries with the biggest surge in interest include Vietnam, the Philippines and Canada.

Bookings from Vietnam have surged more than 550% over the previous year, according to ForwardKeys. A South Korean visa waiver program contributed to this boost, said Tarsh.

The number of bookings from the Philippines have more than doubled and Canadian bookings are up over 40%.

CNNMoney (London) First published February 7, 2018: 4:29 AM ET