Today’s real estate market is challenging and competitive, but this year’s Realtor Magazine “30 Under 30″ honorees haven’t let that deter them. The 2012 class is following in the strong entrepreneurial tradition of real estate, creating their own pathways to success.

Home sales in the Houston area were positive again in April, increasing for the 11th straight month and reaching their highest level since August 2011.
According to the latest data from the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), single-family home sales in April increased 9.6 percent from a year ago and rose by the second largest monthly total of 2012.

The successful adoption by Heritage Texas Properties of the Electronic Transaction Solution (HAR-ETS) to go paperless was announced by PropertyInfo Corporation, a Stewart company. The paperless utility is powered by SureClose software and owned by Stewart Transaction Solutions.

Builder confidence hit its highest level in five years in the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) from the NAHB.
A measure of confidence in the newly built, single-family home market, the HMI gained five points from April to May to increase to 29, which is its strongest reading since May 2007.

 
Weichert, Realtors – Wayne Murray Properties have announced Blaire Nunely as a realtor for The Woodlands office.  As a seven-year resident of the area, she will assist homebuyers and sellers in The Woodlands and Spring.

After a few difficult years, the income and business of Realtors grew in 2011, according to the 2012 National Association of Realtors Member Profile.
A survey of 58,823 NAR members that yielded 6,245 usable responses, the profile found the median income for Realtors rose 2.3 percent in 2011 to $34,900. Also, licensed brokers typically earned $48,400 in 2011, and the median sales for agents was $27,200.

Green homes have been growing more popular with each passing year, and a new study by McGraw-Hill Construction has discovered exponential growth in the industry.
According to its study, officially called “SmartMarket Report: New and Remodeled Green Homes: Transforming the Residential Market,” green homes accounted for 17 percent of the construction market in 2011, or, $17 billion, which is nearly triple that of 2005.

Housing affordability has been trending upwards in the post-boom housing market, and according to analytics firm Fiserv, it’s now at a 40-year high.
Utilizing data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fiserv studied 380 U.S. markets, and it found that with how home prices have corrected after their peak level in 2006′s first quarter, and how mortgage rates have similarly fallen, that a number of affordability-related indices are at their best levels in decades.

NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg has become the latest proponent for housing finance reform, arguing in an op-ed for a comprehensive overhaul of the current system.
“Our goal is to overhaul the housing finance system to ensure that housing credit is available and affordable in the future and is delivered through a system that is competitive, efficient, safe and stable,” he wrote.

Lender Processing Services released its latest Home Price Index (HPI) late last week, reporting that home values increased for just the third time in five years.
Covering the month of February, the HIP rose by 0.2 percent from January, the first price increase since March 2010. The January HPI had originally estimated that prices would fall by another 0.3 percent, but as LPS explained, positive sways in the economy since then accounted for the 0.5 variance from the original estimate.