December was a modest month for contract signings, according to NAR Pending home sales were mostly unchanged in December, but inched forward slightly, fueled by a large increase in the Northeast that outpaced declines in the other three major

First-time homebuyers have been MIA for some time – are they poised for a comeback? The National Association of Realtors reported late last week that first-time homebuyers accounted for 32 percent of existing-home sales in December, which was up

National distressed sales – including real-estate owned (REO) and short sales – fell 1.9 percentage points in November 2015, pushing the distressed share of total sales to its lowest November point since 2007, according to a new report from

The latest Case-Shiller Indices offered numerable insights into the nation’s housing market Home price growth continues in the Texas housing market, according to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s. Although the Case-Shiller does not, amazingly, track

Home prices have been on a tear for the past couple years, and new homebuyers trying to enter the market have noticed it becoming pricier to not just buy a house, but even put a down payment on a

After years of heavy reliance on FICO scores, some lenders are now saying FICO’s view is too narrow, focusing too much on past behavior and not enough on consumers’ present circumstances. Alternative scoring systems have become a viable option,

In December, existing-home sales re-found their footing, making up for the misstep in November. What did we learn? TRID was the cause of November’s slip, but it’s not a problem anymore. “Closing time metrics are showing minor effects of TRID,”

Compared to a few years ago, the lending market is doing quite well. In fact, some institutions believe the progress of recovery is such that the market will be fully recovered by the end of this year. Now if

Not every major city has an NFL stadium, but for those that do, the effects on the surrounding home and rental markets vary wildly, from boosting prices to over 40 percent in Philadelphia to bringing them down nearly 20

New research finds that millionaire ranks grew strongly in 2015 There were nearly 128,000 millionaire households in the Houston area through the middle of 2015, up 5.4 percent from the same period in 2014. Millionaire households now account for 5.7 percent of all households

What will the new construction marketplace look like in 2016? The Census Bureau released its latest report on new construction this morning, and as usual, the agency’s analysis had far-reaching implications on where the new construction markets are heading in

Builder’s are confident, and that bodes well for housing in the New Year Builders are starting out 2016 on confident footing, and that spells promising things for the year’s housing market. That was the central finding in the National Association

“Houston Leads in Master-Planned Community Sales” was the title of a story Houston Agent magazine ran last week, reporting on a report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting that ranked the top 50 U.S. master-planned communities by net sales.

It’s tough to improve upon a record-breaking year – a fact Houston discovered in 2015. After a year of all-time best increases in prices and sales, Houston’s residential real estate market did not have many places to go in

Higher interest rates may not be that big of a threat to housing’s future, after all With interest rates seeing their first increase since 2008, there is concern that the hike will harm the housing market either through harming

More underemployed college graduates work in the office sector than service One of the common beliefs about the current job market is the underemployed college graduate being forced to work as a barista, or another form of unskilled labor for