January may have seemed like a disappointing month of construction, but a deeper look at the trends reveals much to smile about. Overall construction spending in January was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $971.4 billion, according to the

Pending home sales shot up in January, suggesting positive numbers down the road. Pending home sales hit their highest level in 18 months in January, according to the latest analysis from the National Association of Realtors. The Pending Home

In the end, buying a home all comes down to dollars and cents, and Houston’s qualifying incomes differ in interesting ways with the rest of the U.S. To qualify for a mortgage on a 5 percent down payment, Houston homebuyers

Oil prices and new developments are pushing Houston builders to the city’s east side. In recent years, Houston’s single greatest economic influencer has pushed along development in the city: energy. Massive injections of jobs due to the consistently high

First-time homebuyers are a scarce bunch, these days. Just when it seemed that the news on first-time homebuyers could not get any more distressing, here comes a new report from RealtyTrac to pour salt on the wounds. In short,

It’s a whole new world out there for new construction, as stunning stat after stunning stat drives home. The Census Bureau’s latest report on new single-family home sales is out, and its findings, at least on the surface, were

SmartAsset evaluated refinancing around Texas and the country to find that Houstonians are saving more. In Harris County, residents are saving more each year on mortgage refinancing than anywhere else in the state, an analysis from SmartAsset, a personal finance website,

The past few months, we’ve reported on the many thorny issues facing Millennials – that their wages in many industries have plummeted in recent years; that their savings rate is negative; that they have pushed roommate rates up to

Texas continued to lead the pack in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Home prices in the Lone Star State remained strong in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Though the indices do not track Houston, prices were very encouraging in Dallas,

In a recent article on new construction, we reported that the multifamily share of total construction had risen from 17.2 percent of the market in Jan. 2002 to 35.1 percent of the market in Jan. 2014. Such a striking

Agents are working hard to make 2015 a profitable year, but low inventories are keeping sales slow. January marked the start of a new year, but it was hardly the hit the ground running beginning the market was hoping

Whenever you see a report on America’s evaporating middle class, you should think about the implications for housing. Homeownership is a defining symbol of American middle class life; indeed, the quintessential image of a single-family detached house, complete with

Builder confidence is far above the rate of new construction; what gives? Here’s an interesting nuance to the housing recovery: the Housing Market Index, which tracks builder confidence, dropped a couple points from January to February, finishing at 55;

Just how dramatic has housing shifted towards rentals, in the last seven years? Fifty-four percent of Houston residents now live in rental housing, up from 50 percent in 2006 and 41 percent in 1970; as if that weren’t enough, the renter

Houston is a booming market, but available homes are struggling to match demand, helping Cy-Fair emerge as a premier destination. Around the country, markets are normalizing, blurring the lines of favor to keep buyers and sellers on an even

Why are mortgage rates still so low? Allow us to count the ways. Average rates for the 30-year FRM may have ticked up last week, but they remain at their lowest point since May 2013. What’s behind the low stature