The latest price index from CoreLogic covered home prices through January. Home prices in the Houston area rose 10.9 percent year-over-year in January, according to the latest Home Price Index from CoreLogic. That’s strongest increase of all the metro areas that CoreLogic

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

When it comes to a home’s features, does one’s gender/relationship status impact how they prioritize the features? Walk-in closets, new kitchen appliances, nine-foot ceilings, single-level living – all are distinctive features to a home, and research from NAR suggests

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,

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

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

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

It was the same old story in January, with multifamily construction leading the way. Another year, another setting for multifamily dominance in residential construction. That was the central lesson from the Census Bureau’s latest report, which found multifamily permits, starts

A new study from the Federal Reserve brings more evidence to the table on the damaging economic effects of high student debt burdens We’re written in the past about the effects of student loan debt on the housing market

The last couple weeks, we’ve been analyzing exclusive numbers from the CoreLogic Housing Credit Index, a detailed look at mortgage availability. Our central question has been a simple one: is it any easier, nowadays, to attain a mortgage? And after

It’s been a rollercoaster ride following the nation’s mortgage markets, so we decided to take a more long-term view at some of the key stats at play – and how, with only one exception, things have improved by quite

Minority groups have a harder time accessing mortgages in the U.S., including here in Houston. In the Houston metro area, 19.6 percent of African-Americans are denied in their applications for conventional mortgages, according to a new analysis from Zillow; that’s more