Rising rents, new research shows, are not an incentive to buy a house Renters in the Houston metro area are spending substantially more money on their monthly rent than is historically the case. That was the finding of a new

Recent study shows national increase in average down payments In 2015’s second quarter, the average down payment in Texas was 17.46 percent, which was an increase from the first quarter’s 16.66 percent, according to a recent study by online loan

Technology has drastically improved the efficacy of searching for the right home. Prior to enlisting the services of an agent, buyers, who in all likelihood have a pre-established criterion for their ideal neighborhood and home, are scoping out concerns

Houston joins nationwide trend of rising home prices Home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 7.4 percent year-over-year in June 2015 in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land area, according CoreLogic’s June 2015 Home Price Index (HPI). Excluding distressed sales, year-over-year

The House Financial Services Committee passed two bills to help ease TRID worries On Oct. 3, the new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure (TRID) rule will come into affect, and the industry is struggling in preparation, despite the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Institutional investors leaving real estate, but Americans still confident housing is a good investment In the immediate wake of the economic downturn, the housing market took a plunge that was devastating for homeowners but ideal for the opportunistic. In the years

Contract signings declined for the first time in 2015, according to new research Pending home sales declined 1.8 percent from May to June, according to new analysis from the National Association of Realtors. Although the Pending Home Sales Index,

Home prices were positive for the Texas housing market in May’s Case-Shiller Home prices in the Dallas housing market rose 0.9 percent from April to May, and 8.4 percent from May 2014, according to the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard &

With rising home prices pushing more loans out of conforming range and into jumbo range, could the jumbo loan cap increase? With the national median home price at a historic high, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has begun to reach

The news for new home sales was much better than the Census Bureau’s report led on Sales of new homes in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 482,000, a 21.2 percent year-to-date increase from 2014 that

This June, median home prices and existing-home sales turn the market around According to a new report by the National Association of Realtors, the combined effect of rising demand and limited supply have helped raise the national median sales

Lawmakers threaten to end like-kind exchange tax provisions, but some say the cost would be too great There’s a contingent of lawmakers and government officials lobbying to alter the face of like-kind exchanges, with some hoping to outright repeal the

According to Census Bureau calculations, June was one of the best months of new construction in some time…but the truth is more complicated Building permits rose 7.4 percent monthly and 30 percent year-over-year in June, according to the latest  construction

First-time homeowners set sights high First-time homebuyers are still facing a tough road to homeownership, but it’s one that they are willing to overcome, according to a new study released by TD Bank. The survey, which polled 1,002 consumers

Throughout the first four months of 2015, home sales in the U.S. were the best they’ve been in eight years. Helped by a one-half percentage drop in fixed mortgage rates, home sales from January to April this year surpassed

MLS faces 10 big problems with no easy answers Commissioned to the Swanepoel | T3 Group, The National Assocation of Realtors’ recent “Danger Report” analyzes the industry from multiple vantage points, including agents, brokers and associations. The intent behind this