National News

Real Estate, Once Again, America’s Favorite Long-Term Investment

As a long-term investment strategy, few consumers were willing to touch real estate during the downturn, but new research suggests that has changed. Back in 2011, few people wanted to touch real estate with a 20-foot pole – what

Price Per Square Foot Skyrockets in Houston

March was a very good month for price per square foot in our housing market, according to Movoto. Those signs of a housing recovery just became a bit brighter. According to the latest State of the Real Estate Market

6 Actually Important Findings From NAR’s Existing-Home Sales Report

While everyone fixates on the specific rate of existing-home sales, here were the similarly important findings in the report. By now, you’ve probably seen the headlines stemming from NAR’s latest existing-home sales report, namely that sales declined 0.2 percent

Lending Standards Have Barely Budged in the Last Year

We keep hearing from trade groups that lending standards remain high, and the data would seem to support that claim. It’s arguably the most common motif among housing trade groups today – lending standards remain high, and are limiting

Rent Takes a Much Bigger Bite Out of Houston Resident’s Incomes

We’ve been hearing for some time that rents are increasing, but new numbers from Zillow present the issue in a new light. Rising rents, like falling home prices, have been one of the prevailing narratives of the post-bubble housing

Why the Suburbs Aren’t Going Anywhere

Reports of suburbia’s death,  it would appear, have been greatly exaggerated. It’s been a common trope in post-bubble news coverage – the United States, after several decades of embracing suburban sprawl, is returning to its urban roots and, once

Builder Confidence Inches Higher in April

Though still low, builder confidence showed improvement in April, according to new NAHB numbers. Builder confidence recovered somewhat from March to April, inching up from 46 to 47, according to the latest Housing Market Index from the National Association

New Home Construction Highs and Lows in March

Housing construction performed below expectations in March, according to the latest Census Bureau numbers. March was a month of good and not great news for new construction, according to the latest Census Bureau report, with housing starts rising 2.8

Housing Inventory in Houston Just Continues to Fall

It’s been a verifiable roller coaster ride the last couple years when it comes to housing inventory, but are we finally out of the woods? Housing inventory in the Houston housing market continued its downward slope in March, falling

All-Cash Sales in Houston Remain Quite Prevalent

The housing market has made considerable strides in the last 18 months, but all-cash sales are still in abundance. We’ll cut to the big stat – in Jan. 2014, the latest month for which data exists, 34.2 percent of

The Relative Rarity of Million-Dollar Listings in Houston

Sure, our area has some wonderful luxury housing markets, but in the grander scope of the market, how common are those million-dollar listings? We may hear about luxury real estate on a consistent basis, but luxury listings in the

Houston Asking Prices, Rents Continue Strong Increases in March

March was another solid month of price increase in the for-sale and rental markets, both locally and nationally. Houston’s asking-price fortunes continued in March, according to the latest Price Monitor from Trulia, with asking prices in the area’s housing

Residential Mortgages Becoming More Available

Mortgage standards have been pretty tight since 2008, but new readings from the MBA show them to improving. On the surface, it looks pretty underwhelming. From February to March, the Mortgage Banker Association’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) increased

5 Unexpected Details About the Younger Boomer Generation

The housing downturn and economic recession introduced some very intriguing details to Younger Boomers. The Baby Boom generation is arguably the most visible generation in America right now, yet given its diversity, it still manages to surprise us. So, in

Fannie/Freddie Reforms = Higher Mortgage Rates

Discussions on how to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac get really wonky really fast, but they impact your business in very practical ways. We’ll cut straight to the chase – if current proposals to overhaul Fannie Mae and

CoreLogic: Foreclosure Markets in Houston Continue to Improve

There are many uncertainties in the world, but here’s one thing we know for sure – progress has been made on the foreclosure front. Foreclosure inventory in the Houston-area housing market dropped 33 percent year-over-year in February, according to the