By Peter Ricci When the U.S. Green Building Council met to discuss changes to its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system in December, it was met with resistance and controversy from several manufacturers. In fact, the manufacturers

By Peter Ricci The Pending Home Sales Index showed considerable signs of life in November, increasing 9.8 percent year-over-year and hitting its highest level in more than two years, according to the latest readings by the National Association of

By Peter Ricci New single-family home sales increased 4.4 percent from October to November, hitting their highest mark since April 2010, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban

By Peter Ricci Asking prices increased 0.7 percent from November to December and 5.1 percent year-over-year in the latest Trulia Price Monitor, which studied the asking prices of for-sale homes listed on Trulia in

By Peter Ricci We knew it would go down to the wire – after countless discussions, negotiations and stories by the media, Congress finally reached an agreement to avert the so-called “Fiscal Cliff,” and the housing market, upon initial

By Peter Ricci Private residential construction spending increased again in November, rising 0.4 percent from October to November in what is shaping up to be an encouraging 2012 for residential construction, according to the latest data from the Census

By Peter Ricci Well, 2013 has finally arrived, and it brings with it a housing market that, in the view of every major real estate analysts – from the NAHB, to the Wall Street Journal, to CoreLogic – is on

By Stephanie Sims Like many in the industry, since it’s the end of 2012, industry professionals are making predictions for 2013, and Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia, is one of those people, giving his predictions in a “what’s

By Peter Ricci Have you ever wondered by chrome seems so common in New England homes? Or why the shiny, shimmering textures of bronze always pop up in Texas dwellings? The NAHB Research Center just combed through 15 years-worth

By Peter Ricci Texas home prices continued their strong 2012 performance in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Indices from Standard & Poor’s, with Dallas home prices increasing by 4.6 percent year-over-year in October. Though Standard & Poor’s does not track Houston home

By Peter Ricci Well, it’s Christmas Eve, the time of mistletoe and yuletide and egg nog. But while visions of sugarplums may be dancing in the heads of most people tonight, we’ll be going to sleep with another, equally

By Peter Ricci In an effort to shore up its struggling finances, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has announced that it will be tightening its mortgage standards and policies for certain homebuyers in 2013. The FHA’s finances have been

By Peter Ricci The multifamily housing market continued its dominant performance in the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) Architecture Billings Index, a leading economic indicator of future construction activity that is based on the billings from the nation’s architectural firms.

By Peter Ricci There was nothing but good tidings and cheer in the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) existing-home sales report for November, which found existing-home sales to have increased 5.9 percent from October to November and 14.5 percent

By Peter Ricci Building permits increased 3.6 percent from October to November and 26.8 percent year-over-year in the latest joint study by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Altogether, between single-family and multifamily

By Peter Ricci The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, the leading measure of builder confidence for the newly-built, single family home market, rose for the eighth consecutive month in December, hitting its highest mark since April