By Peter Ricci The U.S. housing market ended 2012 on solid footing in the Redfin Real-Time Price Tracker, with home prices, housing inventory and home sales all improving over 2011. A monthly measure of the housing market’s key fundamentals, the Real-Time

By Peter Ricci Heavy price reductions were one of the ugliest side effects of the housing downturn, but a new study by Trulia suggest that price reductions may be happening with fewer frequency as the housing market

By Peter Ricci Housing starts soared in December, climbing 12.1 percent from November and 36.9 percent from December 2011 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 954,000, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department

By Peter Ricci Builder confidence in the newly built, single-family homes market held firm in January, remaining at a level of 47 in the NAHB’s Housing Market Index, the industry’s leading measure of builder confidence. That’s the eighth consecutive month of

By Peter Ricci The national foreclosure inventory declined by 10 percent from September to November and mortgage origination remains strong, according to the November Mortgage Monitor from Lender Processing Services

By Joe Van Acker Turns out, girls just wanna…count the homeless. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is partnering with ’80s pop icon and Grammy Award-winner Cyndi Lauper to determine the size and characteristics of the country’s

By Peter Ricci Home prices increased 7.4 percent from November 2011 to November 2012 in the lastest CoreLogic HPI, which is the ninth straight month of year-over-year home price increases and the strongest showing from home prices since May

By Peter Ricci First-time homebuyers, as any agent knows, are one of the most important demographics to a healthy real estate market, and the increasing market share of first-time homebuyers has been one of the many positive developments of

By Peter Ricci Total home sales increased 6 percent in 2012 over 2011 according to the January MarketPulse report from CoreLogic, a wide-ranging analysis of the housing market that anticipated good things for the real estate industry in 2013.

By Joe Van Acker Buyers enjoyed unprecedented buying power last year, according to the National Association of Realtor’s Housing Affordability Index. Cruising past 2011’s record figure of 186, the index is expected to reach an all-time high of 194

By Peter Ricci Real estate is often considered the last truly “free” market in the U.S. economy, a sector that, unlike agriculture, manufacturing, education or health care, has avoided the influence of government to grow and prosper – or has it?

By Peter Ricci Well, it’s finally happened. After months of speculation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finally announced its qualified mortgage standards, which are the new, defining lending guidelines for the nation’s

By Peter Ricci Proponents of renting have often argued that renting is less expensive that owning, and admittedly, the argument makes sense; after all, renters do not have to worry about repairs, insurance or property taxes, among the other

By Peter Ricci The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Improving Markets Index, a key measure of the housing markets in the U.S.’ largest metropolitan areas, rose for the fifth consecutive month in January, increasing to a total of 242

By Peter Ricci Federal regulators put the finishing touches on an $8.5 billion mortgage settlement with 10 of the nation’s largest lenders earlier this week, with the majority of the funds going towards delinquent homeowners in danger of losing

By Peter Ricci Things have been looking up for the housing market heading into 2013, and we’re not just saying that because shadow inventory is falling, home sales at their highest mark in years and consumer confidence in the housing