By Peter Ricci As a sales-based industry, real estate depends on clients, and as sales personnel, real estate agents benefit when they have a solid grasp of who those clients are and why they are interested in what they are

By Peter Ricci Privately-owned housing starts in October rose 3.6 percent from September to an annual rate of 894,000, which is the highest rate since July 2008, according to new numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. That total was

By Peter Ricci Existing-home sales rose 2.1 percent in October, according to the National Association of Realtors latest market report. Housing inventory, though, declined again in October, adding further pressure to home

By Peter Ricci The U.S. mortgage markets and the housing market on the whole showed continued improvement in the latest Mortgage Delinquency Survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), which studied delinquency and foreclosure rates across the country for

By Peter Ricci Once a year, in the last gasps of the autumn season, Christmas comes early for the residential real estate markets – the National Association of Realtors (NAR) releases its yearly Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers; and

By Natalie Terchek Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group released a new edition of its Housing Insights survey that examines how the recession affected homeownership and rental markets. Interestingly, even with rents rising, homeownership rates are on a

By Peter Ricci There have been many unfortunate side effects to the housing downturn, but for homebuyers and agents who have been able to capitalize, there has been one decided benefit – heavily discounted REO properties, with price reductions

By Peter Ricci Unless you’ve been living in severe isolation the last couple months, you know all about the so-called “Fiscal Cliff,” the rather dramatic name that the media has given to the latest round of budgetary disputes facing

By Peter Ricci In case you missed it, Freddie Mac announced what has by now become common in real estate – mortgage interest rates hit new record lows last week, with the 30-year FRM falling to 3.34 percent and the 15-year

By Natalie Terchek Real estate company Century 21 is returning to the Super Bowl’s marketing roster for the second year in a row. According to Beverly Thorne, Century 21’s CMO, the company is expected to air a 30-second commercial

By Peter Ricci Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, is known for his optimistic predictions about the housing market, and he just recently made another notable projection: home prices, according his projections, will rise by

By Peter Ricci The housing market continued to show signs of incremental improvement in Redfin’s latest Real-Time Seller Survey, a study of the homebuyers attitudes towards real estate in the fourth quarter. A sample of 1,287 homeowners throughout the

By Peter Ricci The real estate numbers game, as any agent knows, is not always the most fun of activities. Indeed, pricing a home is a delicate balancing act between accurately valuing the home, attracting potential homebuyers and, of

By Peter Ricci Fresh off the positive financial news from Freddie Mac, sister GSE Fannie Mae is reporting great numbers of its own, with a third quarter net income of $1.8 billion. That income was strong enough, Fannie reported,

By Peter Ricci The Realtor Confidence Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) faltered a bit in September, with tight home lending standards stalling the index’s momentum. The index had been rising steadily through most of 2012, and

By Peter Ricci So…what’s next for housing? That’s the question on many real estate professional’s minds, now that the presidential election has finally concluded with the reelection of President Obama. On election day, we surveyed what was at stake for