National News

Rents Average Over $1000 A Month

Real estate data firm Reis, Inc. is reporting that average rent costs have reached a record increase in 74 out of 82 markets that it is tracking in the second quarter, including cities like Chicago, Miami, Seattle, San Diego

3 Reasons the FHFA’s REO Pilot Program is a Good Thing

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) has selected the winner bidders for its pilot initiative, putting the agency one step closer to closing out what many have anticipated as its most helpful program yet for the U.S. housing market.

$500 Marketing Budget – What Would You Do?

ActiveRain, the popular online real estate network, has an intriguing question for agents – what would you buy if you were on a marketing budget of $500 per month? That question is at the heart of a new competition

Gains for Home Prices in CoreLogic Index Make it 3 Months in a Row

Home prices in CoreLogic’s May home price index rose for the third consecutive month, posting both monthly and yearly gains. From April to May, national home prices were up 1.8 percent, CoreLogic reported, and price rose year-over-year by 2

Construction Spending in May 2012 Up 7.0 Percent

Construction spending continued its strong performance in May, rising 7.0 percent from last year and 0.9 percent from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $830.0 billion. For the first five months of 2012, spending is $310.5 billion,

4 Explanations for Why Housing Inventory Is So Low

Housing inventories have been on a roll lately, but not the kind many of us had expected – it just keeps going, and going, and going down! In May, the most recent month we have data for, Realtor.com’s for-sale

Mortgage Underwriting Standards Less Strict in 2012

Lessening underwriting standards are the great white whale in housing’s recovery, and the 2012 Survey of Credit Underwriting Practices from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is making some suggestions that the tide may be turning for home

Paging Dr. Robert J. Shiller – Housing Guru on How to Fix Housing

Robert J. Shiller is more than just a highly-respected professor of economist at Yale – he’s the co-creator of the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, one of the most influential readings available on the U.S. housing market. Therefore, it makes

Prepping for the Sale – 4 Essential Steps

Prepping a property for potential buyers is a multi-tiered process, one that involves a number of steps across a number of different mediums. From writing the initial Internet listing to scrubbing the home’s interiors and exteriors for showings, a

Do Americans Value Their Cars More than Their Houses?

Homeownership is often seen as the ultimate realization of the “American Dream.” Though the emotions behind that sentiment are still running strong, a recent report suggests that consumer spending habits may have different priorities, and that other big purchases now take precedent over

What’s in a Housing Recovery? 3 Things to Keep in Mind

In case you’re late to the party, allow us to bring you up to speed – various sources are saying housing is inching towards recovery. Existing-home sales were up 9.6 percent last month and new home sales 19.8 percent. And as

NAR Pending Home Sales Index Rises 5.9 Percent in May, Lisa Dempsey, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene Branch Manager, on Inventory Shortages

The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sale Index bounced back to positive territory in May, rising 5.9 percent to its highest level in two years. With a reading of 101.1, the index is 13.3 percent higher than a

Texas Prices Stay Strong, Dallas Home Prices Rise 2.8 Percent in April 2012 Case-Shiller Index

Home prices in Texas continued their strong 2012 performance in the latest Case-Shiller Home Price Index, according to Standard & Poor’s (S&P). Nationally, home prices increased 1.3 percent from March to April, which suggests, after seven long months of price declines, that

New Home Sales For May 2012 Leap 19.8 Percent, J. Patrick Homes on ‘Strong’ Houston Market

Sales of new singe-family homes for the month of May, according to new data from the Census Bureau, rose 19.8 percent year-over-year to a two-year high. The 369,000 seasonally-adjusted annual rate was also 7.6 percent above April’s rate of

3 Ways to Avoid ‘Pinball’ Status on Your Listings

A pinball property, or pinball listing, as it’s also called, can be a real estate agent’s best friend – just as long as they’re not the ones listing the property! Pinball listings, as the new term has been coined,

5 SEO Basics for Real Estate Agents

Today, more than ever, sites such as Google and Yahoo! are the true drivers of the Internet, transporting users to web pages based on one thing – the results of their algorithms. It’s imperative that agents learn to harness

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