News / Features

Pending Home Sales Remain Unchanged

According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales were mostly unchanged in October, but shifted marginally higher after two straight months of declines. Gains in the Northeast and West were offset by declines in the Midwest and

Federal Reserve Votes to Stop Bailing Out Failing Firms

Effective Jan. 1, the Federal Reserve will not be allowed to bail out failing companies. Members of the Fed board voted 5 to 0 in favor of restricting the policy. The new policy will restrict the Fed from lending to individual firms,

New Home Sales at Highest Level in 7 Years

New home sales are hot, but what are the larger market trends? Sales of new single-family houses rose 10.7 percent from September to October and 4.9 percent from Oct. 2014 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 495,000, according

Texas Price Growth Remains Strong

How have home prices progressed in the 2015 housing market? Home prices in the Texas housing market remained strong, with Dallas prices rising 0.4 percent from August to September and 9.0 percent from Sept. 2014, according to the new Case-Shiller Home

How Does Thanksgiving Impact Real Estate?

The ins and outs of buyer traffic around the holidays It has been long been considered common knowledge that the buying craze of Black Friday does not extend to real estate, thanks to a lack of large savings for homes

Houston Among Nation’s Worst Cities for Thanksgiving Travel

According to Google Maps data, Houston is one of the worst cities in the country for Thanksgiving travel. Out of 21 cities that Google investigated, Houston came in at No. 8, with long-time traffic haven Los Angeles on top. Here

Mortgage Applications Up Despite TRID

We’re approaching two months since the implementation of TRID, and after a string of weeks that saw declining originations, mortgage applications were back up in the week ending Nov. 13, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. In the two

Existing-Home Sales Decline, Market Continues to Improve

Homes sales were down in October, but the overall picture remains a very positive one for housing Existing-home sales declined 3.4 percent from September to October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.36 million, according to the latest report

FHA Reserves Back in Line with Federal Requirements

In another marker of the housing market’s recovery, the Federal Housing Administration announced last week that its reserves were back in line with federal requirements. The FHA stated that its insurance fund’s net worth at the end of September was

FHA Announces Changes to Condo Policies

Last Thursday, Federal Housing Administration Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Ed Golding and National Association of Realtors President Chris Polychron announced changes to FHA condominium policies at the NAR national conference in San Diego. The changes, Golding explained, will change the FHA’s recertification process, owner-occupancy

6 Facts about the Homes Consumers Purchased in 2015

Single family? Condo? 2,000-plus square feet? What defined the homes consumers bought this year? For our latest story in our continuing series on NAR’s 2015 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, we’re taking a detailed look at the homes

As Apartment Building Falls, So Does the New Construction Marketplace

October provided yet more evidence of how integral multifamily building is to the current new construction economy October was a rough month for new construction, with housing starts falling 11 percent from September and 1.8 percent from Oct. 2014

CoreLogic: Healthy August Drop in Houston Cash Sales

The share of total residential real estate transactions carried out in all cash fell from 34.9 percent in Aug. 2014 to 31.7 percent this most recent August, according to a report from CoreLogic. Month-over-month, cash sales inched upward by

Marilyn Thompon Becomes President of Martha Turner Realty

Marilyn Thompson, the vice president of sales at Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty, will be the brokerage’s new president. Thompson graduated from Louisiana State University and taught for seven years in Houston public schools. She then began her career in real

Are America’s Large Homes Bad for Energy Efficiency?

Is our love for large homes nullifying the progress in energy efficiency? Thanks to new technological advances in water use, insulation, heating and cooling and household appliances, today’s homes are more energy efficient than ever before. Yet new research

Mortgage Customer Satisfaction Jumps in New Report

The mortgage process doesn’t often top the list of things people like to do, but as far as dealing with banks and moneymen go, customers are more approving of the mortgage process now than any other time in the

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