By Peter Ricci Declining foreclosure activity and strengthening home sales contributed positively to home prices in October, with FNC’s latest Residential Price Index increasing 3.7 percent year-over-year for the month. In addition, the Residential Price Index was up 0.4

By Peter Ricci If the housing downturn has accomplished anything, it’s given us a new perspective on data. Formerly obscure sets of data, from the Case-Shiller Home Price Indices to the monthly delinquency reports from CoreLogic, are now pivotal cues

By Peter Ricci The American Enterprise Institute strikes again! After being one of the first major research firms to call the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) finances into question, the Institute has published another analysis of the FHA’s books, and

By Peter Ricci Some of the nation’s top homebuilders, including PulteGroup and Lennar Corp., are finding a substantial revenue stream from an unlikely source – mortgage lending. Both builders, reports Bloomberg, have seen sizable returns from their in-house mortgage

The Bay Area office of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene presented a check for $65,000 to the Sunshine Kids Foundation on November 27 at the Bay Oaks Country Club Golf Course. The funds were raised at

By Peter Ricci The precipitous decline of mortgage interest rates has been one of the major stories in real estate in 2012, but recent actions by the Federal Reserve has some thinking that rates could fall even further in

By Peter Ricci In the last few years, there have been some big changes in Cuba. Fidel Castro is no longer in power, having passed the baton to his young brother Raul; citizens are allowed to purchase cell phones;

By Peter Ricci In its latest American Dream Survey, real estate website Trulia found that 93 percent of millennials who rent plan to purchase a home some day, and 72 percent of the entire demographic consider homeownership to be part of

By Peter Ricci The holiday season is often a strange one for real estate agents, many of whom are winding down their business for the year, closing up any loose ends from the summer homebuying season, or, for the

By Natalie Terchek Advertisements for Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene have been seen in magazines, newspapers and on television. But now, they can also be seen on the side of 12 public school buses that will

By Peter Ricci A new report from the Wall Street Journal is validating what many have been suspecting for months – President Obama is planning on replacing Acting Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Ed DeMarco by early next year, and

By Peter Ricci The for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) market is one of untapped potential, like an oil reserve that real estate agents haven’t quite reached yet. After all, these are consumers who are looking to sell their homes, but are not

Despite the continued economic uncertainty involving the fiscal cliff, consumers are increasingly confident about the U.S. housing market, as Fannie Found in its National Housing Survey for

By Stephanie Sims Wonder what Houston-area cities have the most closings? Here is a list of the top 10 cities by total transaction closings in

By Peter Ricci The Multifamily Production Index, the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) measure of builder sentiment in the apartment/condominium market, was positive again in the third quarter with an index level of 52. That’s the third straight

By Natalie Terchek The old Ben Milam Hotel will be imploded this Sunday at 12:30 p.m by demo firm, D.H. Griffin of Texas. The 10-story building across from Minute Maid Park will be replaced with a luxury residential complex,