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 The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) has released the results of its Legislative Priorities Survey, an expansive look at how the Houston public feels on a number of housing-related issues at the federal, state and local levels.

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 Natalie Terchek An article by CultureMap says Houston arguably has the best overall real estate market in the nation right now. Residentially, sales are active, builders are constructing new houses and the inventory of homes for sale is

By Natalie Terchek Several Houston real estate companies were honored at the Nancy Owens Memorial Foundation luncheon on October 15 at the Westin Galleria for their philanthropic commitment to the foundation. Each donor gave more than $20,000 during the

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

By Peter Ricci Home prices increased 5 percent year-over-year in the CoreLogic Home Price Index, which is the biggest increase in more than six years for the index and the seventh straight month of yearly increases. Nationally, on a

By Peter Ricci Consumer sentiment towards the housing market has been gradually improving in Fannie Mae’s National Housing Surveys, and a new FindLaw survey has found that the situation is improving other notable ways. According to the FindLaw survey, which

By Peter Ricci Embattled GSE Freddie Mac reported a monster third quarter in its latest financial report, with a net income of $2.9 billion that will allow the firm to avoid drawing additional funds from the U.S. Treasury. It