By Joe Van Acker Turns out, girls just wanna…count the homeless. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is partnering with ’80s pop icon and Grammy Award-winner Cyndi Lauper to determine the size and characteristics of the country’s

By Peter Ricci The Houston real estate market concluded a rousing 2012 with yet another strong month of home sales in December, with single-family home sales increasing 11.4 percent year-over-year and marking the 19th straight month of positive home

By Peter Ricci Home prices increased 7.4 percent from November 2011 to November 2012 in the lastest CoreLogic HPI, which is the ninth straight month of year-over-year home price increases and the strongest showing from home prices since May

By Joe Van Acker United Real Estate continues to grow as it welcomes Legé Properties into its Houston office. The move brings the branch to 100 agents and is the latest sign of solid growth for the

By Peter Ricci First-time homebuyers, as any agent knows, are one of the most important demographics to a healthy real estate market, and the increasing market share of first-time homebuyers has been one of the many positive developments of

By Peter Ricci Total home sales increased 6 percent in 2012 over 2011 according to the January MarketPulse report from CoreLogic, a wide-ranging analysis of the housing market that anticipated good things for the real estate industry in 2013.

By Joe Van Acker Buyers enjoyed unprecedented buying power last year, according to the National Association of Realtor’s Housing Affordability Index. Cruising past 2011’s record figure of 186, the index is expected to reach an all-time high of 194

By Peter Ricci Real estate is often considered the last truly “free” market in the U.S. economy, a sector that, unlike agriculture, manufacturing, education or health care, has avoided the influence of government to grow and prosper – or has it?

By Peter Ricci Well, it’s finally happened. After months of speculation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finally announced its qualified mortgage standards, which are the new, defining lending guidelines for the nation’s

By Peter Ricci Proponents of renting have often argued that renting is less expensive that owning, and admittedly, the argument makes sense; after all, renters do not have to worry about repairs, insurance or property taxes, among the other

By Peter Ricci The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Improving Markets Index, a key measure of the housing markets in the U.S.’ largest metropolitan areas, rose for the fifth consecutive month in January, increasing to a total of 242

By Peter Ricci Houston is known as the “Bayou City,” but if housing construction data from the Census Bureau for 2011 is any indicator, it should also be called the “Construction City.” Cheesy? Maybe.

By Peter Ricci Federal regulators put the finishing touches on an $8.5 billion mortgage settlement with 10 of the nation’s largest lenders earlier this week, with the majority of the funds going towards delinquent homeowners in danger of losing

By Natalie Terchek Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene has partnered with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals-Houston Chapter (NAHREP-Houston) to help empower the Hispanic community through education and guidance by real estate

By Joe Van Acker Move over, Beantown – Houston bumped Boston from its No. 4 spot in the nation for real estate investment dollars in the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate’s (AFIRE) annual

By Peter Ricci Things have been looking up for the housing market heading into 2013, and we’re not just saying that because shadow inventory is falling, home sales at their highest mark in years and consumer confidence in the housing