By Peter Ricci You know the message is good when even the Wall Street Journal reports it – real estate in the U.S. has been doing pretty good in 2012. Recent government reports were notable for their optimistic tone, home values

By Peter Ricci The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) has yet to release its official data on June home sales, but if early reports are to be believed, it seems we’re poised for yet another strong performance from the

By Peter Ricci It’s the ever-present question on everyone’s mind, right up there with the meaning of life and the purpose of the Higgs Boson – what DO homebuyers want, in today’s real estate market? All kidding aside, it’s

By Stephanie Sims With zombies trending lately, in pop culture and several times in the news scarily enough, perhaps your clients have wondered aloud whether or not they should buy a property that would defend against any future apocalyptic

Wells Fargo is shutting down its wholesale lending business as part of a broad settlement with the Justice Department for a discriminatory lending lawsuit. The San Francisco-based bank will also pay borrowers $125 million to settle claims and commit $50 million

By Peter Ricci Houston was one of 11 new metros added to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) in May, which now totals 84. The NAHB adds cities to the IMI when housing permits, employment

It was seven years ago that ICANN, the nonprofit that oversees top-level domain names, announced it would allow new domain names in addition to .com, .net and .org, and this summer, it was revealed that the National Association of

After a few months of relative quiet, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) made considerable waves on Monday with its released of a 1,099-page rule detailing its new standards for mortgage disclosure forms. Intended to simplify the process for

By Peter Ricci Area officials, firemen and residents were on hand Friday to help break ground on a new Lake Conroe Fire Department station in Woodforest, a master-planned community spearheaded by The Johnson Development Corp. Actual construction of the

By Peter Ricci Zillow was in the news yesterday when Inman News reported that the syndication site had contacted 50 or so MLSs at the end of June about establishing direct IDX feeds. Though Zillow maintains secondary feeds through ListHub, which initially

By Peter Ricci Short sales have become increasingly common in the post-bubble economy, and indeed, the list of agents who have successfully adapted their businesses to short sales is long and varied. Though some have found quite a bit

By Peter Ricci Maybe it’s the patriotic Fourth of July fervor, but two new government reports on housing are quite optimistic, with both President Obama’s Housing Scorecard and Fannie Mae’s latest National Housing Survey finding quite a bit to

Chief Economist for Fannie Mae Doug Duncan released a statement today that said housing market activity is on a steady incline toward improvement, “well ahead of last year’s pace.” Duncan’s statement coincides with Fannie Mae’s recent findings in their

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

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.

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