“Doubled-up” homes, or, homes that include at least one additional adult who is neither a student nor the homeowner’s spouse/partner, decreased by 0.4 percent in 2011, though the total number of doubled-up homes remains far above its 2007 totals.

The National Association of Realtors has responded to a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury for input on recommendations for selling real estate

August home sales defied seasonal trends and rose 18 percent from last year, according to new data from RE/MAX. Historically, June is the highest-selling summer month, but in 2011, both July and August exceeded June’s sales

LGI Homes, a Texas builder with operations in Houston, had a record-breaking August with 84 closings, a 47 percent increase over July. Ironically, July in itself was a record month for the developer, when it sold 57 properties. August

The seemingly never-ending debate on housing policy continued on Wednesday in Washington, as economists and policy analysts from a myriad of organizations testified before a Senate subcommittee on what to do about housing, particularly the 11 million borrowers who

Prudential Gary Greene, Realtors announced its new Multicultural-International Real Estate Division today. The division will be focused on servicing the needs of Houston’s growing multicultural population. “With the Asian and Hispanic population growing at three times the rate of

KeepSum, a website that attempts to bring the same bright, zany style of the gloriously successful Groupon to real estate, has just formally launched, beckoning Realtors to “save some, keep sum.” Functioning more on a business-to-business basis than business-to-consumer,

Consumer confidence is the name of the game for recently-implemented laws in Texas, which place new rules and restrictions on several areas of real estate with more to follow in 2012. The product of two laws passed earlier by

Early reports on Augusts’ Year Over Year (YOY) forecast have lead to competing forecasts between financial and economic analysts. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimated that home sales this July ran at a SAAR of 4.67 million, a

Pop star Rihanna is a good girl gone bad – at least when Beverly Hills real estate is concerned. The chart-topping singer is suing Prudential California Realty, the company that sold her a 10,000-square-foot mansion for $6.9 million in

Housing experts were none too kind to President Obama after his non-specific mention of housing in a major jobs speech last week, but it appears that his jobs bill, the more heavily promoted policy of the speech, does contain aid

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), in collaboration with the city of Houston, is launching the “Houston Historic Districts Homefinder,” a new MLS that allows homebuyers to search for homes in a decidedly historical manner. “As a potential homebuyer,

Freddie Mac has finalized requirements on a new “Standard Modification,” a loan modification program for delinquent homeowners who did not meet requirements for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Officially launching in January, the new program will begin

The Market Composite Index, a study of mortgage loan application volume that is compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, rose 6.3 percent last week, bouncing back from a disappointing 4.9 percent decline the week before. Despite historically-low interest rates, mortgage

Keeping track of expense reports can be a grueling and time-consuming process. This was a particular problem for Tia Alexander, owner of the Texas real estate agency, the Crane Group. Alexander, who regularly accumulates massive amounts of receipts in

September is the National Association of Realtor’s “Realtor Safety Month,” and to coincide with the month, real estate website AgentGenius conducted surveys and interviews to assess Realtor safety in 2011. The site’s findings were both frightening and educational. Andrew