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Home Owner News Archive
RISMEDIA, January 18, 2011—In most areas of the country, it’s the time of year where you’re making frequent visits to your heat dial, to turn it up. Many homes, both new and not-so-new, have an oil-heating system working hard on the far side of that thermostat.
RISMEDIA, January 18, 2011—(MCT)—The housing industry is girding for a fight in Congress to protect the mortgage interest deduction, along with a number of other housing-related tax breaks. The National Association of Home Builders is putting a high priority on lobbying in favor of
RISMEDIA, January 18, 2011—(MCT)—Homebuilders are thinking smaller. They've cut the average size of new houses and expect it to shrink more over the next few years. "Most builders will build smaller and lower-priced homes in 2011," said Rose Quint, a researcher with the National
RISMEDIA, January 15, 2011—Everyone involved in a short sale has some accountability for successes and failures at each stage of the process. Regardless of where fingers are currently pointing, there’s good reason for real estate agents to take a long, hard look at whether they’re helping or hindering progress. Just two years ago, short sales were a niche market. Only a fraction of homeowners in distress were even aware of foreclosure alternatives, let alone that there were agents trained to assist them.
RISMEDIA, January 15, 2011—The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development awarded nearly $127 million in grants to 48 local projects to conduct a wide range of activities intended to protect children and families from potentially dangerous lead-based paint and other home health and safety hazards. The grant funding will clean up lead and other health hazards in more than 11,000 homes, train workers in lead safety methods, and increase public awareness about childhood lead poisoning.
RISMEDIA, January 14, 2011—(MCT)—Fewer Californians grappled with foreclosure last year, bucking a national trend and giving homeowners fresh hope that the state's housing market could be on the mend. The 14% drop in foreclosure activity contrasted with a 2% rise nationally,
RISMEDIA, January 14, 2011—(MCT)—Housing will rebound moderately in 2011, economists at the International Building Show here are predicting, and should gain even more steam in 2012. But the recovery in home building and home sales will vary widely from one part of the country to another, with the states that had the most success during the boom times of the past decade being the last to come back from their historic bust, according to an analysis from the Portland Cement Association, a national trade group.
RISMEDIA, January 13, 2011—RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties, released its Year-End 2010 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows a total of 3,825,637 foreclosure filings—default notices, scheduled auctions and
RISMEDIA, January 13, 2011—The Appraisal Institute released helpful tips for consumers, providing guidance for homeowners and buyers seeking to ensure their sales are completed in a timely manner.
As one of the nation’s largest professional associations of real estate appraisers, the Appraisal Institute created the helpful tips to let consumers know how to protect themselves and how to avoid unnecessary frustration when selling or buying a home.
RISMEDIA, January 12, 2011—CoreLogic, a leading provider of information, analytics and business services released its November 2010 Home Price Index (HPI) which shows that home prices in the U.S. declined for the fourth month in a row. According to the CoreLogic HPI, national
RISMEDIA, January 12, 2011—As leisure travel continues to rebound, owners of vacation rentals are expressing optimism about their bookings in 2011. In fact, HomeAway, Inc.—one of the world's leading online vacation rental marketplaces—finds in its latest "HomeAway Vacation Rental
RISMEDIA, January 11, 2011—The federal tax credit extension, coupled with an uptick in seasonal buying, helped keep the real estate market on its tracks in the first two quarters of 2010, according to RE/MAX of New England. Single-family home sales across New England showed the
RISMEDIA, January 11, 2011—Winter's chill pervades much of the nation, and escalating gas prices are putting their own chill down the spines of U.S. consumers. But until the spring thaw arrives, simple energy-efficiency steps at home and on the road—potentially supplemented by federal income tax credits for specific energy-efficiency home improvements—can take the sting out of high energy bills, says the Alliance to Save Energy.
RISMEDIA, January 10, 2011—(MCT)—In former home-building hot spots, the housing bust has created a new kind of declining city, different from the nation's traditional rusting centers of industry that could languish for years.
RISMEDIA, January 8, 2011—The Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 created new declining cities, and posed further difficulties for cities already in decline. Some cities may not re-attain home price peaks for many years, and we could see some neighborhoods cease to be viable economically, according to a study recently released from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
