Today’s Marketplace | RISMedia

Rand on Real Estate: Mixed Messages from the Housing Market Data

The business media is beginning to take housing market analysis seriously. The FOX Business Network is introducing another new housing segment called "Number Crunch," which will attempt to make sense of all the crazy housing numbers that get released every month. ...

Home Prices Up 0.3 percent in November; Price Increase Expected to Continue

The latest FNC Residential Price Index™ (RPI) shows that the recovery of U.S. property values has continued through November—the ninth consecutive month of price gains driven largely by rising homes sales and moderate economic growth. An imbalance between rising demand and limited supply continues to be an important factor for sustained price momentum. While signs of market recovery have instilled confidence and driven up demand as potential homebuyers take advantage of low prices, the supply of homes for sale has been constrained due to rising homeowners’ expectations about a continued price increase in many fast-rising markets.

Housing Affordability Index to Set Annual Record for 2012

With 11 months of data reported, 2012 will clearly go down as a record year for favorable housing affordability conditions, and a great year for buyers who could get a mortgage, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR's national Housing Affordability Index stood at 198.2 in November, based on the relationship between median home price, median family income and average mortgage interest rate. The higher the index, the greater the household purchasing power; recordkeeping began in 1970. An index of 100 is defined as the point where a median-income household has exactly enough income to qualify for the purchase

Qualified Mortgage/Ability to Repay Rule: MBA and ICBA Supportive

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has formally released its qualified mortgage (QM) definition and Ability-to-Repay rule, and financial organizations across the board are responding. In a recently released statement, the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) noted that it is encouraged that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) final rule on consumers’ ability

Thinking Big, Living Small: Real Estate Magazine Explores the Micro-home Movement

With the market picking back up, many new buyers are entering the fold. For some, the appeal of a massive home with all of the latest bells and whistles

Housing Recovery Set to Continue

Clear Capital recently released its Home Data Index™ (HDI) Market Report with data through December 2012. Using a broad array of public and proprietary data sources, the HDI Market Report publishes the most granular home data and analysis earlier than nearly any other index provider in the industry. Report highlights include: • Home prices in 2012 finished the year strong, boosted off the market lows of early 2012. • December's quarterly trends were mostly flat, indicating potential fiscal cliff and winter impact. • 2013 forecasts call for continued, moderate growth as some potential buyers get priced out of the market.

Remodelers Forecast a Bright 2013

National Association of the Remodeling Industry’s (NARI) fourth-quarter Remodeling Business Pulse data of current and future remodeling business conditions has experienced significant growth

Builders Target Families with Multiple Generations under One Roof

(MCT)—Viewed from the street, the single-family home at the entrance to Lennar’s Traditions at Bella Casa community looks just like any of the homebuilder’s other models. Until you spot the second door. From the home’s porch, visitors have the choice of entering into the main home or a side door that leads to a 500-square-foot suite. The suite, which has all the amenities of a second private residence, is the latest—and most emphatic—attempt by a Triangle homebuilder to appeal to a growing demographic of buyers: those with multiple generations of family members living under one roof.

Study Shows More People Use Internet to Research Homes for Sale

Real estate-related searches on Google.com have grown 253 percent over the past four years, according to a joint study from the National Association of REALTORS® and Google. “These results parallel the trends shown in NAR’s economic research reports,” says NAR President Gary Thomas, broker-owner of Evergreen Realty in Villa Park, Calif. “As home sales and prices continue to trend up, more people are regaining confidence to invest in their future through homeownership.”

Fiscal Cliff Avoided: What it Means for Housing and Home Builders

The fiscal cliff, an economically damaging set of tax hikes and spending reductions scheduled to begin in 2013, has been avoided (for now) and that is good news for housing in the short-run. The enactment of H.R. 8, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, will extend permanently most, but not all, of the 2001/2003 tax cuts. The legislation prevents a fiscal drag of approximately $600 billion in 2013, which would have been large enough to push the current weak economy into recession. That in turn would have reduced demand for both owner-occupied and renter housing and threatened the ongoing recovery for home building.

Latest Study Shows Average Buyer Expected to Stay in a Home 13 Years

A recent article published by NAHB shows that, based on a long-run calculation that averages mobility tendencies over a number of years, the typical buyer of a single-family home can be expected to stay in the home approximately 13 years before moving out. This work updates a previous article that used data from the American Housing Survey (funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and conducted in odd-numbered years by the Census Bureau) through 2007.

Florida’s Housing Market Continues Upswing in November 2012

Regional Spotlight—Closed sales, pending sales, median prices and average prices rose in Florida’s housing market in November, while the inventory of homes and condos for sale shrunk, according to the latest housing data released by Florida REALTORS®. “The sizzle is back,” said 2012 Florida REALTORS® President Summer Greene, describing the state of Florida’s real estate market. “With home sales strongly trending up and the supply of homes for sale drying up, the market is hot. And we expect these trends to continue into 2013 with the jobs market improving, low mortgage rates continuing and consumer confidence getting stronger.”

Looking Confidently Ahead: Power Broker Predictions for 2013

Consumer confidence. Price appreciation. Multiple offers. Wait…is this real estate we’re talking about?! Like long-forgotten music to our ears, these are just some of the buzz words peppering the vernacular of the nation’s top brokers as they advance toward further recovery. Even though some significant obstacles still stand in the way—from potentially hazardous changes to housing-related policy to a still-sizeable foreclosure inventory—power brokers believe that positive momentum in 2013 will carry us over the bumps in the road.

November Existing-Home Sales and Prices Maintain Uptrend

Existing-home sales continued to improve in November with low inventory supply pressuring home prices, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. ...

Buyers Predict Home Prices Will Increase

Nearly three quarters of potential buyers believe home prices will increase in their neighborhood in the next twelve months, twice as many as in the first quarter. Despite forecasts that prices will increase less in 2013 than this year, buyers are more concerned by rising prices than the overall economy. Thirty-three percent of buyers listed rising prices as a major concern in the fourth quarter, up from just 23 percent in the third quarter. Meanwhile, 22 percent said they were concerned with a weak economy, down from 27 percent in the third quarter, according to the Redfin Real-Time Homebuyer Survey. From November 30 to December 2, 2012,

Real Estate Hot Topics

Profit Center: Real Estate Tips, Training & Events

RISMedia Solutions

RISMedia on the Go

Today's Featured Listing

Today’s Marketplace Archive