June Home Sales Drop Exposes Weakness In Fundamentals



Housing is still sick © ayelet_keshet - Fotolia.com

In the housing sector, a drop in home sales in June is as unexpected as congress voting themselves a pay cut. It simply never happens. Traditionally June is one of the best months of the year for home sales, but the fact that June sales numbers are down after several months of increases, tends to reinforce the fact that the underlying economic fundamentals continue to weaken.

Investors Hosting Housing Recovery Party



For sale

Investors, hand picking individual properties, working in groups, buying in bulk and smacking down all-cash deals like they won the Mega Millions Lottery, snatched up properties last year at an astounding pace, 64.5 percent greater in 2011 than 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

American Enterprise Institute Says NAR Is Ignoring FHA Insolvency



dsth

Created by congress during the great depression to help spur the housing market, FHA has become one of the most important institutions ever created to help fund mortgages for home buyers, especially for home buyers who want a home but have very little money to put down.

First-Time Buyers Keeping it Small



As first-time buyers begin their hunt for a home, a couple of priorities seem to dominate their thoughts more than anything else – keeping things small and affordable.

Existing Home Sales End Year on a High



home sales 2011

Existing home sales pulled off a late surge at the end of last year, growing by 5% in November to leave total home sales up by 1.7% from 2010’s levels, the third consecutive month in which the pace of sales had shown improvement.

NAR Admits Publishing Bad Existing Sales Data



NAR sales data

Real estate professionals and economists who paid close attention to the monthly existing-home sales data provided by the National Association of Realtors were given a sharp shock earlier this week. Last Tuesday it was revealed in the Chicago Tribune that the association had been consistently reporting bad figures each and every month since January 2007, [...]

Edina Realty Pull Plug on Trulia Listings Amidst War of Words



Edina Realty Home Services, the largest local residential real estate agents in Minnesota, and with offices in both Wisconsin and North Dakota, has announced that it is removing its listings from the popular Trulia.com and Realtor.com websites, in protest at “enhanced fees” that the two sites are asking real estate companies and agents to pay. [...]

Home Appraisals Continue to Derail Housing Markets



Home appraisals

Home appraisers are continuing to be an obstacle in the way of sales, with more than a third of real estate professionals blaming them for delaying or canceling proposed contracts in the first six months of this year. This marks a staggering increase of 29% on the number of deals blocked by appraisers in 2010, [...]

Young Adults are Moving Back Home



young adults stay at home

What with employments prospects looking ever gloomier for thousands of young adults across the nation, it’s little wonder that more of them are moving back in with mom and dad in an effort to cut housing costs. Recent data from the latest U.S. Census showed that young male adults in particular were finding moving back [...]

Realtors – What Do Your Website Videos Say About You?



realtor video

Individuals looking for a home vary in the tools they use, however the vast majority of them use the internet for their searches. According to the 2010 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the internet accounts for 74% of home searches and real estate agents account for another large share – 69%. Traditional advertising [...]