News / Features
By Justin T. Hilley Market concern over the strength of the economic recovery took Treasury yields to new depths, causing both 30- and 15-year fixed-rate mortgages to continue tumbling to historic lows. The Freddie Mac survey showed 30-year FRM
By Joel Kotkin While the economy has been miserable for small businesses, and many larger ones as well, the ranks of the self-employed have been growing. According to research by Economic Modeling Specialists International, the number of people who
By AGBeat Recently, AG columnist Erica Ramus published an editorial entitled, “Realtor Party? Count Me Out,” which stirred passionate support from Realtors across the nation while simultaneously drumming up disagreement from local boards, state associations and the National Association
By Peter Ricci The National Association of Home Builders’ Builder Confidence Index hit its highest mark in five years in July, and based on second quarter home order stats from the nation’s largest builders, the source of such confidence
By Stephanie Sims HousingWire reported today that refinance activity has hit a three-year high, and mortgage applications increased 2 percent from last week, the highest levels since April of 2009. When Facebook founder and one of the world’s wealthiest
By Peter Ricci Pending home sales rose year-over-year for the 14th consecutive month in June, according to the latest Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors. A forward-looking index based on contract signings, the Pending Home Sales
By Peter Ricci New residential single-family home sales were up 15.1 percent in June year-over-year, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase comes a week after existing-home sales rose 7.9 percent from the year
By Peter Ricci Every week, it seems new analysts and business firms jump on the housing recovery bandwagon, calling the bottom for the embattled industry and looking forward to a brighter future. As housing moves forward, though, there are
Zillow joined the fray of optimism that has swept over real estate analysis the past few weeks with its latest Real Estate Market Report, stating that not only did housing values bottom in February of this year, but they
By Peter Ricci As everyone has probably heard by now, existing-home sales were a bit tepid in June, falling 5.4 percent from May according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors. The reason for the decline
By Peter Ricci It’s no mystery to anyone that follows the U.S. real estate market that foreign buyers are a major force. In the last year alone, international residential sales were $82.5 billion, a 24 percent increase from the
By Stephanie Sims With its recent announcement that it would stop wholesale lending, Wells Fargo has yet another announcement: the company will also start cutting its Realtor joint ventures that engage in mortgage banking activities due to regulation changes.
Existing-home sale price for all housing types rose 7.9 percent year-over-year in June in the National Association of Realtors’ latest housing report. It’s the fourth straight month of yearly price increases, a streak that has not occurred since 2006.
By Peter Ricci Nearly six in 10 respondents to the latest Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC) survey reported higher buyer interest in 2012, a 34 percent increase from 2011 and one of the strongest signifiers yet of greater
By Peter Ricci The presidential campaign season is one rife with rumors and myths, and during 2008, President Obama was the center of quite a few of them – that he was a Muslim, that he was sworn in
By Peter Ricci The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) posted notable gains in July, rising six points to its highest level since March of 2007. The six-point increase is the largest one-month gain for