News / Features

Why Pending Home Sales Continue to Decline

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), pending home sales declined for the fourth consecutive month in September, which the trade group says is due to higher mortgage interest rates and higher home prices, which have curbed buying

Residential Construction in Atlanta Tops $245 Million in September

September was a positive month for Atlanta’s residential construction sector. Residential construction in Atlanta topped $245 million in September, according to numbers that McGraw Hill Construction provided us. How did Atlanta compare with other metropolitan areas? See our graph

The Nation’s Top Cemetery Housing Markets – A Deathly Serious Affair

This is Halloween, and cemeteries and gravestones are among the most quintessential images of the season. But year-round, how many transactions are near these arguably creepy areas? We associate many images with Halloween: witches, jack-o-lanterns, vampires, werewolves, and of

Century 21 Creates New Website To Reflect Global Market

Century 21 Real Estate is one of the largest realty firms in the world – and now it has a website to match that status. The aptly-named century21global.com, which has been in operation for about a month, contains listings

Pending Home Sales Fall for Fourth Straight Month in September

New data from NAR shows that pending home sales continued their downward progression in September. Pending home sales fell once again in September, with the Pending Home Sales Index from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) falling 5.6 percent

Are We Really Recovering? Another View on Housing

There had been rumblings early on that there was more to the housing recovery than met the eye, and new data from NAR confirms those suspicions. Throughout 2013, there have been many positive developments in the housing market, and

Census Bureau: Construction Up 7.1% in August

Though it was delayed by the government shutdown, the Census Bureau’s numbers on construction spending were positive all the same. Well, it finally made it! Though delayed by three weeks because of the government shutdown, the Census Bureau’s latest

How Does a New Home’s Size Impact its Features?

We all wonder if size truly matters, but in the case of newly built single-family homes, the answer is clear. What percentage of newly built homes have an entry foyer? What if the home is less than 2,000 square

NAR: Existing-Home Sales Dip Slightly in September

Existing-home sales declined a bit from August to September, though housing inventory continued to show promising signs. After hitting their highest level in nearly four years, existing-home sales came back down to earth in September, declining 1.9 percent to

New Home Data Coming to the MLS

Builders Digital Experience, Inc. (BDX), a joint venture between Move, Inc. and Builder Homesite, Inc., announced this month a unique partnership with nine multiple listing services – including Chicagoland’s Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED) – to provide new home

NAHB: Builder Confidence Wanes Somewhat in September

Builder confidence had been on a tear recently, but new data from the NAHB suggests a cooling off period. Builder confidence for the newly built, single-family home market stumbled a bit in October, with the National Association of Home

How is Space Distributed in New Homes in 2013?

The components of new homes in 2013 are pretty consistent, but how is space distributed across those various components? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce the components of a typical newly built single-family home. From the family

So, About that Government Default – Should We Be Afraid?

We’re now two days away from a government default, an event that would spell nothing but trouble for the nation’s housing market. We’re now drawing uncomfortably close to a government default, and though we have written on a couple

Are Zombies & Vampires a Problem in Our Housing Market?

What are Vampire REOs and Zombie Foreclosures? And what problems do they pose for the housing market? Last week, we reported on the latest National Foreclosure Report from CoreLogic, and the news was uniformly good: foreclosure inventory was down a

How Affordable Will Housing Be When Rates Hit 7 Percent?

Housing affordability has been on the decline this year, but by how much? And what will affordability look like when rates increase? It’s been an interesting year in the world of housing affordability. Record low mortgage rates and competitively

5 Interesting Details about Janet Yellen, Obama’s Pick to Head the Fed

Janet Yellen, President Obama’s choice to head the Federal Reserve, brings a unique combination of the old and the new to the position. President Obama yesterday announced Janet Yellen as his choice to head the Federal Reserve and take

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