The National Association of Realtors has responded to a request from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury for input on recommendations for selling real estate

August home sales defied seasonal trends and rose 18 percent from last year, according to new data from RE/MAX. Historically, June is the highest-selling summer month, but in 2011, both July and August exceeded June’s sales

The seemingly never-ending debate on housing policy continued on Wednesday in Washington, as economists and policy analysts from a myriad of organizations testified before a Senate subcommittee on what to do about housing, particularly the 11 million borrowers who

KeepSum, a website that attempts to bring the same bright, zany style of the gloriously successful Groupon to real estate, has just formally launched, beckoning Realtors to “save some, keep sum.” Functioning more on a business-to-business basis than business-to-consumer,

Corcoran Consulting and Coaching announced that 43 of its clients were listed in the Thousand Top Real Estate Professionals national awards, sponsored by the Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends. The 43 clients, categorized as individual sales professionals or

Early reports on Augusts’ Year Over Year (YOY) forecast have lead to competing forecasts between financial and economic analysts. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimated that home sales this July ran at a SAAR of 4.67 million, a

Pop star Rihanna is a good girl gone bad – at least when Beverly Hills real estate is concerned. The chart-topping singer is suing Prudential California Realty, the company that sold her a 10,000-square-foot mansion for $6.9 million in

Housing experts were none too kind to President Obama after his non-specific mention of housing in a major jobs speech last week, but it appears that his jobs bill, the more heavily promoted policy of the speech, does contain aid

Freddie Mac has finalized requirements on a new “Standard Modification,” a loan modification program for delinquent homeowners who did not meet requirements for the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). Officially launching in January, the new program will begin

The Market Composite Index, a study of mortgage loan application volume that is compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association, rose 6.3 percent last week, bouncing back from a disappointing 4.9 percent decline the week before. Despite historically-low interest rates, mortgage

September is the National Association of Realtor’s “Realtor Safety Month,” and to coincide with the month, real estate website AgentGenius conducted surveys and interviews to assess Realtor safety in 2011. The site’s findings were both frightening and educational. Andrew

Continuing in its goal of creating universal lending documents for the mortgage industry, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has begun a fourth round of product testing this week, focusing on two different loans that appear on the same

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the major delinquency rates for multifamily units fell in four of the five major investor groups, which includes FDIC-insured banks, life insurance providers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The rates

According to analysts at Barclays, a global financial services provider, the new housing plans recently announced by President Obama amount to a revamp of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), not an all-out expansion. Fears over the President’s comments

New historically-low interest rates, positive builders indexes, and speculation and analysis of President Barack Obama’s housing policies were some of the top national stories this week on Chicago Agent magazine’s

Federal loan limits are set to decline on Oct. 1, and New York Congressman Gary Ackerman, along with 36 other lawmakers, is lobbying to stop that from