Jun 05
Lower Sales Bit into REALTOR® Paychecks The decline in sales took a chunk out of overall business activity for REALTORS® as well as their incomes in 2014, shows the newly released 2015 National Association of REALTORS® Member Profile. “Existing-home sales didn’t surpass year-over-year levels until October, which is likely the reason the typical member …
Jun 04
Home Owners See Solar, Wind in Their Future The preferred energy sources for the future of U.S. homes may be solar and wind, according to a new survey conducted by SolarCity, a solar installer, and Clean Edge, a marketing research firm. Of the approximately 1,400 home owners surveyed, half identified solar energy as the most important …
Jun 03
Amp Up Your Website’s Homepage Appeal Is your website’s homepage doing enough to interest buyers and sellers to contact you? Too many websites fail to maximize the power of their homepage, even though it’s often the most visited page to their website, according to a recent article at Forbes.com by contributor Neil Patel, …
Jun 02
Your Sellers May Need Reality Check on Price Your clients likely are overly optimistic about the value of their home, a new study finds. Home owners tend to overestimate the value of their properties by about eight percent, according to a study published in the Journal of Housing Economics. Researchers say that the …
Jun 01
Proof That Buyer Demand Is Strong For the fourth consecutive month, pending home sales were on the rise, with contract signings climbing to the highest level since May 2006, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ Pending Home Sales Index. All four major regions of the U.S. posted increases last month, …
May 29
The Nation’s Top 10 Seller Markets Tight for-sale inventories are bringing out the competition in several markets, as buyers bid up prices above asking prices. Out of 315 counties (with populations of at least 100,000 and at least 100 sales), 85 – or 27 percent – saw homes sell on average for at …
May 28
Congress Urges Delay on New Mortgage Rules About 300 lawmakers from both the House and Senate have waged a bipartisan effort urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to offer a “grace period” for lenders to comply with a new mortgage disclosure rule that is slated to take effect Aug. 1. Lawmakers sent letters last …
May 27
Home Sales Cooled Off This Spring Existing-home sales slowed in April, with all major regions of the country – except the Midwest – experiencing declines as buyer demand continues to far exceed the number of homes for-sale, according to the National Association of REALTORS® latest housing report. Total existing-home sales – reflecting completed transactions for …
May 26
Single-Person Households Are on the Rise A century ago, fewer than six percent of all households consisted of people who lived alone. By 2013, that percentage has jumped to 28 percent, with single-person households now making up the second most common household type just behind married couples without minor children (at 29 percent), according …
May 22
Owners Place High Value on Good Yards Don’t underestimate the importance of a beautiful yard to home owners and their neighbors. 84 percent of adults say that the quality of a home’s landscape and yard would affect their decision on whether to purchase a home or not, according to a new survey of …
May 21
Builders Pick Up Pace to Meet Rising Demand New-home construction is on the upswing: Housing starts climbed last month to the highest level in nearly seven and a half years, and building permits for future construction also reached a seven-year high, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Nationwide housing starts rose 20.2 percent to a seasonally …
May 20
It’s Becoming Easier to Get a Mortgage Lenders are showing signs of loosening up when it comes to home buyers seeking a mortgage. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index ticked up slight in April, following an increase the previous month too. Increases in the index are indicative of an overall loosening of …
