May 29
Luxury Sales Heat Up Across the Country Luxury home sales, particularly sales of the priciest 1 percent of homes, are surging. Sales of the most expensive homes in many local markets are up 21.1 percent this year, after a 35.7 percent gain last year, the real estate brokerage Redfin reports in its 2014 “Luxury …
May 28
Maybe Staging Isn’t That Important… Staging may not be important and may not raise residential sales prices, according to researchers at the College of William & Mary. The study polled 820 home buyers who were shown a series of six virtual tours of a single property, each focusing either on wall color or furnishings. …
May 27
Townhouse Market Softens With Fewer First-Time Buyers Townhouse construction continues to slow, which likely is due to weakening demand from first-time home buyers, a segment of buyers who are typically are drawn to such housing units, according to a new analysis by the National Association of Home Builders. Single-family attached starts totaled 13,000 in …
May 23
More Home Owners Remodel to Raise Home’s Value Home owners are remodeling their homes to increase the value, but they also are showing more desire to stay and enjoy their remodels before they move on. Fifty-three percent of U.S. home owners say they are remodeling to increase the resale value of their home, but they …
May 22
Housing Affordability Slips, But Not Everywhere Housing affordability continued to fall across the country as the median price of single-family homes rose due to a continued lack of housing inventory, according to the latest National Association of REALTORS® Housing Affordability Index. The median single-family home price was $198,200 in March, up 7.4 percent from year-ago levels. …
May 21
Home-Price Appreciation to Slow Down Through 2016 Home values are expected to appreciate by 4.4 percent on average through the end of the year, but that rate will slow to 3.8 percent in 2015 and 3.4 percent in 2016, say 106 economists, real estate experts, and investment and market strategists surveyed by Pulsenomics …
May 20
Bank Repos on the Rise in 26 States RealtyTrac reports in its U.S. Foreclosure Market Report for April that foreclosure filings dropped 1 percent over the previous month. Despite the decrease, bank repossessions rose 4 percent that same month. The number of bank repossessions rose from the previous month in 26 states, and 16 states …
May 19
5 Property Management Mistakes “It doesn’t matter how good you are in the property management business, there’s always something you’re can get sued for,” Lori Burger, CPM and the Institute of Real Estate Management’s 2014 president-elect, said at a property management forum Thursday during the REALTOR® Party Convention & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C. Part …
May 16
Home Sales Struggle, But Improvement Seen Two years into the economic recovery, residential home sales are struggling. But because of demographic and other trends, long-term growth prospects remain good, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said Thursday at the REALTOR® Party Convention & Trade Expo. At the Residential Economic Issues & Trends Forum, Yun forecast …
May 15
Home Loan Demand Rises 3.6% Mortgage applications were on the rise this week as interest rates dropped to the lowest level in six months, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday in its weekly market survey. Mortgage applications, reflecting applications for home purchases and refinancing, rose 3.6 percent for the week ending May 9. Broken out, …
May 14
Demand Grows for Big-Screen Phones Bigger is becoming better with smartphones. Shipments worldwide of smartphones with screens 5 inches or larger have grown 369 percent in the first quarter compared to just a year earlier, according to Canalys, a market research firm. Big-screen smartphones comprised 34 percent of worldwide smartphone shipments in the first quarter. …
May 13
Builders See Growth in Master Communities Houston boasted the most housing starts in the nation last year, and one-third of those starts were in master planned communities (MPC), a growing sector for the homebuilding industry. In the U.S., the top 50 master planned communities captured 5.4 percent of new-home sales in 2013 – a 12 …
