GLOZAL's Blog – April 2012 Archive (21)

Nearly six years after home prices started falling, more U.S. housing markets appear to be nearing a new phase: a prolonged bottom. Hitting a bottom, of course, isn't the same as a full-fledged recovery, which is still years off for many housing markets—as well as for millions of people who purchased homes or took cash out during the bubble.

The good news is that housing construction and home sales appear to have hit a floor. Home builders cut back heavily in the past four years and…

Pending sales of existing homes rose to their highest level in nearly two years in March, according to the National Association of Realtors' latest Pending Home Sales Index.

The index, which represents contracts signed but not yet closed, jumped a seasonally adjusted 4.1…

Last year, 10 percent of REALTORS® complained about receiving low-ball offers on listed homes — offers usually submitted by the buyer for 25 percent or more below the list price, according to a National Association of REALTORS® survey of its members. But that number has dropped drastically.  

According…

Home prices hit new post-bubble lows in February, according to a report out Tuesday.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities recorded a decline of 3.5% from 12 months earlier. Home prices have not been this low since November 2002.

"Nine [housing markets] hit post bubble…

Real estate agents earned a place on U.S. News and World Report's recent compilation of the best business jobs, alongside such other professions as human resources specialists and meeting, convention, and event planners.

In addition to putting the customer first and other tips, insiders say that staying…

Banks are agreeing to more short sales, and for the first time,  short sale transactions are exceeding foreclosure deals, according to the most recent housing data from Lender Processing Services (LPS) Inc. 

In January, short sales made up 23.9 percent of home purchases, according to…

Five years after the U.S. housing bust sent sales and prices plunging, the spring home-buying season is pointing to a long-awaited recovery.



Reduced prices, record-low mortgage rates, higher rents and an improving job market appear to be emboldening many would-be buyers. Open houses are drawing…

Appearance may matter when it comes to selling homes, at least according to researchers in a newly-published study in an industry journal, Applied Financial Economics. 

Physically attractive real estate agents — both on the listing and selling side — tend to sell homes for higher prices, the researchers…

Foreclosure filings are continuing to fall, dropping 2 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous quarter and are down 16 percent compared to the same time last year, RealtyTrac reports in its latest report. 

Foreclosure filings include default notices, scheduled…

More home buyers may jump off the sidelines this spring as they get more urgent about purchasing a home, fearing that home price and mortgage rate increases are on the horizon. 

Housing surveys in recent weeks have shown that more Americans are seeing now a great time to purchase a home.…

Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could save $1.7 billion more than current loss-mitigation approaches by reducing loan balances for some troubled homeowners, according to a preliminary analysis by the firms' federal regulator.

The findings presented Tuesday hinted at a potential shift in the position of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which until now has kept a hard line against forgiving debts of homeowners by maintaining that other types of loan modification are less…

High gasoline prices provided the trigger that burst the [housing] bubble,” says JunJie Wu, an Oregon State economist and one of the authors of a new study that blames high gas prices as the main culprit for the housing crisis that started in 2007. 

“The theory recognizes the role of…

More Americans are showing a preference for living closer into the city than the outer suburbs, according to newly released U.S. Census data. The annual rate of growth in American cities and surrounding urban areas recently surpassed exurbs for the first time in two decades.

Residential…

As demand increases, rents continue to rise, increasing 5 percent over the past 12 months. Meanwhile, the asking prices for homes fell 0.7 percent in that time, according to a new report released Thursday by Trulia Inc. 

“…

Some buyers are calling the vacation-home market the “perfect storm,” — falling home values, low mortgage rates, and increased affordability — which is prompting more opportunity in the second-home market.

The National Association of REALTORS® reported last week that vacation home sales…

Economists and real estate agents say entry-level home buyers are once again jumping into the market in time for the spring selling season, spurred by ongoing price declines and higher apartment rents. 

Reis Inc.,  a real-estate research firm,…

Koenig & Strey Real Living in Chicago started this week to charge potential home buyers a house-hunting fee for working with a real estate agent. The fees are common in some areas of the country and similar fee policies have been adopted by other HomeServices of America Inc. companies recently. But the fees…

Construction slowed dramatically in recent years but has been showing signs of picking up in pockets across the country. 

“There were a substantial number of projects deferred in 2008 and 2009 but those cases are much less so today, looking at 2010, 2011, and now in 2012,” says Robert Murray, vice president of economic affairs at McGraw Hill Construction, a construction data firm.

While construction has been increasing in recent months, it’s still far from its 2006 peak: New…

Real estate economists and analysts are increasingly optimistic that the housing market will have a dramatic recovery in the next two years, according to results of a new semi-annual survey of 38 real estate economists and analysts conducted by the Urban Land Institute’s Center for Capital Markets and…