The national apartment market maintained its strong 2014 performance in June, as year-to-date effective rent growth continued to exceed that of any other post-Great Recession year, according to Axiometrics, the leading provider of apartment market research and data. June’s concession rate of 0.78% was the lowest in at least five years, annualized effective rent growth of 3.6% was the highest … Read More »

  Existing and new home sales have recovered somewhat since 2010, but as of April 30, existing home sales were about 10% below their 1999 level, and new home purchases were just half of what they were that year. In fact, single-family housing starts remain below those of any year before 2009 and are at about half the 1959 total. … Read More »

  While nearly half of Americans move for housing-related reasons (48 percent), the percentage has fallen from its peak of 52.8 percent in 2004.  Both job-related (19.4 percent) and family-related (30.3 percent) reasons have been on the rise over the past 15 years according to a report released today by the Census Bureau. Among the 36 million people 1 year … Read More »

It’s no secret that raising the cash for a down payment is the toughest hurdle first-time buyers face on the road to home ownership.  For many, government programs like FHA, USDA Rural Development guaranteed loans, VA loans and down payment assistance programs sponsored by state and local housing authorities have made all the difference. Yet requirements by lenders in the … Read More »

Consumers apparently have not gotten the news. They remain rosy about homeownership even though not enough of them are taking the plunge themselves. Read More »

  Past generations preferred to stick their savings in mattresses rather than the bank.  Current home buyers would rather pay with a wheelbarrow of cash rather than endure the hassles of taking out a mortgage While cash purchases are traditionally associated with investors, current homeowners have turned to cash in an effort to gain an advantage in the bidding process … Read More »

  April is supposed to be the month that real estate agents’ phones ring off the hooks, yard signs sprout like dandelions, buyers line up for showings and offers fall from the sky like cherry blossom petals. Above all, this was to be the spring season when at last all the stars were properly aligned in the real estate galaxy … Read More »

Daffodils, April showers, robins and a new crop of For Sale signs seem to be working their seasonal magic on home buyers.  The latest Fannie Mae survey, conducted in March, reports that the gloominess that shrouded buyers during the bitter winter months has melted away and attitudes are nearly as positive as they were a year ago. Consumers who said … Read More »

The bloom may be officially off the boom in investment sales as they declined in 2013 for a second straight year after soaring in 2011 at the height of the large foreclosure inventories. Investor purchases declined 15.9 percent last year from the 1.23 million sales peak set in 2011. Investment-home sales fell 8.5 percent to an estimated 1.10 million in … Read More »

Once solely the province of high end and celebrity markets like the San Francisco Bay area, Beverly Hills and Malibu, pocket listings now are increasingly popular in lower brow parts of the Chicago market, according to local RE/MAX broker/owners. The broker/owners of RE/MAX offices in Chicago, Buffalo Grove, Rockford and Belvidere, Ill. report an upswing in requests from clients for … Read More »