Are the numbers of first-time buyers shrinking, victimized by cash-bearing investors, credit-tight lenders mounting mortgage interest rates and soaring home prices? Are they “increasingly getting left behind in the real-estate recovery” as the Journal reported n July? Read More »

After rising since the beginning of the year, consumers’ outlook for home price increases plateaued in August – which has been trending upward- has hit a plateau, likely due to concerns regarding the potential tapering of the Federal Reserve’s asset purchases, according to Fannie Mae’s August 2013 National Housing Survey. Read More »

Vacation property rentals outpaced hotels this summer as owners enjoyed strong bookings that were as good as or better than last year. Read More »

Though three million homeowners were freed from the shackles of negative equity in the past year, it will take at least four more years for 7 million or more deeply indebted homeowners to reach positive equity, even as home values continue their current pace of recovery. Read More »

The share of consumers who believe interest rates will go up over the next year increased another 5 percentage points to 62 percent, the highest level in the three-year history of Fannie Mae’s July 2013 National Housing Survey. Read More »

Nearly half of all sellers in a recent survey are worried that rising mortgage rates will tank buyer demand, a doubling of concern since the first quarter. Read More »

In response to a June 27 Real Estate Economy Watch article asserting that for the first time since the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing began tracking upper tier market trends in 2008, its Market Action Index hit the threshold that separates buyer’s and seller’s markets earlier this month, ILHM Founder Laurie Moore-Moore points out that he luxury segment has actually been LEADING the recovery for more than a year. Read More »

Luxury sales have turned the real estate economy on its head. Just a few months ago, sales were shaped like a pyramid, with demand greatest for lower priced properties. Now sales of high priced homes are leading the recovery. Read More »

The boomlet in foreign purchase of US residential property is apparently over. Purchases by international buyers fell 17 percent last year, down approximately $14 billion from the previous Read More »

As the spring home buying season transitions into summer, month-over-month inventories are rising faster than they were as sellers respond to price increases at a faster pace than earlier in the buying season. On a national basis, both list prices and Inventories rose in last month, according to Realtor.com’s May data. Read More »