Despite the greatest price increases in years, affordability has hardly budged from six year peaks and in many of the nation’s most expensive markets, it’s still rising. Read More »

Rising home values, affordable prices, pent up demand and fewer households underwater on there are motivating more American families to move more often. The average home buyer is expected to stay in a home only 13 years, down from a peak of 20 years in 2009. Read More »

Pocket listings-homes sold outside multiple listing systems-have become extraordinarily popular over the past year, creating a secondary residential market place that raises questions about the value and role of the Realtor-run MLS system that has dominated residential real estate for more than a century. Read More »

Distressed homes, foreclosures and short sales, which are sold at a discount and depress home values, have fallen to the lowest levels since 2009 and are still dropping, according to the latest November market reports. Fewer discounted distressed sales contribute to forecasts of improving prices in the new year. Read More »

High lending standards that make it virtually impossible for millions of younger, single home buyers to get a mortgage are creating an older, more married and wealthier population of homeowners. Read More »

The median downpayment made by all homebuyers in 2012 was 9 percent, ranging from 4 percent for first-time buyers to 13 percent for repeat buyers. The median down payment was the lowest since 2009 but still far above the levels during the housing boom, when nearly half of first-time buyers made no downpayment at all. Read More »

Difficulties getting financing are increasingly keeping first-time buyers from buying homes in spite of very affordable prices in most markets. One serious result has been a slowing of the absorption of foreclosures and short sales. Read More »

The “most popular measure” of existing home sales, the National Association of Realtors’ Existing Home Sales, has increasingly overstated home sales for ten years as measured by five other sources, and reached a level in 2010 that is 15 to 20 percent higher than actual sales, according to data provider CoreLogic, which made the charges in its US Housing and Market Trends Report. Read More »

The number of Americans who believe buying a home is a good financial decision has fallen every year since 2007 and reached a low of 77 percent this year, according to an annual survey released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors. Read More »

The flood of bad news on home sales took a breather in August as sales, inventories and prices all moved in the right direction, though all three metrics have a very long way to go to return to normal levels. Read More »