Michael Crist

The REALTORS® Confidence Index (RCI)[1]  survey gathers monthly information from REALTORS® about local real estate market conditions, characteristics of buyers and sellers, and issues affecting homeownership and real estate transactions.[2] This report presents key results about market transactions from April 2019. View and download the full report here. Market Conditions and Expectations The REALTORS® Buyer… Continue Reading REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey: April 2019 Highlights

By Rob Reuter During the 2019 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo—where more than 9,000 REALTORS® converged on the nation’s capital—Tuesday, May 14 was YPN day for members involved in the network. It began with the YPN Advisory Board meeting from 1-2:30 p.m. where the 20-member board convened to discuss progress on its goals since… Continue Reading D.C. Meetings Showcase YPN’s Incredible Growth

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this April, modestly fell 0.4 percent from March 2019. April’s sales of existing homes dropped 4.4 percent from April 2018. April’s existing-home sales reached a 5.19 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $267,300… Continue Reading

By Jennie Morris, International Association of Home Staging Professionals In the beginning, home staging was mostly focused on sprucing up vacant properties. In the late 1990s to early 2000s, when staging first started to gain traction, stagers and real estate professionals tended to have limited furniture resources and focus on “vignette staging.” Vignette staging is… Continue Reading Vignette Staging Doesn’t Cut It Anymore: Here’s Why

By Matt Clements Your number one source of funding and the best investor in your Young Professionals Network is your local association. The CEO/AE should be your partner for your YPN. Think about it. The association needs new leaders. Your group provides those people. The value of investment should be about $2,000 for smaller associations,… Continue Reading How to Ask for Money for Your YPN

Learning High Valyrian. Check out this dune roof in Amsterdam. Bear bribes guard dog–it’s a win-win for both animals. waterseas23/flickr/2010 We can all use tips on how to make meetings more productive. Now you can eat an emoji. The City of Baltimore computer system has been disrupted by ransomware.  Closings are being affected. Find out… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: May 13-17

On Thursday afternoon, the Research team presented the committee-directed redesigns and findings of several surveys and data projects to the Research Committee..  The purpose of the committee is to focus on market conditions in the real estate industry as well as developments in the general economy and to identify topics on which research and information… Continue Reading Research Behind the Scenes at the 2019 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo: Research Committee

On Thursday afternoon on May 15th, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun gave a commercial update to members.  In his update, Yun discussed opportunities and challenges facing the commercial market in the year ahead.   Brian Ball, Secretary of Commerce & Trade for the State of Virginia, spoke about the impacts of Amazon HQ coming to National… Continue Reading Research Behind the Scenes at the 2019 REALTORS® Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo: Commercial Economic Issues & Trends Forum