Michael Crist

First-time buyers accounted for 32 percent of all buyers of existing homes in December 2017, also the full-year average, according to the December 2017 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey.[1] Compared to 2016, the share held steady, even as home prices continued to increase at a much faster pace than income and as mortgage rates rose somewhat.… Continue Reading Share of First-time Buyers Held Steady at 32% in 2017 as Home Prices Continue to Increase under Tight Supply

NAR released a summary of existing-home sales data showing that housing market activity this December fell 3.6 percent from last month but modestly rose 1.1 percent from last year. December’s existing home sales reached 5.5 million seasonally adjusted annual rate. This would be the highest annual rate in the last 11 years. The national median… Continue Reading December 2017 Existing-Home Sales

When I’m working on stories for REALTOR® Magazine, it’s not uncommon for my interview subjects to offer supplemental reading that might help round out my reporting. But rarely am I told that a book could change my thinking entirely on a given subject. So when the Incremental Development Alliances’ John Anderson (whom I interviewed in… Continue Reading Wake Up Call for the Development Industry

By Audra Slinkey, Home Staging Resource A lot of people don’t realize just how much home stagers do for their clients. Certified professional home stagers are true artists and will go to great lengths to get that “right look,” as well as help seller’s maximize the return impact on the sale of their home. Here are… Continue Reading Stagers Who Stand Ready to Transform Properties

A company called Zenplace in San Francisco is using robots to help its agents conduct showings. When people arrive at the unit, they’re greeted by what amounts to an iPad on a mobile stand that leads them around, but it’s personalized; it’s the agent’s image and voice that people see and hear. Other companies are coming… Continue Reading Robots are Starting to Do Showings

Micro-Progress, shopping, design, niches, Tide Pods, materials, food, and networking. 1. Find article to share. 2. Copy link. 3. Write line about article. 4. Create hyperlink. 5. Progress achieved! Brick and mortar with a twist from the company that moved so much shopping online. Speaking of twists, these buildings and bridges wind and wander. There’s… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: January 22-26

The following is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s reaction to this morning’s U.S. Commerce Department release on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the fourth quarter: “The economy expanded at a respectable rate of 2.3% in 2017. That’s a good comeback considering a very weak start of only 1.2% growth in the first quarter. The housing market… Continue Reading Instant Reaction: 2017 Q4 GDP

Matt Clements By Matt Clements I love January. It’s the time when everything seems possible and the new year opens up new opportunity. I’m especially excited because my baby boy turned 1-year-old this week! He’s the light of anyone’s day, and the poop diapers mean nothing when I see that wonderful smile. Truly, I “replaced… Continue Reading Tackling Big Issues in the New Year

If you’ve tried to explain net neutrality rules to someone and wound up being a little too abstract, here’s how to explain it with hamburgers. Budweiser has switched all of its U.S.-based brewing to 100% renewable energy. Is this equivalent to taking 10,000 cars off the road? 20,000? 30,000? Find out just how many. Apple’s… Continue Reading Net Neutrality Explained With Burgers; Clean Energy Through Beer; More in Five for Wednesday