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Winter lovers and haters come together on the second day of February every year to see Punxsutawney Phil climb out of his hole and cast his prediction for how much longer before the snow and ice slowly makes way for green lawns and chirpy birds. Can a groundhog and his shadow also predict the direction [...]
In the monthly REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey, the National Association of REALTORS® asks members “In the neighborhood or area where you make most of your sales, what are your expectations for residential property prices over the next year?” Among the REALTOR® respondents who responded to the December 2017 survey, the median expected price change for [...]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has reinstated its prior holding that payments for bona fide services provided and made at fair market value do not violate the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, or RESPA. This decision reinforces NAR’s support of marketing service agreements. NAR President Elizabeth Mendenhall applauded the decision and issued [...]
Tonight is the first blue moon since May 2016. How has the housing market changed since then? Check out this infographic from the National Association of Realtors®. Powered by WPeMatico
The following is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s reaction to the Federal Reserve’s decision today not to raise short-term rates, as well as how monetary policy the rest of the year will influence mortgage rates: “The Fed will not be on standby for the remainder of the year. A total of three short-term rate hikes are likely. [...]
Existing-home sales closed 2017 on a softer note, but the prospects for sales gains in the months ahead look brighter as contract activity edged higher in December for the third straight month. Visit https://www.nar.realtor/videos/housing-minute to watch a 52-second, animated video from the National Association of Realtors® summarizing how the housing market performed in December, as [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]