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The 1.8 percent decline in existing-home sales in June should come as no surprise if you closely follow NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, which have declined for three straight months. Activity has been weaker lately because prospective buyers continue to struggle overcoming the severely restricted inventory conditions and consequent run-up in home prices. As NAR… Continue Reading An Early Summer Cooldown for Housing
Photo courtesy Shannon Dittmann Article Submitted by Fixr.com The basement doesn’t just have to be a space to throw all of that extra storage. Show it as usable space, and it may even help you increase the value of the home. Basement remodels typically recoup about 70 percent of their costs at time of resale, which can… Continue Reading 5 Ideas to Increase the Value of a Basement
Libraries, technology, home buying and selling, side hustles, innovation, social media, and fandom. Have you ever seen a more beautiful library? It’s always fun to see what past generations expected for the future. At the height of summer, it’s hard to imagine being without the luxury of air conditioning. Necessity is the mother of invention!… Continue Reading What We’re Reading: July 17-21
WASHINGTON (July 20, 2017) – The National Association of Realtors® today said that significant improvements to the “21st Century Flood Reform Act,” key legislation aimed at strengthening and reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program, have cleared the way for endorsement of the bill. Among the changes, Realtors® support the House Financial Services Committee’s commitment to retaining… Continue Reading Realtors®, House Financial Services Committee Reach Agreement to Move Key Flood Insurance Legislation Forward
Meet the real estate tech companies providing promising tools to brokers, agents, and their clients. NAR and Second Century Ventures recently announced the new REach® Class of 2017, featuring a roster of startups focused on security, process digitization, information transfer, and more. Learn about this year’s class: Adwerx: A digital advertising company for real estate… Continue Reading Tech Companies You Need to Know
In 1981, 22 percent of home buyers relied on advertisements in the newspaper to find their dream home, while 8 percent turned to a friend for word-of-mouth information. Since then, lots has changed. According to recent survey data from the National Association of Realtors®, nearly half of buyers headed to the internet as the first… Continue Reading Net Neutrality Action Puts Real Estate Technology in Focus
Below is NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun’s reaction to this morning’s U.S. Commerce report of a June rebound in housing starts: “Though a recovery in housing starts in June is welcome news, more consistent gains are needed to help rebalance the housing market. The latest 1.22 million in total housing starts is still well below… Continue Reading Instant Reaction: June Housing Starts
WASHINGTON (July 18, 2017) – Fueled by a substantial increase in sales dollar volume from Canadian buyers, foreign investment in U.S. residential real estate skyrocketed to a new high, as transactions grew in each of the top five countries where buyers originated. This is according to an annual survey of residential purchases from international buyers… Continue Reading Foreign U.S. Home Sales Dollar Volume Surges 49 Percent to Record $153 Billion
Reports of delayed appraisals and rising appraisal costs flourished in 2016. In this article, we try to shed light on potential paths the industry might take moving forward given trends in demographics, training, and automation. This analysis suggests that while industry constraints may improve in the short-run, the long-term constraints are significant. Furthermore, neither expanded… Continue Reading The Future of Appraisal: It’s Not Simple
At the national level, housing affordability is down from last month and down from a year ago. Mortgage rates increased to 4.01 percent this May, up compared to 3.83 percent a year ago. Housing affordability declined from a year ago in May moving the index down 5.4 percent from 161.8 to 153.0. The median sales… Continue Reading May 2017 Housing Affordability Index