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Whatever you just spent $50 on isn’t going to make you feel as good as spending $50 on Amazon’s Echo Dot. We’ve got no horse in this race other than trying to make your life more awesome. Trust us on this; go buy one. How do you know if a self-driving car sees you? One… Continue Reading Remarkable Technology For A Ridiculously Low Price, Cars That Smile At You, And More In Five For Wednesday

Repeat after me: you don’t necessarily need a 20 percent down payment to purchase a home. In the 35 year history of NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers – the longest-running survey series of national housing data – the average median down payment has been 5 percent for first-time buyers. Yet, when asked in… Continue Reading The Myth of the 20 Percent Down Payment. What You Should Know.

NAR Research produces a series of Local Market Reports (LMRs) which provide insights into the fundamentals and direction of the nation’s largest metropolitan housing markets. Each report evaluates a number of factors affecting home prices, including: The health of the local job market Foreclosure rates Housing inventory Debt-to-income and mortgage-servicing-costs-to-income ratios   The reports for… Continue Reading Market Snapshot: Second Quarter 2016

Lee Davenport By Lee Davenport I am a planner; so much so that I’m already planning for the New Year. But, I get it. You may not be a planner, and my admission may have made you cringe. So, just for you, I have eight questions that will help you win business in the next… Continue Reading Turn End-of-the-Year Busyness into Business

Since 1997, respondents of the Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers have had the option to choose as many or as few options for how they racially and ethnically identify themselves. Using this data, the ethnic and racial diversity of home buyers and sellers can be seen on a trending basis. The initial tracking of… Continue Reading Home Buyer and Seller Race and Ethnicity Trends

Delays in the time-to-close, the time from when a listing goes under contract to settlement of the deal, rose for the second consecutive month. Delays are measured by comparing the time-to-close this year with the same time frame a year earlier so as to eliminate seasonality. The average delay in time-to-close rose from 3.0 days… Continue Reading Settlement Delays Edge Upward

DeSouza John DeSouza, president of Cressy & Everett Real Estate, a brokerage with more than 190 sales associates in 10 offices in Indiana and Michigan, will talk about how his company combines traditional and digital marketing methods to win listings and be a regional leader in a webinar his company is sponsoring on Tuesday, Oct.… Continue Reading Sponsor Webinar: Marketing That Wins Listings, Differentiates Brand

One problem with interpreting data over time is that many data exhibits movements which recur during the same period each year. This is why it is normal to report in the news seasonally adjusted data figures to reveal the underlying trend in the market. The visualization above shows both seasonally and not seasonally adjusted existing… Continue Reading Comparison of Seasonally and Not Seasonally Adjusted Existing-Home Sales

At the national level, housing affordability is up from a year ago for the first time since February of 2015 when it improved 2.0 percent. Mortgage rates are 3.77 this July, which is the lowest rate since June 2013 when rates fell to 3.67. Housing affordability increased from a year ago in July pushing the… Continue Reading July 2016 Housing Affordability Index