A Closer Look at February Existing-Home Sales Following Sustained Gains

RISMEDIA, March 23, 2011—Existing-home sales fell in February following three straight monthly increases, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing-home sales—completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops—dropped 9.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.88 million in February from an upwardly revised 5.40 million in January, and are 2.8 percent [...] READ MORE

Building Permits Rise in December 2010 as Builders Prepare for Anticipated Improvement in Buyer Demand

RISMEDIA, January 22, 2011—Nationwide housing starts declined 4.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 units in the final month of 2010, according to newly released figures by the U.S. Commerce Department. While this was the slowest pace of starts activity since October 2009, the year-end data indicate that production of new homes improved [...] READ MORE

Why Some Houses Sit While Other Houses Sell

In this video by Jay Papasan of Keller Williams Realty, the rationale behind why some houses sell and some don’t in today’s market is explored Although it’s not a very sophisticated explanation, it does bring an honest answer to what so many people have trouble warming up to: it’s about PRICE, and it’s about CONDITION.  There’s no [...] READ MORE

Atlanta property taxes: Values fall faster than tax bills

By David Wickert and John Perry The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (see the original article on ajc.com here) In 2009, an exclusive, in-depth investigation by the AJC found that amid the historic real estate collapse, many of us paid more in property taxes than we should have. Today marks the beginning of an eight-part series revealing [...] READ MORE

5 Predictions for 2011

Freddie Mac analysts point to five features that they believe will likely characterize the 2011 housing and mortgage markets: 1. Low mortgage rates. With Fed observers expecting the central bank to keep the federal funds rate at its current target range of 0 percent to 0.25 percent for most (or all) of 2011, relatively low mortgage [...] READ MORE