Real Estate
Phoenix is a lesson in housing abuse. From boom to bust, to recovery to relapse, Phoenix housing is forever rising and falling, and now it is falling again. The rest of the nation should take notice. “We tend to be a little bit more extreme, more volatile than the rest of the country, but usually …
If San Francisco needs a new name in the zany plan to create six Californias, they might as well call it “Millionaireville.” According to DataQuick, the median home price in San Francisco in June hit the seven-figure mark for the first time. It was also the first time that any of the Bay Area-counties had hit the seven-figure median. Read …
The housing market is hot, thanks to favorable interest rates and home prices that remain relatively low around much of the country. According to the National Association of Realtors, pending home sales rose sharply in May, with lower mortgage rates and increased inventory pushing home sales upward in all four regions of the U.S. And …
Foreclosure activity has been falling steadily for the past few years as the housing market recovers, but the latest reading shows it has hit a new milestone. According to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure sales and analytics company, 107,194 U.S. properties had a foreclosure filing in June—the lowest level since July 2006, before the housing price bubble …
When the tech sector does well, so does the Silicon Valley housing economy. Josh Lipton is in Atherton, California where home prices are rising fast.
The nation’s home builders are clearly feeling better about the housing recovery. A monthly sentiment index from the National Association of Home Builders jumped 4 points in July to 53, finally crossing into positive territory; 50 is the line between positive and negative sentiment. “This is the first time that builder confidence has been above …
Mortgage rates are attractive. Home price gains are easing. Employment is improving. So why aren’t more people buying houses? Sales are rising slightly month-to-month but are still well below where they were last year. The answer is pretty simple: Too many people can’t afford to buy homes. “Despite this national slowdown in price gains, price …
Rates are not the driving factor for home sales. At least that’s what the correlation between rate moves and mortgage applications to purchase a home suggests. After several week-to-week declines in mortgage application, the numbers increased by 4 percent last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. So did mortgage rates. The MBA’s seasonally adjusted …
From the front lobby, it could easily be mistaken for a spa hotel—the blue wave lighting on the wall behind the concierge desk, the sleek sofas and flat screen monitors. But this is no hotel. It is student housing—millennial style—and it may be one of the best under-the-radar real estate plays of the decade. “This …
The listing of obscure items on online auction site eBay is nothing new, but one Italian seller has gone a step further, putting a whole Alpine village up for sale. The picturesque village of Calsazio, listed on eBay Italy, comes with a “Buy It Now” price tag of just 245,000 euros ($333,000). The village includes …
What might heat up the housing market in the second half of the year?
The spring recovery in home sales gained further ground in May. Signed contracts to buy existing homes surged 6.1 percent from April, as home prices began to ease slightly. This is the largest monthly gain since April 2010, just before the end of the popular first-time home buyer tax credit. Despite the monthly gain, the …
The cost of land in the nation’s hottest urban neighborhoods is only going up, and that has developers building up, higher, even when the new construction might not fit in with the old. The buildings have been nicknamed “pop-ups”—as tall as 65 feet, these modern rowhouses are springing up between smaller, historic homes. They stick …
The suburbs are over, and young people are flooding into big cities. That has been the growing consensus of builders, Realtors, urban planners and even environmentalists during this housing recovery. However, it just may not be true. Millennials are not flocking to big cities, at least according to newly released Census figures analyzed by Trulia’s …
Sales of new homes surged in May, rising by more than expected from the April’s numbers. Diana Olick has more on the backstory behind the numbers.
