NAR?s Member Center: New Look, New Name
NAR PULSE?NAR?s Member Guide website and mobile apps have been reorganized and redesigned to better serve you and your agents. Log in today to view benefits and events from your local, state and national associations, access your 2013 membership card and see industry news via RSS feed from REALTOR.org. Plus, download the new Member Center [...]
Imprev Adds Dropbox Integration to Real Estate?s Only Mobile Marketing Centers
Dropbox, a free service used by over 100 million people to bring their photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily, is now integrated into the Imprev Marketing Platform. The Imprev Platform powers mobilized Marketing Centers for some of the world?s leading real estate brands. ?By integrating best-in-class providers into the Marketing Center, Imprev [...]
Short Sale Approval and Valuation Issues Continue to Impact Housing Market
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have implemented policies to expedite the short sales process, including new resources to help determine property values, according to panelists at a property valuation forum during the REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo. Short sales continue to represent a significant portion of the real estate market. According to [...]
Pillar To Post Named 2013 Military Friendly Franchise®
Pillar To Post has been ranked in the top 10 percent of all franchises nationwide and named a 2013 Military Friendly Franchise® by Victory Media, publisher of G.I. Jobs, the company has announced. According to the company, Pillar To Post supports military veterans by offering service members a 10 percent discount on the franchise fee, [...]
Freddie Mac Announces Immediate Availability of Streamlined Modification for Delinquent Borrowers
Freddie Mac recently announced it is making its new Streamlined Modification program immediately available to all eligible borrowers nationwide in order to expedite financial relief for potentially thousands of distressed families. Freddie Mac’s Streamlined Modification program had originally been scheduled to start on July 1, 2013. The recent announcement extends to the entire country Freddie [...]
NAR Member Survey Shows REALTOR® Business and Income Continue to Improve
The business activity and income of REALTORS® are up for the second year in a row following nine years of decline, according to the 2013 National Association of REALTORS® Member Profile. The study?s results are representative of the nation?s REALTORS®; REALTORS® are members of NAR and account for about half of the approximately 2 million [...]
April Housing Scorecard: Progress as Values Rise and Sales Remain Strong
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released the April edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard ? a comprehensive report on the nation?s housing market. The latest data show important progress across many key indicators?as home values continue to rise and home sales remained [...]
Clear Capital: April?s Stable Home Prices Reflect the New Normal
Clear Capital®, a provider of data and solutions for real estate asset valuation and collateral risk assessment, has released its Home Data Index? (HDI) Market Report with data through April 2013. Using a broad array of public and proprietary data sources, the HDI Market Report publishes the most granular home data and analysis earlier than [...]
Metro Area Home Price Growth Trend Continues in First Quarter
Metropolitan area median home prices continued to rise in the first quarter, with the national gain showing the best year-over-year performance in over seven years, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of REALTORS®. A companion breakout of income requirements to purchase a median-priced home on a metro basis shows the typical [...]
Trulia to Acquire Market Leader, Securities Litigation Firm Investigating Sale for Shareholders
Trulia, Inc., a leading online marketplace for homebuyers, sellers, renters and real estate professionals, has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Market Leader, Inc., a leading provider of Software as a Service (SaaS)-based customer relationship management (CRM) software for the real estate sector, for approximately $355 million, or an implied [...]
NAR Presents the REach Class of 2013
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and its investment arm, Second Century Ventures (SCV), have long recognized the growing need for innovation in the real estate industry?particularly now as real estate is making a comeback and consumers have never been so sophisticated or had so much information at their fingertips. NAR and SCV launched REach?, [...]
Positive Equity Is Driving Down Defaults
Homeowners with positive equity in their homes have fewer problem loans and are outperforming the national average for defaults. Their default rates are close to pre-crisis norms. The latest data from Lender Processing Servicers shows that the overall equity trend has been a very positive one. ?LPS? latest data shows that the share of loans [...]
Improving Markets List Includes 258 Metros in May
The number of U.S. housing markets showing sustained improvement in three key measures fell slightly to 258 in May from 273 in April, according to the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI), released recently. This total includes entrants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The IMI identifies metropolitan areas that have shown [...]
Housing Recovery Continues but Headwinds Remain
Buoyed by rising home prices throughout much of the nation, both single-family and multifamily housing starts are expected to post double-digit gains over last year in 2013. However, headwinds continue to hold back even stronger growth as the housing recovery evolves, according to economists at NAHB?s Spring 2013 Construction Forecast Conference Webinar. ?The broadening housing [...]
Investors and the Home-Rental Market
In traditional housing recoveries, individuals and households provide the bulk of the demand the market needs to rebound. This time, though, a different kind of buyer has been powering the housing recovery: investors looking for valuable rental property. Along with individual investors, institutional investors have poured into the single-family home market, buying enough foreclosed and [...]
March Pending Home Sales Improve 1.5%
Pending home sales increased in March and remain above year-ago levels, but contract activity in recent months shows only modest movement, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 1.5 percent to 105.7 in March from a downwardly revised 104.1 in February, and [...]
Market-wide REALTOR® Rating System Launches in Chicago Suburbs
Regional Spotlight?The Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS® (MORe) recently announced a new program that will provide consumers in the Chicago suburbs with a comprehensive system for rating REALTORS®. MORe is the largest local association in the nation and the first in the Midwest to offer such a service. Through partnership with the REALTOR® Excellence Program (REP) [...]
House Prices Continue Their Ascent
Nationally, house prices continued to rise in February, contributing to the overall recovery in U.S. house prices. According to the most recent release  by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, U.S. house prices rose by 0.7 percent on a month-over-month seasonally adjusted basis in February. This is the thirteenth consecutive monthly increase for the House Price [...]
New-Home Sales Rise 1.5 Percent in March
Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 417,000 units in March, according to newly released figures from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. ?This is the second-best sales number we?ve seen since early 2010, and a good sign of the continued, gradual headway that our industry [...]
Solar Panels Puzzle Would-Be Buyers
(MCT)?With solar panel prices plunging and generous tax credits and incentives still available, now may be as good a time as any to go solar. But shopping for a solar power system can be a tough task. Consumers face a bewildering array of options. There are thousands of different solar panel models from dozens of [...]