RealtyTrac, a premier source of distressed real estate information, noted significant declines in foreclosures in many states—but particularly those in which foreclosures are non-judicial (no court intervention in the foreclosure process which follow state statutes). The full report is available here.        … Read more

Economics 101 teaches us that price changes in assets, goods and services are a function of supply and demand. The economic demand (versus demographics demand) for real estate is a function of job growth and income. HomeVestors® (the real estate franchise with the signs that… Read more

RISMedia, in referencing a Philadelphia Inquirer article from September 23, 2012, reported on 2011 residential lending data available through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The total number of residential loans completed in 2011 was the lowest in 16 years. Not only were there fewer… Read more

Foreclosures dropped in July 2012 to 58,000 from 69,000 in July 2011 (and 62,000 in June 2012) according to CoreLogic. Half of all foreclosures were from five states: California, Florida, Michigan, Texas and Georgia. Homes tallied 1.3 million in some form of foreclosure (3.2 percent… Read more

Since many will be heading out the door this afternoon to enjoy a three-day weekend, let’s talk about hotel property performance, the third installment in the commercial real estate returns series. So where do we get the data? The National Council of Real Estate Investment… Read more

The second installment in the commercial real estate returns series is on apartments. In my presentations this year I have talked about mega themes, one being that, because of the housing bubble and revised more stringent mortgage underwriting standards, many people that graduated from trade… Read more

One of the first things that typically happens at the physician’s office is a heart and blood pressure check. I believe that for many real estate markets that same check for overall health can be completed by looking at the performance of industrial properties. These… Read more

A repeating question from people on housing statistics has been regarding recreation, seasonal or occasional use dwellings. Last fall, based on data from the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau published a 12-page summary looking at the current housing inventory by state and contrasting that with… Read more

The housing recovery continues as July existing home sales  reported by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) were up 10.4 percent compared to July 2011, and up sequentially from June 2012 by 2.3 percent. The following graph shows the seasonally adjusted annualized rate, averaged over… Read more

With an estimated 14.4 million college students, University and College towns are fertile rental markets. But with the housing bubble and the lowest interest rates in 50 years, investing in rental housing in these locales can be lucrative. The National Association of Realtors® has ranked… Read more