After the Great Recession, there were some pundits who theorized that real estate would make a W-shaped recovery. With the S&P/Case-Shiller housing prices out this morning, it’s now clear that there are not one but two W’s in the chart — and that’s not a good thing. Index prices fell 1.1% from November to December. In other words, …
If you’re watching the real estate markets, the good news is that the Federal Reserve has pledged to keep interest rates low through 2014. The bad news is that the market is going to need it. The November Case-Shiller housing …
In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, governor’s mansions were state palaces, meant to symbolize the grandeur of government while providing a place for formal entertainment and housing for the state’s chief …
Is the real estate market better yet? Seeking a way to aggregate local data, the National Association of Home Builders and First American Title Insurance constructed an “Improving Markets Index” in an effort to track metro area …
If you like really big houses, then watching the popular British soap opera Downton Abbey — and drinking in its setting, Highclere Castle — is sheer delight. For American viewers of the show’s second season, which debuted in …
The real estate market continues to flatline throughout most of the country. But in Washington, D.C., housing prices are up a smidgen (0.3%) from the previous month. More importantly, year-over-year prices have risen by 1.3%, a …
When the housing bubble popped — in 2006, 2007, or 2008, depending on where you were — chances are that the value of your home took a nose dive. But who got hit worse, the top of the market or the bottom?
If you are interested in buying a home, chances are you need a mortgage — and the first step toward a mortgage is a prequalification (or its cousin, pre-approval) letter. You provide your lender with basic financial information, and in return you receive a written offer to provide you with financial backing for a home purchase.
When Jim Jordan suffered through a foreclosure, it wasn’t just about the family house. The Costa Mesa, Calif. ranch house that he grew up in (but no longer lived in) was host to a gigantic Christmas display. Sure, there was Santa on the roof with reindeer — but there was also an array of Charles Schultz “Peanuts” characters that drew …
Increasingly in some states, foreclosure is like a Roach Motel: Houses come in, but they don’t get out. This has led to an egregious statistic in the new issue of Mortgage Monitor, a report from data-tracker LPS Applied …
September housing prices, as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller Housing Index, are out, and they’re down 3.6% year-over-year. This continues a trend that we’ve seen since the summer: Housing prices continue to fall, but more slowly …
It’s easy to drown in real estate statistics, but looking at “affordability” — the homes that someone on a median income could buy — is a fascinating gauge of housing markets. (Plus, it’s a statistic that can be fine-tuned to …
