It’s cheaper to buy than rent in almost every major U.S. housing market, and over the long term home prices appear likely to …
home prices
The Unexpected Effects of Walmart Coming to Town
Homeowners, local chambers of commerce, and town planners alike all have some assumptions about Walmart. It’s often assumed that when a new Walmart opens in town, it’ll kill small businesses and may even hurt the local real …
Housing Market Better Than It Looks
Home prices rose 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in March, according to new numbers from the S&P/Case-Shiller index. But four cities showed worse results in March than they had in February, with Atlanta notably down 0.4% over …
Report: Housing Market Recovery Has Officially Begun
A new analysis suggests that home prices will begin to rise later this year.
Has the Housing Market Finally Hit Bottom?
Housing and jobs: these are the two keys to the economic recovery really taking off, and while we’ve gotten some positive news on the jobs front recently, real estate prices have more or less continued to decline steadily since …
Mixed Bag of Housing Data Shows Recovery — Except in Areas with High Foreclosures
In housing, there may be a rising tide, but it isn’t lifting all boats. According to data released today by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, prices were up 0.3% in February from the month before on a seasonally adjusted basis. …
Housing Prices Fall to 2003 Levels, But Demand May Be Building
It’s now officially a lost decade for home prices. With the release of the January data for the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes, prices in a national composite dropped 3.8% from a year before, rolling back to …
Housing Prices Dip for the Fourth Time in Three Years
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, …
Drop in Housing Prices Continues to Slow
Housing prices of 20 cities were flat from July to August, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller housing index. Year-over-year and on a seasonally adjusted basis, the composite 20 index was down 3.8% from August of last year. …
Real Estate’s in the Tank? Not in the Land of IPOs
It’s been what my grandmother would call “a month of Sundays” (i.e., a long, long time) since we’ve heard of a local housing market that wasn’t in the doldrums. In fact, much of the country is now officially in the …
Top 10 Most Affordable U.S. Cities for Renters
With home buying reaching a new low, more people are looking to rent. Even with increased demand, Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies found some U.S. cities that are still refreshingly rent-friendly.
Is Mortgage Refinancing a Loser’s Game?
The Wall Street Journal ran a big story on Wednesday about how homeowners are missing out on big savings because people can’t qualify for mortgage refinancings. This sounds like a tragic twist in what has been a humdinger of a bear housing market. But the more you understand mortgages, the more this bad news looks to be a blessing in …