How bad were new home sales in 2011? Depends on where you look. Nationally, new-home sales hit a record low in 2011, which was capped by a brutal December. According to Builder, “New-home sales registered the worst year on record in 2011, with data going back to 1963, according to information released [yesterday] by the [...]

This week, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) delivered another good news/bad news combo platter. The good news: The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index, which measures U.S. home builder sentiment, rose to a score of 25 — the fourth consecutive month of improvement and the highest score since June 2007. The not-so-good news: A [...]

Here’s an interesting story: a company is hoping to be build a new town in New Mexico. Only thing is, you can’t live there. It’s a ghost town. The town (currently called the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) will have all the amenities that a real city would have, including houses and businesses. Everything would be fully [...]

Considering the rate at which the housing market slowed and then declined in the 2000, long-term forecasting seems a fool’s errand. Still, real-estate experts at John Burns Real Estate Consulting have rubbed their crystal ball to predict the future of the housing market through 2025. Their prediction? Darkness before the light. Wayne Yamano, vice president [...]

Don’t believe everything you read – the American homeowner still largely prefers the detached single-family home. While several markets across the country like Boston, Portland, Minneapolis and Kansas City have seen a surge in condos, townhouses and apartments, data from the 2010 American Community Survey indicates 79.2 percent of new homes built in the last [...]

In September, the National Association of Home Builders and First American introduced the Improving Markets Index, which utilizes a set of key indicators to identify housing markets poised to bounce back from the recession. According to NAHB.org, “The three indicators are employment growth (from BLS), house price growth (from Freddie Mac) and single family housing [...]

Bluewater Builders was founded in 1986 when established builders Sherrell Futral and Woody Warren brought their companies together to lead their first development, Bluewater Bay. Bluewater Bay was an overnight success, with all 85 lots selling out in a mere 3 hours. The success launched the new company’s run as one of eastern North Carolina’s [...]

The Coalition of Sensible Housing Policy recently released a white paper expressing broad concerns about establishing a 10 percent to 20 percent down payment requirement to meet Qualified Residential Mortgage (QRM) standards. As part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, regulators have explored several ways to prevent homeowners from defaulting on [...]

We’ve talked a lot here about who today’s home-buying customers are. Are they young? Old? Families? Empty nesters? Etc. But what if you have no idea who they are? It’s important to watch trends closely, but sometimes it seems like people don’t even know what they want. We found an article on BUILDER that goes [...]

With the housing market continuing to decline it’s not difficult to guess at what keeps people from buying: it’s the economy, stupid! With people being laid off, working at reduced pay or worrying about getting laid off, fear is a powerful motivator for letting houses sit on the market. But it’s not the only thing. Over at [...]