For decades, we have grown familiar with the basic categories of home buyers: The first-timer The upsizer The empty-nester The downsizer The multi-generation family In the years to come,  millions of homeowners who lost their homes during the recession through foreclosure or short sale will have restored their credit to the point where they again [...]

April 1 isn’t just April Fool’s Day. It’s also when mortgage insurance premiums on loans from the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) are set to increase by up to 0.10 percent. That means buyers on the verge of applying for a loan should do so before April 1 to obtain a case number. And if they [...]

Tight inventory might be the most common theme in housing markets across the country, but so too is the fickleness of buyers. No matter how eager, investing in a home is no time for impulse. With all of the free research tools now at the buyer’s disposal, they are less likely than ever to fall [...]

It’s a happy new year, indeed, for soon-to-be homeowners who received the gift of a down payment during the holiday season. (And you thought asking for a new iPad felt excessive.) Gifting down payments was the topic of a recent New York Times advice piece from Lisa Prevost. Unfortunately, it’s never as simple as writing [...]

It’s been nearly five years since building professionals could look to the year ahead and create an extensive list of reasons to be excited. Trepidation of the unknown had almost become an annual tradition, which is why a list of reasons to be optimistic for 2013 (according Brian Summerfield of the National Association of REALTORS) is [...]

Even though the official start of winter is more than a week away — tell that to those who live in the Upper Midwest! — housing continues to heat up in dozens of new markets according to the latest Improving Markets Index (IMI) from the National Association of Home Builders and First American. The IMI [...]

It’s no secret today’s home shoppers are spending less time driving through their dream neighborhoods and more time searching listings online. Searching for a home is never easy, of course, but the Internet has given prospective buyers the opportunity to view — in great detail — up to hundreds of homes in a short afternoon. [...]

We present a lot of consumer research here on the Builder Blog because, frankly, there’s nothing more important than understanding what prospective buyers want. The infographic above — click it when you’re done reading this — depicts very clearly what matters most to buyers throughout the region. Perhaps not surprisingly, the top three considerations in [...]

Call them Generation Y, Gen-Yers or Millennials. Whatever you call them, the age group is 70 million strong and currently makes up the largest group of prospective home buyers. Generation Y values home ownership, too, according to OwningTheFence.com. Which generation doesn’t? Well, let’s take a look at some of the main reasons why this group is [...]

With the appetite for home ownership on the rise among prospective first-time buyers, pressure has fallen on banks to create versatile down payment assistance programs. One really cool program is NeighborhoodLIFT from Wells Fargo, a series of events taking place across the nation in areas most affected by the housing crisis. Check out this video [...]