The New Water Cooler BUILDER “Builders are slowly revising their perceptions about social media being time consuming to sustain and difficult to track. Builders that dip into these waters also realize that social media don’t sell houses, at least not in the traditional ways other advertising and marketing do. Social media’s power lies in its [...]

We often think of homebuyers as consisting of couples or families, but there’s a new brand of buyer out there and she has often has purchasing power to burn. According to MSN Real Estate, single women now account for a quarter of home sales, and that number has risen since the mid-90s. So what are [...]

Here’s a question from the Wall Steet Journal: If a city is shrinking and plagued by high unemployment, should it still earn the label of ‘most affordable’? The troubled city of Detroit was anointed that dubious honor on Wednesday by Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC., which released a report comparing the asking prices for four-bedroom, [...]

According to Professional Builder, there’s another reason that houses are becoming smaller and cheaper: first time home buyers. Professional Builder points out that 8.4 million households bought a home between 2007 and 2009. And how many of them were doing it for the first time? 41 percent. That’s a very significant minority. It stands to [...]

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Home builders, who aren’t selling too many homes these days, appear to be using their downtime to sharpen quality and service.” It makes sense. Without the housing boom engine powering sales, builders all over the country have to re-tool their plans. Of course, we’re not saying that a few [...]

A couple of interesting items on the Wall Street Journal’s “Developments” blog delve into recent data showing a huge drop in home sales based on last month’s data and what impact — positive or negative — the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit might have had. The first piece explores whether the tax credit might have been [...]

The Mortgage Mess’s Dirty Details Smart Money “The housing crisis is far from over. U.S. house prices remain about 30% below their mid-2006 peak. More than 3% of mortgage holders are in foreclosure, and another 9% are at least 90 days late on their payments.” Connect the Lots Big Builder “As the housing market fell, [...]

The New Remodeling Rules WSJ – Personal Finance “According to an April 15 report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, annual spending on remodeling is expected to accelerate this year, with nearly 5% growth over 2009. This year could produce the first annual spending increase for the industry since 2006, the [...]

The Home-Buyer Tax Credit May Have Actually Worked Developments Blog by WSJ “Did the last round of the home-buyer tax credit have a bigger impact than analysts had previously anticipated? When it comes to new home sales, the answer may be yes. Consider that U.S. existing home sales ran at an estimated seasonally adjusted rate [...]

Although recent reports still categorize the housing market in its entirety as sluggish, primarily due to high unemployment and foreclosures, the second-home market is beginning to show increased signs of life. From Palm Beach, Fla. to Big Sky, Mont., on a lake, on the beach or in a secluded golf community, people are making purchases. [...]