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 [...]

Hire Locally Will Become the Law in San Francisco New York Times “Under the ordinance, city contractors and subcontractors working on city-financed construction projects worth $400,000 or more would be required to hire at least 20 percent of their workers from San Francisco. The requirement will increase by 5 percent each year until it reaches [...]

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 [...]

Tax Credits Make It Difficult to Interpret Housing Data WSJ.com Developments blog “The home buyer tax credit continues to complicate the task of figuring out what’s going on with underlying demand for homes. … After the tax credits expire, buyers will have less reason to rush. If interest rates start to rise from today’s unusually [...]