The National Association of Realtors has reported a surprising increase in home sales throughout the Midwest, a market that began to recover as early as the end of last year. This gain of 3 percent in the Midwest marks the very first increase since September of last year, signaling the potential for more widespread recovery.
Analysts have credited affordable home prices and a consumer awareness that prices may be at their lowest for a rebound in home sales. The Midwest, which includes twelve states, has seen prices fall an average of 9 percent from last year to now, with $157,000 standing …read more

On Tuesday the Appraisal Institute released a statement in response to a comment by Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist, who stated that the increase in existing home sales in May was less than expected because poor appraisals are stalling transactions. Yun further claimed that faulty valuations are keeping buyers from getting loans.
Bill Garber, Director, Government and External Relations responded:
“We take offense with the notion that an appraisal is only good if it happens to come in at the sales price. That mentality helped cause the mortgage meltdown to begin with. The fact that the value reflected in …read more

On Monday, a few signs pointed to the possibility that the real estate market in the United States has begun to stabilize and possibly even begun its trek to recovery. According to the National Association of Realtors, the number of existing houses sold jumped more than 5% in February compared to January’s data.
Although sales are still down by double-digit percentage points from this time last year, this month-to-month jump was the largest on record in over five years. The median price of a home was slightly more than $165,000.
Many reasons are hypothesized for why the sales of existing homes rose, …read more

RealtyTrac, an online provider of foreclosure information, reported that foreclosure activity rose once again in August. This time, activity rose by 12 percent.

Durin g the housing boom of 2001 through 2006, the prices of single-family homes and condominiums shot up to amazing levels. I remember wondering, once the median sales prices of existing homes raced past the $200,000 mark, how were most people in the United States going to afford a home?

Well, here’s a change: Today, I bring good news. Sales of existing homes actually increased in July, reaching their highest level in five months, according to the National Association of Realtors.

But the association has said at least one statement that I really believe in: The next hot residential market might be homes within walking distance to shops, restaurants, parks, schools and mass transit.

According to RealtyTrac, a national provider of foreclosed properties, one in every 171 households received a foreclosure notice in the second quarter of this year. That’s an increase of 121 percent compared to the same quarter one year earlier.

The sales of existing homes — which includes single-famiy homes, condominiums, townhouses and co-ops — fell 2.66 percent in June. This puts yearly sales down 15.5 percent, so far, from last year. And remember that everyone thought last year was a terrible one for home sales?

The National Association of Realtors last week released their latest home-sales data. For once, there was some good news. But, of course, the report contained a lot of bad news, too.