Commercial & Residential Property Blog

Nationwide housing affordability, bolstered by favorable interest rates and low house prices, closed out the year near its highest level since the series was first compiled 18 years ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) released today.

The latest evidence that manufacturers are helping lead the U.S. economic recovery emerged Wednesday in a report that industrial production posted its seventh straight increase in January.

A stronger-than-expected uptick in housing starts confirms that the housing market has bottomed out after its steepest slide since the Great Depression. But it’s going to have to do better than that if the economy is to have a sustainable recovery.

February 16, 2010 – Nearly 5 million houses and condos, of which the mortgages are delinquent, will go through foreclosure over the next few  years, a new study by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. concludes.
This represents more than half of the 7.7 million households now behind on their mortgage payments. The situation is worst [...]

Credit Suisse home-building analyst Dan Oppenheim predicts in a note to clients that 2010 will be a strong year for home builders, but also points out these threats to the business

An increasing number of homes with multi-million dollar price tags are going into foreclosure and that’s driving desperate owners to sell at auction.

Real estate investors are coming to the same conclusion that housing activists reached at the beginning of the crisis forgiving principal on underwater loans may be the best way to deal with the problem.

Home prices rose in more than a third of U.S. metropolitan areas in the fourth quarter, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday as it pointed to a “broad stabilization” in values.

Home owners are finding it difficult to take advantage of the move-up tax credit, which is one more handicap slowing the housing market.

Strong gains in existing-home sales were the predominant pattern in most states during the fourth quarter, with many more metro areas seeing prices rise from a year earlier, according to the latest survey by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTORS®.