It’s a buyers’ real estate market, and sellers are hurting, right? Not most sellers in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County. From Palo Alto to Cupertino, houses are selling faster this month than they were in March 2006. In some places, the sales pace is faster than in 2005. But in East San Jose and […]

PHILADELPHIA - Here’s something almost everyone knew before today, but let’s make it official: The majority of condo buyers are looking not just for a home, but for a lifestyle. It’s not that lifestyle doesn’t play a role in other kinds of housing. The very fact that families have gotten smaller over the past 30 years […]

WASHINGTON - As financial regulators and Congress probe more deeply into the delinquencies and foreclosures roiling the subprime home-loan market, one key contributing factor is receiving increased attention: the lack of mandatory escrow accounts. According to some industry estimates, a majority of subprime mortgages closed during the housing boom years carried no escrows for property taxes […]

TUCSON-In an effort to expand its Arizona presence, Weingarten Realty Investors has acquired six retail centers totaling 780,000 sf. The $165-million purchase marks Weingarten’s first move into the Tucson area.According to David Doupe, managing director with Jones Lang LaSalle’s capital markets group, Weingarten beat out other contenders from the six-month marketing period because of its […]

“Everybody respects her,” an old friend once explained when I asked about his real estate agent. “She’s a top producer.” Looking back, I’m sure my friend had no idea what he was talking about — he’d never bought a house and had little interest in the real estate racket, but that didn’t matter. He’d bagged a […]

Florida real estate commissions are steadily falling; and the oft-cited, oft-debated industry standard of 6 percent is becoming a distant memory, according to little-noticed numbers the nation’s largest real estate broker released this month. Realogy Corp.’s annual report shows that the average ”commission side” - the amount paid to either the seller’s or buyer’s agent - […]

A Los Angeles real estate firm is buying a group of Austin office properties for $1.15 billion, in what is believed to be the biggest commercial real estate deal ever in Texas.Thomas Properties Group Inc. has put under contract Austin office buildings including the Frost Bank Tower, 300 West Sixth Street, three other downtown properties […]

So far, blogs have emerged as the social media tool of choice in the real estate industry. But even if an agent chooses to start a blog, there are many social networking aspects of blogging that the agent will soon become familiar with in order to make it stick. Many of the individuals interviewed for this […]

The biggest factor deterring renters from making the plunge into home ownership is not the fear of falling property values, but that they simply can’t afford to buy, according to a Bankrate Inc. poll released Monday. In a nationwide poll of 1,004 adults taken this month, less than 2 percent of renters said fear of falling […]

WASHINGTON - Sales of new homes in most of the country fell sharply for a second consecutive month in February, a weaker-than-expected performance that dimmed hopes for a rebound in the troubled housing market.The news was much better in the western part of the country, where sales jumped nearly 25 percent in February. The Commerce Department […]

Realtors and those associated with the real estate industry may claim the Jacksonville housing market has been on a bit of a slide. However, according to a report recently issued by the Duval County Property Appraiser, things are actually going very well the past 10 years. And, there’s no indication the future isn’t bright. “Jacksonville has a […]

Sales of new homes in the United States probably rebounded in February from a three-year low, a sign the worst of the real estate rout has passed.Purchases rose to an annual pace of 990,000, up 5.7 percent from January, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed ahead of a Commerce Department report today. The […]

CHICAGO — If there were a Hall of Fame for real estate investors, Sam Zell would be a certain first-ballot inductee.The Grave Dancer, as he long ago dubbed himself for his ability to revive moribund properties, has had a golden touch with real estate ever since he got his start managing apartment buildings as a […]

HONOLULU - Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion this week, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income native Hawaiian families. Tears spilled down Kahale’s cheeks as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto the key to a white, […]

BRENTWOOD - Zaio is attempting to catalog and photograph 100,000 homes a day across the country, which would make it one of the largest Internet databases in the world for point-and-click valuations. In the Bay Area, most of the activity so far has centered on the East Bay. But work will begin by the end […]

The median home price in Los Angeles County hit a new high in February, but home sales continue to decline. The county’s median home price rose to $616,230, a 5 percent increase from the previous month and up 9 percent from the previous year, according to figures released Friday by the California Association of Realtors. Home sales […]

More so than with any other room, remodeling your bathroom can increase your home’s resale value. In fact, a moderate-sized bathroom remodel, which costs about $10,499, brings a 102 percent return on your investment, according to the 2005 Cost vs. Value Report published by the National Association of Realtors in REALTOR Magazine and by Hanley Wood […]

A soft landing in the housing market is looking a little more likely.Price and sales numbers released Friday, both for California and the nation, show February wasn’t all that weak compared with past years. The news has observers hoping that there’s more strength - and less drag on the economy - than previously believed. In California, housing […]

While most housing markets throughout the country experienced a year of decline in 2006 following the boom levels of the previous two years, 2007 is expected to be a year of transition, with growth emerging in many areas, according the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Regional Housing Starts Forecast. “Because the boom and correction cycle […]

Last year, mosquito abatement districts contended with floodwater in their ongoing battle against West Nile virus.This year, it’s foreclosures and the sluggish resale housing market. For-sale signs, especially if standing for weeks or months in front of empty houses, are red flags for vector control personnel looking for pockets of mosquitoes in residential areas. As the weather […]

Teleseminar Sponsor By: Mike Butler Date: Thursday, March 22nd 5M Wealth AutoPilot System Mike invested in real estate “part time” working 5 hours per week. He bought several dozen rental properties a year using his simple “push button” system. Mike Butler owned and operated over 75 rental properties before he made a huge decision to hire […]

Mortgage rates posted growth this week on renewed inflation fears, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com. In Freddie Mac’s survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to an average 6.16 percent from 6.14 percent last week, while the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage gained from 5.88 percent to 5.9 percent. Points, which are fees lenders charge […]

The event, mainly aimed at offering international properties to Indians and attracting investment in the booming real estate industry of India, is designed to be a ‘one stop shop’ for everyone from the world of real estate as it presents a unique combination of exhibition, education, and entertainment. According to the Al Fajer, organizers of […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Wells Fargo & Co. is eliminating more than 500 jobs — including about 170 in Tempe — in a division that makes home loans to high-risk borrowers, adding to the economic distress caused by the decaying subprime mortgage market. Most of the cutbacks, concentrated in South Carolina, Arizona and California, stem from Wells […]

Many of the area’s most prestigious office buildings are about to be sold for the second time this year, and the chain of transactions likely won’t end there. As a result, commercial real-estate brokers are warning businesses to brace for higher rental rates. Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston real-estate investment company, will become the area’s largest […]

If you have been following Money4Invdstors blog, you may be wondering why I suddenly quit posting real estate investing information.We lost my husband right in the middle of filming Flip That House. Brian passed on suddenly last winter. Of course, I feel devastated and don’t feel like working or anything. But I have sons in […]

My sister is a single mom and can’t fully provide for her kids.  She is receiving housing benefits where the government pays for most of her rent.  She purchased a car with no money down. The payment with insurance is about $500/mo.  When housing found out, she was told to get rid of that car or she would lose […]

Recent home buyers, many seduced by too-low-to-last teaser loan rates, are finding that all good things must end. For more than a million, they could end in foreclosure, according to a study released Monday. Americans borrowed $2.2 trillion from 2004 through 2006 in the form of adjustable loans, which start with low monthly payments that reset […]

After successfully selling out its first 16-unit business condominium project in the Harbor Bay Business Park in Alameda, Venture Corp. of Larkspur bought a vacant parcel across the street and erected a similar 24-unit complex, which opens this week. Venture has built or is building dozens of its business “commerce centers.” It has latched on to […]

Daily reports for a month now inform us of the “surprise” that subprime borrowers are delinquent on payments. But everyone in the business has expected it since 2004. What happened from 2004 to 2006 in the mortgage markets can be fairly described as a scam. And you are about to pay for it. Here’s how it […]