According to The China Daily, in September and October, only 10,743 homes were sold in Beijing, down a whopping 46% from last year. New home sales in the first 10 months totaled 69,079 units down 17.8% year over year, while existing home sales dropped 35.8% to 101,188 units. It should come as no surprise that rapidly rising residential real estate prices have accelerated both inflation and income inequality causing the

Freddie Mac has once again reached out to the Treasury seeking $6 billion in aid. This is is just another indicator that the housing meltdown still has a long way to go before there is a solid enough foundation to begin to move forward. Freddie Mac reported a quarterly loss of 6 billion or $1.86 per share compared to last year’s same quarter loss of $4.1 billion or $1.25 per

According to Zillow, the company will double in size from 2010 sales of $30.5 million to $63 to $64 million in 2011. Zillow is best known for it’s unique algorithm which accumulates public information to develop a “Zestimate” for the current value of homes. This year Zillow went public and is currently up nearly 37% since it’s Initial Public Offering (IPO). Impressive given the current volatility of the stock market.

One of the most over-looked yet extremely important measures of home prices is how they actually relate to median household income, also known as the Housing Affordability Index. It should come as no surprise that when this index is out of whack to either extreme it means one of two things: 1. Home prices are so high that a massive correction is due to pull them in line with income

According to a recent study conducted by Hanley Wood LLC, a data research company serving the housing and construction industries, 29% of renters and 19% of owners are considering buying within the next 2 years. The “Housing 360 Study” encompassed over 3,000 households across the country and included some of the hardest hits areas such as Nevada and Arizona. The flight to rentals caused by many factors, including tougher financing,

We continue to have our eyes opened by the various exposes written about corporate greed. This week it’s the blurring of the line between investment banks and commercial banks. According to an article by the Huffington post, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker helped establish a new rule last year that limits the ability of commercial banks that have deposits guaranteed by the federal government from making high risk bets

US Zillow Home Value Index US Home Values – Interactive chart According to Zillow’s Home value index, values have fallen 4.5% to an average of $172,600 across the U.S. as compared with last year’s values. States such as Arizona and Florida, originally plagued by an almost “Ponzi” scheme investor frenzy, continue to correct and offer fantastic buying opportunities. Reports from fellow real estate agent Marnetta Arnett continue to confirm a

Selling or buying a home just might be the single largest financial transaction that most people make in their entire lifetime! So by default perhaps real estate agents and their clients might get a bit charged up emotionally. All that money and responsibility. Sure, I understand that the bank is taking most of the risk away by lending the majority of the money, but it’s still the borrower’s obligation to

So what does the bottom of a residential real estate market look like? Maybe the truth is that nobody can really name the bottom of any financial decline with precision, but there certainly are metrics that make a relevant historical measurement. It’s in the numbers! According to CNNMoney, this April, home ownership in the U.S. dropped by 1.1% to 65.1% as compared to its year 2000 level. That’s the biggest