Real estate writer turns property flipper

What happens when a Manhattan editor takes off her Jimmy Choos and puts on her hard hat?

The result will be "Diary of a Flipper," a weekly column written by Alison Rogers and published by Inman News. The first column is scheduled to appear Friday, Sept. 9.

Part Candace Bushnell, part Bob Vila, "Diary of a Flipper" tells the story of an office worker (or to use the column's phrase, "desk monkey") who enters the real estate frontier to try to make it big.  more...

Record-low housing affordability hits Golden State

The percentage of households in California able to afford a median-priced home fell to 16 percent in July, down 3 percentage points from a year ago, while affordability in three regions fell to new lows, according to a report released today by the California Association of Realtors.  more...

NAR backs down from policy to restrict online listings

In response to U.S. Justice Department antitrust concerns, the National Association of Realtors has withdrawn a previous controversial online listings policy that allowed brokers to hold back property listings from select competitor Web sites.

NAR instead has adopted a new policy, which does not allow for a selective restriction of online listings.

The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division launched an investigation of the old policy nearly two years ago.  more...

Falling oil prices stabilize real estate rates

Long-term mortgage rates held steady this week as oil prices dropped, according to surveys conducted by Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com.

In Freddie Mac's survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.71 percent for the week ended today, unchanged from last week. The average for the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage dipped slightly to 5.3 percent, down from last week's 5.32 percent average.  more...

U.S. cities identify temporary homes for Katrina victims

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has forged a partnership with the nation's mayors and county officials to identify thousands of temporary homes for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina, HUD said Wednesday.

Initially, HUD identified nearly 3,200 vacant single-family HUD-owned properties in five states near the affected areas, the department said.  more...

Electronic real estate signing reaches dial-up Web users

New enhancements to DocuSign's electronic document signing technology aim to make it faster and easier for real estate professionals and consumers with low-bandwidth Internet connections to use the online signing service.

Despite the widespread availability of broadband, 61.3 million U.S. Web users, or 49 percent of the total, still rely on low-bandwidth connections for Internet access, according to published Nielson//NetRatings' research.  more...

New foreclosed real estate drops

The number of new foreclosed residential properties nationwide fell between July and August to 24,328 units, according to Foreclosure.com, which tracks residential foreclosures and for-sale-by-owner properties.

According to data released Wednesday, a total of 93,440 foreclosed residential properties were available for sale in the U.S. during August, up 3 percent from the 90,611 foreclosed properties available for sale during July.  more...

Overnight real estate rates jump

Long-term mortgage interest rates continued higher Wednesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield climbed to 4.14 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 5.27 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate increased to 4.83 percent. The 1-year adjustable was unchanged at 3.82 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield grew to 4.42 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...