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Quantity, quality vary at real estate search sites Premium Content

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

A report commissioned by property search company Roost found that property information can vary widely in volume and accuracy among online sites, with some sites showing a small fraction of the for-sale properties in a given market area.  more...

Eliminate heat loss through floors

By Bill and Kevin Burnett, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Q: We have a frame house with a stucco exterior. Part of it is over a crawl space about 3 feet high. The house is bolted to the foundation and the exterior stucco covers the walls down to the ground. On the inside of the crawl space, I can see the 1-by-8 redwood backing for the stucco and we have no problems with termites.  more...

Don't rely on agent's choice for loan, title services

By Tom Kelly, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Real estate agents are clearly the most influential persons in every real estate transaction and their power is not reserved for buyers and sellers -- it extends to all professionals involved.

That position of influence becomes magnified in a slower housing market. Everybody is desperate for deals. And, while Realtors typically offer beneficial referrals, consumers should always remember that they have a choice when picking the various players in the home-buying process -- appraisal, credit report, title report, escrow company, mortgage company, etc.  more...

Rules, creepers and one-way streets Premium Content

By Kris Berg, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Rules. We have buckets of rules for our social behavior, and the rules can be confusing. Many of these rules we learn over time. We know that a graduation announcement is not really an invitation to the event, but just an invitation to send money.  more...

MeGlobe crosses online language barriers Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

It may sound like the stuff of science fiction: Instant language translation during live communication. And it's not a perfect science yet, but the technology is improving.

That is good news for Christophe Choo, a real estate agent in Beverly Hills, Calif., who has an international clientele. Even though he speaks four languages, he sometimes encounters language barriers with clients and prospective clients.  more...

Fannie, Freddie shun N.Y. subprime loans

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Housing advocates say mortgage financers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are overeacting to a New York law the companies say creates new legal liabilities for investors who buy subrpime loans.

The mortgage giants say that beginning Sept. 1, they will no longer purchase or securitize loans defined as subprime by a New York law that creates new consumer protections.  more...

Lenders still plagued by fraud

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Mortgage fraud continues to be an issue in newly originated loans, according to a report from the Mortgage Asset Research Institute that shows a 42 percent increase in reported incidents of fraud in loans originated during the first quarter compared to a year ago.  more...

Home prices on less slippery slope?

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

The rate of decline in U.S. home prices slowed during the second quarter, but the 4.8 percent year-over-year drop in a house price index that relies on data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was the largest in the index's 17-year history.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's national purchase-only house price index showed prices falling a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent during the second quarter, compared to 1.7 percent in the first quarter.  more...

MLS future: Bring a big gun

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

Rob Hahn, in a post titled, "To Hunt Elephants, You Need an Elephant Gun," discusses one of the hottest topics in real estate: the multiple listing service of the future. There has been much discussion already about the MLS and what it might look like in a few years.  more...

New-home sales rate sinks 35.3% in July

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

The sales rate for new single-family homes fell about 35.3 percent year-over-year in July, the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development reported today, with the median new-home price dropping 6.2 percent and the average price down 4.1 percent. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new single-family home sales reached 515,000 in July, up 2.4 percent from 503,000 in June but down significantly from 796,000 in July 2007.  more...

Home-price index falls 15.9% in June

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 26, 2008.

A monthly price index for 20 U.S. metro areas dropped 15.9 percent year-over-year in June, with the sharpest declines in the Las Vegas, Miami and Phoenix areas. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of the same homes over time, recorded a 28.6 percent drop in Las Vegas in June compared to the same month last year, and all 20 metro areas tracked in the monthly index had year-over-year index declines.  more...