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New MLS service catches heat Premium Content

By Erik Pisor, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Last week, the Fresno, Madera and Merced Realtor associations in California became the first three associations to exclusively use calREDD -- a service that is building toward a statewide multiple listing service -- to view properties, place listings and access agents.

While the move to utilize calREDD was supported by the presidents and boards for all three associations, the new system, which is powered by vendor Concentric Software of Rocklin, Calif., is frustrating some members and drawing criticism from other multiple listing service vendors.  more...

Buyers twisted by design

By Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.
Image courtesy of <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307277244" target=blank>Random House Inc.</a>

Recently, I showed a home to a novice house hunter. From what I'd seen of her personality and tastes, I knew this place wouldn't be "it" for her, but she wanted to see it anyway. We went in, and she took it all in: little tiny windows; dark paneled walls; lots of rooms in a home that already had a pretty low square footage; what I like to call insecurity bars on the windows (that's when there are bars on the window in an actually pretty nice/safe neighborhood) -- and my normally chatty and upbeat client looked at me wide-eyed and summed her emotional reaction to the house up in three words: "I would cry."

In "The Architecture of Happiness," writer Alain de Botton explores exactly this phenomenon ...  more...

Home-price indexes hint at turnaround

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Home prices rose 1.4 percent on average from May to June in 20 markets tracked by a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index -- the second consecutive month-over-month increase in the 20-city composite.

Another home price index maintained by the government to track purcahases involving mortgages owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also showed home prices picking up in  May and June.  more...

The loan-mod time bomb

By Marcie Geffner, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.
Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/16581899@N07/3186122400/">Umberto Fistarol</a>.

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

That's the sound of the federal government's Making Home Affordable loan modification program, which is set to explode sometime after 2014.

In case you haven't heard, the program is the federal government's latest attempt to reduce the high rate of foreclosures. The program creates a process for loan servicers to modify the mortgages of homeowners who spend more than 31 percent of their income on housing costs ...  more...

Nix aluminum wiring fire hazard

By Barry Stone, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

DEAR BARRY: My home has aluminum wiring. In one of your articles, you recommended copper pigtails on the wire ends to eliminate a fire hazard. So I called my local building department to get their advice. The building inspector I spoke to is a retired electrician who became a county building inspector. He told me that aluminum wiring is safe as long as it is not overloaded, and that connecting aluminum wire to copper "pigtails" is not advisable. He said the only way to eliminate the hazards caused by aluminum wire is to completely rewire the house. With two conflicting opinions, whom do I believe? --Nancy

DEAR NANCY: It is surprising that a professional building inspector and former electrician would be unaware of aluminum wire issues and the accepted method of correction. This has been widely recognized within the electrical profession for many years.  more...

JD Power rates mortgage servicers

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Loan servicers score higher marks for customer satisfaction when they initiate contact with borrowers, which can help them win repeat business and referrals from those clients, according to a survey by J.D. Power and Associates.

The survey of 5,000 homeowners, taken in May, found one in five borrowers was either behind on their payments or worried that they would be in the future.  more...

California homebuilding slows in July

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The California Building Industry Association is blaming a sharp decline in home construction from June to July on the discontinuation of the state's $10,000 tax credit for new-home purchases.

California builders pulled 2,045 permits to construct single-family homes in July, down 29 percent from June and 36 percent from the same month a year ago, CBIA said, citing statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB). CIRB is now projecting builders will construct just 39,500 total housing units in California this year, the lowest total on record.  more...

Decoding change in Google results Premium Content

By Gahlord Dewald, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.
Flickr image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/danardvincente/2512148775/" target=blank>Danard Vincente</a>.

You may have heard that search-engine gorilla Google is in the midst of an infrastructure change. As a company that generates revenue by serving advertising alongside its search results, Google has an interest in serving up relevant search results in a timely manner.

If it doesn't, then someone else will do a better job and searchers will go somewhere else. Then no one will see the advertising or click on it, resulting in less revenue for Google. It's a nice straightforward model.  more...

HAR: Big in Texas ... and U.S.

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The Houston Association of Realtors has surpassed the Long Island Board of Realtors in New York as the largest local Realtor board in the country, according to a Monday announcement.

By the latest count, Houston's Realtor group had 23,354 total members, or 118 more than the Long Island board. In third place was the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors Inc., with 13,439 members.  more...

Coldwell Banker offers smartphone app

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC has rolled out a custom-built smartphone application the company claims is the first to provide access to international properties.

Coldwell Banker's mobile app -- available for the iPhone and smartphones running Google's Android operating system -- provides access to property listings and recent home sales in 28 countries in North America, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Australia, the company said.  more...

Foreclosure starts level out

By Inman News, Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

A record 13.16 percent of mortgage loans on one- to four-unit homes were delinquent or in the foreclosure process at the end of June, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports.

In Florida, 22.8 percent of mortgages were at least one payment behind or in the foreclosure process, followed by Nevada (21.3 percent), Arizona (16.3 percent) and Michigan (15.8 percent).  more...