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Beyond brick and mortar

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Thursday, February 19, 2009.
Flickr photo by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/marklarson/2435770670/">marklarson</a>.

Internet-capable handheld devices are deploying typical office functions in the field, allowing real estate professionals to be increasingly less reliant on a brick-and-mortar brokerage building.

Today's real estate office can be a car, a coffee shop or most any location within reach of a signal tower.  more...

MyNewPlace's apartment search goes social

By Inman News, Thursday, February 19, 2009.

MyNewPlace, a rental listing search site, has incorporated Facebook Connect functionality to allow its users to tap into their social graphs for feedback on prospective rentals.

According to Mark Moran, MyNewPlace's vice president of marketing and business development, users can "log into MyNewPlace.com using their Facebook account, post properties they are interested in to their Facebook page, and get feedback and advice from the people that are most important to them."  more...

Mortgage lending flat at big TARP banks

By Inman News, Thursday, February 19, 2009.

Residential mortgage lending was essentially flat during the fourth quarter at the 20 largest banks that the government has taken a stake in through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The median change in residential mortgage loan balances at the banks was a 1 percent decline, the Treasury Department said in a report this week.  more...

Housing starts fall to record lows

By Inman News, Thursday, February 19, 2009.

U.S. housing starts in January fell 16.8 percent from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 466,000 units, a record low, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures reported Wednesday.

Compared to a year ago, new-home production declined 56.2 percent, the report found.  more...

Californians boost real estate purchasing power

By Inman News, Thursday, February 19, 2009.

Some 59 percent of California households had sufficient income in the fourth quarter of 2008 to buy an entry-level home in the state, up sharply from 33 percent a year earlier, according to data from the California Association of Realtors' First-Time Buyer Housing Affordability Index.  more...