Bob Forman's Real Estate Blog

SAN FRANCISCO – Nov. 22, 2013 – Prepare buyers for heavy documentation requirements starting in January, according to CEOs and senior executives from the biggest names in mortgage lending at the recent National Association of Realtors® (NAR) annual convention. New regulatory hurdles could tempora...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Nov. 21, 2013 – Congress extended the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years through last year’s Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act. While the Act’s goal is to make NFIP pay for itself over time and ease a current deficit, it had unintended consequences ...

 Florida’s housing market continued its upswing in October 2013, with more closed sales, higher median prices, more new listings and a stabilizing supply of homes for sale, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®.“Florida’s economy continues to improve, and that’s good ...

WASHINGTON – Nov. 19, 2013 – Builders remain confident in the new single-family home market. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) was unchanged in November from a downwardly revised level of 54 last month. Any HMI number over 50 represents more o...

WASHINGTON – Nov. 18, 2013 – The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 35.9 million U.S. residents, or 11.7 percent of all Americans, moved between 2012 and 2013. The nation’s mover rate is down from 12 percent in 2012. The decline follows an uptick from the record low of 11.6 percent in 2011. However,...

NEW YORK – Nov. 15, 2013 – Instead of just phoning a local landlord, house renters in Orlando may soon be dealing with call centers and centralized maintenance crews as Wall Street gets more involved in local home rentals. In one of the surest signs that the home-rental business is going corporat...

SAN FRANCISCO – Nov. 15, 2013 – After several years of slow-moving growth the commercial real estate market is in a recovery mode as transaction volume increased 27 percent over a year ago and prices display solid gains, said National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun du...

SEATTLE – Nov. 14, 2013 – Nationwide, homes listed for sale on real estate marketplace Zillow sold a month faster in September 2013 than they did in the same month on year earlier – 86 days compared to 116 days in September 2012. The fastest home turnover markets in the U.S., according to Zillow,...

SAN FRANCISCO – Nov. 13, 2013 – Before the property investment deal is sealed, a seller should ask himself one important question: Do I know if I’ll owe taxes on the sale of the property, even if I’m taking a loss on it? That question might be key to avoiding a common misconception: no profit mea...

SAN FRANCISCO – Nov. 12, 2013 – The dollar volume of home sales will rise modestly next year, but that growth will stem entirely from increased home prices, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun told a forum Friday at the Realtors Conference & Expo. Tight underwriting by lenders, low inventories in ma...