A report released recently said that more Americans signed contracts to buy a home in July than in June, marking the longest streak of increases on record. The National Association of REALTORS® pending home sales index rose 3.2% in July after rising by 3.6% in June, which is 12% higher than July 2008, and marks the sixth straight increase since record-keeping began in 2001. The report vastly improved on...

A report released recently said that more Americans signed contracts to buy a home in July than in June, marking the longest streak of increases on record. The National Association of REALTORS® pending home sales index rose 3.2% in July after rising by 3.6% in June, which is 12% higher than July 2008, and marks the sixth straight increase since record-keeping began in 2001. The report vastly improved on...

Commercial real estate owners and developers will get some much-needed flexibility to rework their mortgages or receive loan extensions under a new federal tax rule that could provide some relief to a deeply troubled sector of the real estate market. The new Internal Revenue Service rule will affect loans that are backed by office parks, office buildings, shopping malls and other types of commercial real...

The U.S. Commerce Department said recently that home building permits, an indicator of future construction trends, fell last September by the largest amount in five months. The decline came at an unfortunate moment while Congress is considering whether to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The Commerce Department said that new home construction rose a meager 0.5 percent that month to a...

During the second quarter of 2009, some parts of the country saw modest gains in economic recovery, but Louisville's economy still appears to be struggling according to a Metro Monitor study released recently by the Brookings Institute. In a ranking of 100 metro areas in the U.S. measured by the unemployment rate, gross metropolitan product, housing prices and percentage of change in employment,...

Some Louisville residents may be moving soon if the Metro Sewer District's plan, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, provides an option for owners of Louisville homes in flood-prone areas to move elsewhere. The proposal would buy Louisville houses in these areas and homeowners given the option to sell and move. The proposal is still in the development process, but the flooding in the Louisville area...

Folks who want to take advantage of the tax credit for first-time homebuyers are running out of time. Unless Congress votes to extend the program—and some legislators are for it—the tax credit of up to $8000 will expire in December. Given the length of time that it takes to arrange financing, home inspections and all the other requisite tasks to take care of when buying a home, homebuyers are...

When it's time to sell your home, it is easy but a little expensive to go the traditional route and hire a real estate agent to help you sell your home. They have the resources, contacts and infrastructure in place to facilitate the sale of your home and relieve you from having to do the legwork yourself. However, it has never been easier than right now to sell your home yourself using...

The government's first-time home buyer program is one of the very few bright spots in a generally lousy real estate climate. We've put together a short list of requirements to help people gain a better understanding of the requirements of the program and take advantage of the many benefits the program offers. $8,000 Qualified first-time home buyers are eligible to receive up to $8,000 in...

Home foreclosures have received a lot of coverage in the media for the last 18 months. The number of people losing their homes has skyrocketed as the economy has flagged. People who bought their homes at the top of the market are so upside-down on their loans that many are simply walking away from them. The situation has communities and states scrambling to deal with the steadily increasing amount of...