We’ll start the second part of our “Google real estate” series with an uncontroversial claim – the Internet and real estate are highly intertwined entities. Nine out of 10 home searches today start on the Web, and it seems

By Peter Ricci Home prices increased 7.4 percent from November 2011 to November 2012 in the lastest CoreLogic HPI, which is the ninth straight month of year-over-year home price increases and the strongest showing from home prices since May

First-time homebuyers, as any agent knows, are one of the most important demographics to a healthy real estate market, and the increasing market share of first-time homebuyers has been one of the many positive developments of the housing recovery

Total home sales increased 6 percent in 2012 over 2011 according to the January MarketPulse report from CoreLogic, a wide-ranging analysis of the housing market that anticipated good things for the real estate industry in 2013. With that 6

Last week, we reported on a rather startling statistic – that real estate-related searches on Google had increased by 253 percent from 2008 to the present

Chicago Agent just launched Real Data, its digital data issue containing statistics about the year in real estate, so to kick off the new feature, we decided to compare some of 2012’s findings to 2011. In 2011, the highest

According to the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI), the number of metropolitan areas on the IMI list rose for a fifth consecutive month to 242 in January, marking what the NAHB calls “the latest

Google and NAR team up on housing study With housing search data from Google combined with buyer and seller behavior from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the story of today’s homebuyers and sellers is unfolding, and it is

Freddie Mac’s first Primary Mortgage Market Survey of the year shows that fixed mortgage rates continue to hover near their all-time record low, which the mortgage giant says is, “helping to keep homebuyer affordability high and aiding the ongoing

Buyers enjoyed unprecedented buying power last year, according to the National Association of Realtor’s Housing Affordability Index. Cruising past 2011’s record figure of 186, the index is expected to reach an all-time high of 194 for

Real estate is often considered the last truly “free” market in the U.S. economy, a sector that, unlike agriculture, manufacturing, education or health care, has avoided the influence of government to grow and prosper – or has it? According to a

Well, it’s finally happened. After months of speculation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finally announced its qualified mortgage standards, which are the new, defining lending guidelines for the nation’s

Proponents of renting have often argued that renting is less expensive that owning, and admittedly, the argument makes sense; after all, renters do not have to worry about repairs, insurance or property taxes, among the other additional costs owners

The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Improving Markets Index, a key measure of the housing markets in the U.S.’ largest metropolitan areas, rose for the fifth consecutive month in January, increasing to a total of 242 cities – one

Federal regulators put the finishing touches on an $8.5 billion mortgage settlement with 10 of the nation’s largest lenders earlier this week, with the majority of the funds going towards delinquent homeowners in danger of losing their homes. With

Things have been looking up for the housing market heading into 2013, and we’re not just saying that because shadow inventory is falling, home sales at their highest mark in years and consumer confidence in the housing market is rising.