The National Association of Home Builders reports that builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes held steady in September after four consecutive months of improvements. This year, the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers increased one point, to 47, the highest since October 2005. Any number over 50 indicates that more builders […]
Economists at the Goldman Sachs Group reported than more than 50% of all homes sold last year and throughout this year were bought mortgage-free and that all-cash sales have more than doubled since 2006. Before the housing bubble burst, only 20% of homebuyers made cash-only transactions. Goldman Sachs analysts determined the percentage of cash-only home […]
Twenty U.S. metropolitan areas are now part of the expanding Improving Markets Index as of this month, according to the National Association of Home Builders and First American Title Insurance. The February IMI list now includes 259 metro areas and has all 50 states represented on the list, including the District of Columbia. The new […]
The second quarter of 2010 proved to be the most brutal time period in home ownership in a decade. Bloomberg News recently reported that 18.9 million homes were vacant in that period. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the home ownership rate — that is, households that own their own residence — was 66.9 percent, […]