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Consumers Feel Good about Mortgage Credit

More Americans now believe it would be easy for them to get a mortgage, according to Fannie Mae’s January 2014 National Housing Survey results. Consumer attitudes regarding the ease of getting a mortgage climbed 2 percentage points to an all-time survey high of 52 percent, while those who think
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Consumers More Committed to Buying or Selling This Year

Prudential Real Estate, an HSF Affiliates LLC real estate brokerage network, recently released results of its fourth quarter Consumer Outlook Survey indicating that consumers’ perception of residential real estate is increasingly favorable, and that consumers are more committed to buying and
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Can Shadow Inventory Help Relieve Price Pressure?

Home prices grew at the fastest pace in seven years in 2013. This is good news for property owners, both homeowners and landlords, as they witnessed, on average, a $32,000 gain in housing equity over the past two years. The equity increase is an immediate financial gain for many. For others, it
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Online Access: The Importance of Product Experience

From what began as a traditional offline business, real estate began moving online in the late 1990s and has increasingly become not only an online business, but a mobile one. Real estate will always have a fundamental human element, but homebuyers in 2013 have a much different experience than
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Consumer Confidence Shows Mixed Results

Measures of consumer confidence were mixed in the most recent release. The Conference Board reported that the Consumer Confidence Index increased by 3.2 points on a month-over-month seasonally adjusted basis in December to 80.7. Meanwhile, according to Thomson Reuters and the University of
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Today’s Buyers are Looking for these 10 Things in a Home

While David Letterman’s Top 10 lists generally culminate in a No. 1 ranking, the following list includes in no particular order 10 things that are important to buyers today, especially Millennials who represent a significant buyer niche in today’s market. 1. Quality of the neighborhood –
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No Signs of Cooling in Home Prices during this Winter

Data through November 2013, released recently by S&P Dow Jones Indices for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, showed that the 10-City and 20-City Composites increased 13.8 percent and 13.7 percent year-over-year. Dallas posted its highest
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Having the Right Kitchen Remodel Can Pay Off

Traditional Kitchen by Boston Kitchen & Bath Designers Venegas and Company Unequivocally, the kitchen is … The most important space in a home today. From a home value perspective this means it is the most important space to get right. Where we all spend our time. Therefore, it is
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More Home Owners are Remodeling As Home Equity Returns

Home remodeling saw greater demand in the third quarter as a growth in home equity and home sales prompted more home owners to tackle remodeling projects, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ home remodeling index. The remodeling market index moved higher in the third
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10% of Home Owners Still Underwater

As prices rise, more home owners are regaining equity. But some metros are still facing a disproportionate number of underwater home owners, those who owe more on their home than it is currently worth. Nationwide, 10.6 percent—or 5.3 million—of all mortgage holders remain underwater. Still,
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