News

VAR's Agency Center is now online
Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Agency: It’s a simple word that describes a complex set of relationships that Realtors® engage in every day. Its complexity is evidenced by the volumes of books written about it, the fact that it is taught as a semester course in law school and, most importantly, the way it is misunderstood in everyday real estate practice.

The Virginia Association of Realtors® worked to help develop legislation to enhance the agency relationship disclosure requirements between licensees and those they represent. This means there are a number of changes to the existing agency laws in Virginia, and VAR wants to make sure that all members are up to speed on what they need to know to serve their client and customers and stay in compliance with Virginia laws.

Q1 2012 home sales report is now available
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The First Quarter 2012 Virginia Home Sales Report has been released and brings good news for the Commonwealth! Several long-term trends indicate that Virginia’s housing market is continuing to stabilize.

As shown above, the pace of home sales in the first quarter of 2012 marked an improvement over both the first quarter of 2011 and 2010.

VARbuzz: Housing inventory down nationwide: Pro Teck
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Good and bad news for Virginia in the latest Home Value Forecast from real estate valuation company Pro Teck.

Housing inventory across the country is down significantly in May — 21% below 2011, in fact. (It based this on “numerous data sources including public records, local market MLS and general economic data.”)

In fact, in every CBSA — Core Based Statistical Area — inventory was down, except Philadelphia. (Which makes sense, as who wants to live in Eagles territory?)

VARbuzz: Demand Institute study has some specific predictions about the housing market
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A new report from the Demand Institute concludes that the U.S. housing market will finally turn the corner in 2012. That’s good, and I agree, and it’s a reasonable prediction to make.

“The recovery of the housing market will have far-reaching impacts in the coming years across the United States and international markets as U.S. consumers increase their spending on buying, renovating, furnishing and maintaining their homes.”

A-yup. Even if the market doesn’t recover this year, when it does all those things are true. Can’t really argue.

VARbuzz: Cell phones, driving, and Virginia law
Wednesday, May 16, 2012

BlueAnt V12 - LCD Bluetooth headset headsetSo my neighbor/friend was a-driving along, and for whatever reason was on her mobile. Thinking to be a bit safer, she popped one of those Bluetooth earpiece things in so she didn’t have to hold her phone and try to drive at the same time.

And she got pulled over and ticketed. Because, apparently, Virginia law says you can’t have an earpiece thingy in your ear while driving.

All about you: NAR’s membership profile
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

NAR’s 2012 membership profile is out, and it’s full of interesting stuff about, well, you.

For the first time since 2002, member income was up — in 2011 it increased 2.3% from the year before to $34,900.

While (by definition) half of you earn less than $35K per year, 17% earn $100K or more.

VARbuzz: Ally Financial and principal reduction
Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Irony alert: Ally Financial’s mortgage division (Residential Capital, or ResCap) filed for bankruptcy — in other words, it’s asking for a massive principal reduction from its creditors.

Said Ally CEO Michael Carpenter: “The action by ResCap will enable Ally to achieve a permanent solution to its legacy mortgage risks and put these issues behind us.”

I wonder if that argument would work with Ally’s mortgage holders. “Reducing our principal would allow my family to achieve a permanent solution to our legacy financial troubles and put these issues behind us.”

Commercial sentiment is metza-metz
Monday, May 14, 2012

While consumers are seeing a half-full glass, commercial real estate investors and execs are less willing to say they’re confident in their slice of the economy.

According to the latest quarterly Sentiment Survey from the Real Estate Roundtable, while commercial real estate pros say things improved in the first quarter, they’re still nervous about some of the commercial mortgages that will mature in the coming year.

The confidence index — it’s now at 70 — means that there’s more positive feeling than negative, but that number is down from last year (although up from Q4 of 2011).

An in

Consumer sentiment hits (another) high
Monday, May 14, 2012

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index (basically, the one everyone uses) not only beat the predictions for early May, but hit its highest level since January 2008.

“Analysts” had predicted that the index would drop from 76.4 (April) to 76.2. Instead, it climbed to 77.8.

What do those numbers mean? Essentially, in 1964 researchers asked consumers if they were positive or negative about the economy. They set that level as “100.” Everything else is compared to that. In short, it’s simply a relative measure — are consumers more or less positive than they were last time we asked?

This latest survey was the ninth straight month of increases — something that hasn’t happened since 1978.

As Bloomberg explained:

LPS reports first home-price increase since 2010
Friday, May 11, 2012

There are a lot of small indicators of a market turnaround, and LPS (that’s Lender Processing Services) has a new one: It’s Home Price Index — which is based on actual closings — was up 0.2 percent in February, and the company expects it to rise again in March by another 0.3 percent.

Small changes, to be sure, but as LPS VP Raj Dosaj points out, prices increased “for the first time since March 2010, and for only the third time in five years.”

He points out that in other years a spring increase is erased by a summer drop, so any optimism needs to be cautious. But it’s still another small point of light.