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Home builders positive about market for the first time in seven years
Tuesday, June 18, 2013

For the first time since 2006, a survey of the nation’s homebuilders found them with a positive outlook about the market. It’s not scientific, but it’s still nice to see.

Economist: No housing bubble
Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Economist took a look at Standard & Poor’s housing data and concluded that there probably isn’t a housing bubble at the moment. And when you see the charts you can see why.

For example, if you start at the end of 1987 (giving it a value of "100"), here is what real house prices look like.

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Real Show is open for registrations
Monday, June 17, 2013

Real_Show_2013_logo_dateThe two biggest days for Virginia’s Realtors is coming this fall—the Real Show 2013. Make sure you’ve made your reservations now for the Real Show — the largest gathering of real estate professionals in Virginia. Early bird registration ends June 30 – CLICK HERE to register today and lock in the best possible registration rate.

Charlottesville Realtors featured on NBC
Thursday, June 13, 2013

imageJim Duncan of Nest Realty and Denise Ramey, Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors president, were featured in a local NBC news report, "Realtors Continually Challenged by Growing Digital Age."

"It’s important to recognize that things are shifting constantly, and how can we be best positioned to really be ahead of that curve?" said Duncan.

Senators Warner and Corker to introduce bill liquidating Fannie and Freddie
Thursday, June 13, 2013

Virginia senator Mark Warner, along with colleague Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) — with backing from a bipartisan group of lawmakers — will introduce a bill that would liquidate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It would replace them with a new agency: the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. The plan isn’t final, but here are some provisions of the draft bill:

Ants, rats, bees, hornets, termites and other fun stuff around the house
Thursday, June 13, 2013

Lucy O’Neill over at the Improvement Center (a nifty website about home improvement projects) has a cool infographic about the most common kinds of pests around a home — what kind of damage they do, how to get rid of them, and some fun facts, too.

Speaking of which, my two favorites:

1. Some varieties of carpenter ant defend themselves by exploding and spraying their attacker with venom.

2. A cockroach can live for weeks without its head. (Insert politician joke here.)

Anyway, it’s worth either checking out, or passing along to someone else so they can get the heebie-jeebies instead.

Realtor numbers in Virginia on the rise
Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Every time I prepare an issue of Commonwealth to print, I get a membership count that I send to the printer. When I started (a little more than five years ago) it was in the upper 30,000s; with the burst of the housing bubble it dropped to the 28,000-or-so level by 2012.

But over the past year and a half it seems to be picking back up again. More people are getting their licenses and joining the business.

The February/March issue went to 29,457 Realtors and brokers. May/June was down a handful (29,424), but the June/July issue went to 29,780.

It’s not an explosion, but it certainly feels like — like the housing market itself — we’ve hit bottom and are starting to move back up.

 

VAR Form 600 gets new EMD language
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Legal LinesVAR’s popular Residential Contract of Purchase (Form 600) has gotten an update for the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) provision to help clarify the law for Realtors® and consumers. The June/July issue of Commonwealth – hitting your mailbox this week – includes a whole Legal Lines devoted to these changes. We’ve made those changes accessible online now, so you can see what’s new.

The most powerful lobbyers in DC
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

File this under "got your back": Check out who’s spending the most money lobbying on Capitol Hill, courtesy of OpenSecrets.org:

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That’s $8.5 million so far this year. In 2012, NAR spent a total of $41.5 million (and was also the number-two lobbying organization behind the US Chamber).

Michael Wilmore, come on down — you’re our newest $100 winner!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Congrats to Michael Wilmore of Coldwell Banker Residential in Sterling — he’s the winner of our second $100 Amex gift card for taking our 2013 member survey!

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, you have through the first day of summer: June 21. (Technically, 11:59 PM on June 21.) It takes fewer than five minutes, and you could see your name here as the next $100 winner.

Click here. Now. Take the survey — help us out, and maybe help yourself to $100.