Bob Forman's Real Estate Blog

SEATTLE – Dec. 17, 2013 – The nation’s healthiest housing markets in October are clustered in California and the rest of the West, according to the newly released product from Zillow – the Zillow Market Health Index. Zillow’s Market Health Index purports to measure, on a scale from 0 to 10, the c...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Dec. 16, 2013 – Question: I am self-employed and make a good living. I want to buy a house, but it’s hard to document my income. So I’ve been getting turned down for a mortgage, even though I’m willing to make a large downpayment. Any hope for me? – TrevorAnswer: With bank...

WASHINGTON – Dec. 16, 2013 – Higher rents are ahead next year for the nation’s apartment dwellers, but some cities will see smaller bumps than in recent years, market researchers say. Rents will increase 3.1 percent nationally next year, about the same as this year, apartment market researcher Ax...

WASHINGTON – Dec. 13, 2013 – Many U.S. homeowners facing eviction won’t lose their homes over the two-week holiday at the end of December. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – the mortgage giants that buy loans from banks and control roughly half the mortgages in the U.S. – offered a similar no-eviction ...

TAMPA, Fla. – Dec. 12, 2013 – Tampa-area practitioners who specialize in selling homes in retirement communities report that sales are typically brisk around the holidays, and this year is no exception. Gary Ward with Century 21 Beggins Enterprises in Sun City Center reasons that home sales pick ...

IRVINE, Calif. – Dec. 12, 2013 – RealtyTrac’s Foreclosure Market Report for November shows foreclosure filings – all default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – decreased 15 percent from the previous month and 37 percent year-to-year.   The 15 percent monthly decrease in November...

SAN FRANCISCO – Dec 11, 2013 – Trulia, Inc. today published its look back at the U.S. housing market’s uneven recovery in 2013. It finds a housing market moving back to its pre-bubble “normal” level from the worst of the recession. Throughout 2013, the housing recovery has progressed on most fron...

WASHINGTON – Dec. 10, 2013 – James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, opened up the possibility of a small reduction in the Fed’s bond-buying program, another sign the central bank may soon shrink its 15-month-old monetary stimulus. Speaking at the CFA Society of St. Lou...

IRVINE, Calif. – Dec. 9, 2013 – CoreLogic released its October National Foreclosure Report. It finds 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in October 2013 – a sale where the bank actually took the home – down from 68,000 in October 2012 for a year-over-year decrease of 30 percent. On a month-...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Dec. 6, 2013 – Question: We have an unruly owner who attends every association meeting. The owner heckles, laughs inappropriately and answers questions that are posed to board members. We are told by the board president that as an owner, she has a right to be there and we ...