Real Estate Market Trends

In their latest report, the National Association of Realtors has found that the U.S. housing market posted extremely promising gains in the third quarter of 2015; so promising, in fact, that the Association's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, describes it as housing's best quarter in nearly a decade! What spurred him to deliver such high praise? Despite the ongoing lack of inventory nationwide, sales of existing home increased sharply in the third quarter. At the same time, the rate of price growth, which has been borderline unhealthy in many markets, finally showed signs of slowing down. Keep reading to learn more about the state of the nation's housing market!

It's a scenario seen time and time again: A home owner wants to sell their house, so they stick a "For Sale By Owner" sign out front. They figure that selling alone will save them big money on the commission, while only requiring a bit more work on their part. In fact, 48% of people selling without an agent cite this as the primary reason why they chose to do so. While this may seem reasonable, the reality is that homes sold through a trained real estate agent sign for an average of $39,000 more than those sold by owner!

For the seventh time in as many years, Rent.com has released their Property Owner and Manager Market Report. The survey reveals current trends and predictions for the future of the U.S. rental market as reported by over 500 rental property managers. In addition to confirming the seemingly universal rent increases which have been seen in the past year, managers are also predicting a further increase of 8% for the coming year!