In the world of costs and benefits, no good deed goes unpunished and every rain cloud has a silver lining. The Commerce Department recently reported that consumer retail spending had risen the most in seven months. That bodes well for residential real…

Nationwide, local markets have become stable enough to withstand mortgage rate increases. Improving job and other economic sectors have fortified real, organic housing growth. Bargain-basement deals have given way to multiple offers, stiff bidding war…

Housing isn’t just housing. That may have a strange ring to it. But housing includes building, inspecting, remodeling, lending, refinancing, furnishing and a host of other functions tied to the physical space of home. Each of these functions is …

A fellow named Newton once said that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Presently, the housing market is going to be in a state of anti-motion, otherwise known as inertia. Each year, the activity around Independence Day collides with market tre…

Consumer confidence, prices, sales and percent of list price received at sale are all generally on the ups. This has been a nice place to be for real estate practitioners. In terms of expecting the unexpected trends, economists suggest tuning into ind…