22 May 08 The Hunt for a New Home Starts Online

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to New Homes Section's Blog. Thanks for visiting!

According to a recent National Association of Realtors’ profile of buyers and sellers, only 7 percent of all buyers went and visited an open house as their first step when searching for the right home to buy. In fact, it is estimated that close to 90 percent of all buyers start hunting for their next home on the Internet.

So where does this leave the open house? Many real estate agents will not conduct an open house unless insisted upon by the agent’s client; and when an open house event does take place, a rookie agent is often asked to host the event on behalf of the owner’s agent. Newer agents will often request to baby-sit the open house in order to gain leads by introducing themselves to would be buyers and sellers.

If a potential buyer does attend an open house, or if the buyer wishes to view a home for sale in person, it is most often after he or she has found electronic information – pictures, textual description, and other information gathered via the Internet.

Tags: home seller, homebuyer, internet, NAR, national association of realtors, new homes for sale, open house, real estate agent

16 May 08 Las Vegas, Miami, and Phoenix Real Estate… Home Price Gains as Much as 50 Percent!

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, stated that Las Vegas, Miami, and Phoenix home prices could increase by as much as 50 percent over the next five years. During Yun’s speech, at the National Association of Realtor’s Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo yesterday, he further added that many cities, which have performed evenly for the past several years, are likely to see home price gains between 20 to 30 percent within five years.

Yun’s assessments are mainly derived from analyzing trends in subprime lending. The markets where significantly more subprime loans were issued are coincidently the same ones that have experienced the biggest downturns.

“While much of the media is focusing on the fact that the rate of foreclosures doubled this year from historic averages, the foreclosure rate has gone from one percent of all homeowner with mortgages to two percent. Foreclosures are being driven principally by subprime loans”, said Yun.

Personally, I think that these are rather bold predictions by Yun… however; his reasoning isn’t too farfetched. I guess time will tell…

Does anyone agree, or disagree, with Yun? I read about this on an NAR press release, click here to read the entire article.

Tags: las vegas real estate, lawrence yun, miami real estate, NAR, national association of realtors, national association of realtors midyear legislative me, phoenix real estate