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RISMEDIA, August 5, 2010—Pending home sales edged down with near-term sales expected to be notably lower in contrast to the spring surge when buyers rushed to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator, declined 2.6% to 75.7 based on contracts signed in June 2010 from an upwardly revised level of 77.7 in May, and is 18.6% below June 2009 when it was 93.0. The …

RISMEDIA, August 2, 2010—The lending landscape has changed quite drastically over the past several years. Practices, approvals and standards that were once widely accepted have either vanished or transformed beyond the point of recognition. Many banks, which were once extremely careless with their loan underwriting techniques and approvals, have dug themselves into a significant hole that will take many years to climb out of. Promotions such as “100% Financing” and “No Doc Loans” were both major contributors to the financial …

RISMEDIA, July 27, 2010—The Home Buyer Tax Credit proved to be a valuable stimulus to the troubled U.S. housing industry. The only catch: those who qualified had to be under contract by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30 (editor’s note: at press time, the federal government had extended this closing deadline to September).

In the months leading up to the contract deadline, existing home sales increased steadily and, according to NAR data released in May, they jumped 7.6% …

RISMEDIA, July 21, 2010—(MCT)—The Lake County, Fla., home Paul Fallman shares with his wife and two daughters has 4,000 square feet of living space. Yet his electric bills have averaged just 0 a month so far this year, despite record-low winter temperatures and close-to-record summer highs.

His natural-gas bill for two tankless water heaters and a fireplace averages a month.

“My focus with this house was energy-efficiency,” says Fallman, owner of Fallman Design & Construction in Clermont, Fla. “It’s so …

RISMEDIA, July 9, 2010—(MCT)—On paper, it’s the chance of a lifetime—a golden opportunity not to be missed.

Mortgage interest rates are at their lowest since 1971 and home prices have reached their lowest point since 2002, says IHS Global Insight Inc. economist Patrick Newport, and appear to be stabilizing.

Veteran real estate agents are hard-pressed to remember a time when rock-bottom rates and affordable prices converged this way. So where are all the buyers now that the tax credit is …