Industry Facts & Figures

I don't think you will find these being reported too often.
81% of Americans and 55% of Canadians view real estate as a good investment.
78% of Americans and 46% of Canadians feel that housing prices will hold steady or increase over the next 12 months.
80% is the percentage of major U.S. Cities where its cheaper to buy a home than rent.
25% of young American and 43% of young Canadians plan to buy a home in the next two years.
In 2010 15 million renter households were qualified to buy a median priced home compared to just 7.7 million in the year 2005.
Housing affordability remains high in American and most Canadian markets; in the U.S. it reached its hightest level in 20 years in late 2010.
95% of homeowner are happy they decided to buy a home.
First time home buyers comprise 35% of home sales in the U.S. and 50% of home sales in Canadia.
67% of first-time homebuyers said the market granted them the opportunity to purchase a home sooner than expected.
50% found a home in a better neighborhood than expected.
61% purchased their home at a better price than expected.
43% locked into a lower interest rate than expected.
69% of Americans and 55% of Canadians say that now is the best time to buy a home.

another one on foundations

Currently with one of the worst drouths ever recorded in Texas I see another reason to post some reminders about home foundations. This current dry weather pattern/lack of rain means the obvious, less moister in the ground for the same clay soil that swells with rain fall. The soil settles-compacts-shrinks, basically "drops" a little here and there.
I hear adds on the radio about foundation work. These adds can prey on fears that our foundations are caving in and they outline how "their piers and drilling go deeper than other foundation companies". Hitting bedrock is the final goal of a drilled pier, sometimes we don't need to go that far. How one company states "going deeper than any other" seems odd to me... Hiring a foundation company to "fix the problem" is not the first step. THE NUMBER ONE SOURCE FOR YOUR FOUNDATION QUESTION IS A RECOMMENDED STRUCTURAL ENGINEER TO ASSESS THE ISSUE. So some points to keep in mind are; Investigate your down spouts, the down spouts of your neighbors on either side of your home, the integrity of curbs (curbs and the way our driveways are created should keep water from entering your yard, should influence the water flowing down the streets), clean your french drains & gutters, look for areas in your yard where landscaping can improve water flow, consider location of trees next to your home.

Communication

In '95 my cell phone was just like Gordon Gieko's from the movie Wall Street. At the time the majority of phone interaction was over 'hard lines' with a random pager from time to time. Now the majority of phone communication is cell phones. It seems the last 36+ months (growth of smart phones) has provided even more diverse communication methods; texting, social media (basically emailing through facebook). Some still like to be called at their office or home 'hard lines'. Others like only cell phones while others like email. I am finding more people never listen to a voice mail deferring to email/text which decreases "phone tag".
In a transactional situation everybody should discuss how best to communicate (including a 'point person' in a marriage / couple situation) early on - set communication expectations because there are a ton of options. While typing messages & emails is very effective you can count on a necessity to talk directly and share ideas to develop strategy relative to the transaction.

4 homes for sale on one block???

I was asked the other day why one block had 4 homes listed for sale? My answer was, "often a home sells for a high price and it gets the attention of the entire neighborhood kicking off other home owners to sell (move up/move down/capture their equity the old fashion way). Of course the 'other side' of this question is the concern that something negative is going on which only the current neighbors know about. Compounding this scenario are the stories from Las Vegas, parts of Florida and Southern California where the foreclosures bring down values and have back HOA dues. Fortunately with inspections, deed restrictions, HOA by laws being shared & title insurance investigations much is learned before closing.
I went ahead and researched this exact street and sure enough, 4 months ago a home sold for a higher price per sq ft than seen in years. The "high price sale" also requires knowing the specifics; how big is the home? what upgrades are in this home? how is the landscaping? what is the condition? how easy was it to show?. Without realistic data this one confirmed / sold home can lead to a few over priced listed homes that sit for a long time AND really frustrate the owners.

5%

Don't over price your home and exceed 5% of the market value.
Homes listed for sale should sell or at least receive an offer if they are at or less than 5% of their market value. Many Buyers get intimidated when making offers, not everyone is comfortable with negotiations. Buyers get even more uncomfortable if they view their offering price to be drastically below that of the list price. This is especially true if the house is new to the market. What do you think is said if the house has sat on the market for over 100 days? ..."what is wrong with that property?".
Stated in earlier posts sellers should know their list price to sell price ratios (LP/SP). If this ratio is 97%, than a seller should not list more than 3% over their market value (market value is not county appraisal value).
Consider what being over priced by 5% means from the perspective of the buyer;
$125,000 = $6,250 (first time buyer, one of if not THE biggest purchases to date)
$185,000 = $9,250 (first time buyer, maybe newly wed, tons on their proverbial plate)
$250,000 = $12,500 (kids, new parents or maybe buying a home alone)
$1,500,000 = $75,000 (buyers at all ranges don't get to be buyers in this market without watching their bottom line, especially true at the million dollar prices).
There is a shelf life to homes on the market which is a good reason to know Days on Market (DOM), LP/SP and your market value from activity in the last 3 to 6 months.