Home prices in South Florida now match what buyers are willing to pay. (Photo: iStockphoto)

Before relocating to Georgia in 1998, I lived for nearly 20 years in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. South Florida has always been an interesting real estate market, driven in part by its natural, immovable boundaries. It has the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Everglades on the west and the end of the United States on the south. There really are only two ways for the market to grow – you either tear down something old and replace it with something new, or you go vertical. During the real estate boom, the market saw plenty of both …Full Story

The $8,000 tax credit has opened the door for a housing market recovery, a new study says. (Photo: iStockphoto)

A new study commissioned by Fix Housing First, a group lobbying Congress for extension and expansion of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, reports that the tax credit has made a significant impact on helping the housing industry recover …Full Story

Getting a handle on today's housing market can be a tricky proposition -- with so much in flux and with fluctuating housing prices and an uncertain job market, it can be tough to determine just where your home's value is headed or what trends are in store for any local housing market.

That's where Cyberhomes comes in. We're now offering the Cyberhomes Market Forecast, the first ever consumer report that can show you real estate data for a particular home or neighborhood and graph out where the local market is expected to head over the next 12 to 24 months.

For an introductory price of $3.99, you can get information such as a local 12-month housing forecast; projections of distressed, foreclosure and real-estate owned properties in the area; and loan and assessment information such as assessor market value, loan-to-value ratio and tax delinquency status …Full Story

Friends of mine are shopping for a home in the pricey Princeton, N.J. area. Their price range is an entry-level one for that market, so they have been having some difficulty finding a home that suits their needs at a price they can afford. They finally found one they liked, put in a bid, and to their surprise (especially in today's economy), were beaten out by another buyer who offered cash for the house …Full Story

Lower home prices, an $8,000 federal first-time buyer tax credit and low interest rates are all apparently working together to lure a sizeable number of first-time homebuyers into the market, according to data released by the National Association of Realtors yesterday.

Almost half of all home sales last month were by first-time homebuyers, the trade group said, with sales of distressed homes -- which sell for about 20 percent less than normal market price -- making up 40 percent to 45 percent of all home sales in February, the group adds …Full Story

Albany, N.Y., has seen its median price rise in recent months.

U.S. homes sales and prices continued to fall in January, with sales dropping 5.3 percent from the month before and 8.6 percent from January 2008 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.49 million units, according to the National Association of Realtors. The sales pace was the lowest in 12 years, says the Associated Press. The median price, $170,300, was down 14.8 percent from January 2008, and represented the lowest price since March 2003, the AP says. Continuing to drag down home prices was a high number of distressed home sales, NAR says.

The good news is that the inventory of homes for sale dropped 2.7 percent from December, representing a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace, NAR says …Full Story

Times have changed. Not too long ago, channels like HGTV and TLC ran plenty of shows focused on how to profit from the housing boom -- shows like "Designed to Sell," "My House is Worth What," and "Property Ladder" -- a show based on how to "flip," or sell quickly for a profit, a home …Full Story

At 71, a family member of mine has retired after 40 years at the same company in the publishing industry, thanks to a buyout his employer was offering to trim its staff without resorting to layoffs.

It's a sign of the times. Another sign of the times is that now that he's retired, this retiree is hoping to sell his spacious single-family home in a leafy New Jersey suburb of Manhattan, but hasn't put it on the market, knowing it might be difficult to sell.

Now that he's on a fixed income, he'd like to downsize to cut back on expenses, but knows all too well how difficult it can be to sell a house these days. His neighbors, who are looking to relocate to a better school district, put their home up for sale over a year ago, and after it sat unsold for several months, decided to wait until trying to sell it again …Full Story

All too often these days, only the negative is written about the housing market. For today's post, I decided to look at it from a brighter perspective, and only think of the positive:

1. If you have a good job and good credit, falling home prices may make buying a home more affordable. (Home prices are the lowest in six years and are still decreasing, says Reuters.)

2. Low interest rates -- 30-year mortgage rates averaged at 5.10 percent this week, while 15-year mortgages averaged at 4.80 percent, according to Marketwatch …Full Story

It's been confirmed -- there are some bargain seekers out there, and they are taking advantage of falling housing prices, particularly in the West, according to a report released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors. In the West, sales of existing homes jumped 13.6 percent in December from October, which is 31.6 percent higher than a year ago. Meanwhile, sales dropped 1.4 percent in the Northeast, rose 4 percent in the Midwest and rose 7.4 percent in the South. Overall, across the U.S., sales of existing homes jumped an unexpected 6.5 percent in December, but were 3.5 percent below December 2007's level.  …Full Story