National Housing Market Intelligence

It sounds like a home builder’s fantasy, but we found this real-life scenario in Torrance, California: a project that’s been selling an average of 4 homes a week with 40% of its buyers paying in cash and many others coming …

While the Census Bureau reported last week that housing starts surged month-over-month, these headline-grabbing numbers are the seasonally adjusted data, which can fluctuate wildly. They often create great headlines because of the significant changes each month. A better way to …

Recent reports of price appreciation are comparing apples and oranges. We are extremely concerned that policy makers, banking and real estate industry executives, investors and others will use misleading home price data to conclude that home prices have stabilized. They …

We believe there will be a flood of investment opportunities over the next few years. To distinguish a diamond in the rough from Fool’s Gold, it is important to get smart about which submarkets will emerge first – and strongest …

While the continued decline in total housing construction is getting all the headlines, seasonally adjusted single-family construction activity was up slightly month-over-month. This is consistent with the findings of our monthly survey of builders, who report a slight increase in …

In our quest to be the first to properly call a bottom in this housing cycle, we have developed a tool called the Housing Cycle GPA. Our analysis has shown that the health of the market fundamentals (demand, supply and …

Decision makers don’t have time to study all of the data, yet they make huge decisions every day based on what they believe to be the market outlook. Smart decision makers rely on someone who is unbiased to study all …

We have the best housing affordability in at least 38 years, and the worst economy in 51 years. Hmm…. The monthly cost of homeownership has fallen 43% from the peak in this cycle, with more than half of that due …

Our headline is certainly a positive way of saying that we think a 12% unemployment rate (in 2011) is the most likely scenario. What matters to housing is that 88% of people will still be gainfully employed, and will probably …