A jump in sales and a dip in inventory are providing a ray of hope for a depressed housing market.
The bad news is that home prices are still dropping and many buyers remain on the sidelines.
There were 1,740 homes under contract for sale in Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, a 26 percent increase over [...]

Home resales in the U.S. rose more than forecast in September, aided by foreclosure-driven declines in prices that made properties more affordable.
Purchases of existing homes jumped 5.5 percent last month to a 5.18 million annual pace, the highest level in a year, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The median price dropped [...]

A new PhoCusWright study on the dramatic growth in the vacation rental market indicates that companies like Zonder, the leader in real-time, online booking of private homes, cabins, condos and villas, are well positioned to overcome distribution barriers and are making this attractive rental option accessible to consumers.
The study, PhoCusWright’s Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for [...]

The number of homeowners ensnared in the foreclosure crisis grew by more than 70 percent in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2007, according to data released Thursday.
Nationwide, nearly 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, up 71 percent from a year earlier, said [...]

Denver’s commercial real estate market ranks among the nation’s 10 most promising, despite a gloomy national forecast, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Overall, 2009 is expected to be the worst year for the commercial real estate industry since the 1991-92 industry slowdown, according to the “Emerging Trends [...]

Foreclosure activity in September rose 21 percent from a year earlier but fell by double-digits from the prior month as some state laws slowed the foreclosure process, according to a monthly report by research firm RealtyTrac.
Foreclosure filings — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — fell by 12 percent from August to 265,968 [...]

Travelers looking for alternatives to hotels have helped grow the vacation rental market to a $24.3 billion industry, according to a new study.
Sherman, Conn.-based travel research group PhocusWright Inc. conducted the study, which forecasts that online vacation rental bookings will nearly double between 2007 to 2010. According to the study more than 40 percent of [...]

Real estate investors and professionals say financial and real estate markets in the U.S. will hit bottom in 2009 and continue to slump for much of 2010, according to a report released Tuesday by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
D.C. is the “ultimate hold market when the economy struggles” and downtown office vacancies should [...]

Lubbock ranks among the top five U.S. cities with a strong housing market.
“Veros Real Estate Solutions” latest 12-month forecast projects home values will increase 3.8 percent through September 2009.
That places Lubbock second only to Peoria, Illinois on the list of the strongest real estate markets in the country.
Veros creates forecast models reflecting projected market gains [...]

An unusual September jump in home sales, together with the biggest monthly drop yet in prices, could be early signs that San Diego County housing is approaching the bottom of a three-year-old downturn, industry experts and observers said yesterday.
MDA DataQuick reported that the median price for all homes dropped $22,000 from August to stand at [...]