Jeffrey Samuels's Blog

Within homes, the kitchen is often the most "used" room in the house. It's a meeting place for meals, for conversation, and for family. Unfortunately, that makes it a meeting place for bacteria, as well. Along with bathrooms, kitchens are the most bacteria-heavy rooms in a home. Kitchens require ...

Home sales appear headed for a mid-summer breather.  One month after posting a multi-year high, the Pending Home Sales Indexretreated to 99.3 in June -- a strong reading in its own right. A "pending home sale" is a home that is under contract to sell, but not yet sold. June's value of 99.3 marks ...

The number of newly-built homes sold slipped 8 percent in June from the month prior, says the U.S. Census Bureau in its latest New Home Sales report. The June data shows 350,000 homes sold nationwide on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis. The home sale tally fell short of Wall Street expect...

The housing market's bottom is 9 months behind us. Home values continue to climb nationwide. According to the Federal Home Finance Agency's Home Price Index, home values rose 0.8% in May on a monthly, seasonally-adjusted basis. May's reading marks the sixth time in seven months that home values r...

Home resales slipped more than 5 percent last month, putting a damper recent housing market enthusiasm. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Existing Home Sales fell to 4.37 million units in June 2012 on a seasonally-adjusted, annualized basis. This is 250,000 fewer home sales per ...

The number of U.S. homes receiving foreclosure notices topped one million through the first six months of 2012, according to RealtyTrac. There were 1.046 million foreclosure filings between January - June 2012, says the foreclosure-tracking firm in its Midyear 2012 Foreclosure Market Report. The...

The Federal Reserve released the minutes from its June Federal Open Market Committee meeting, revealing a Fed divided on the future of the U.S. economy. Mortgage rates are higher after the release of the minutes. The Fed Minutes is the detailed recap of an FOMC meeting. It is the companion piece ...

With mortgage rates down to all-time lows, you can buy a lot more home for your money. Home affordability is at an all-time high. According to last week's Freddie Mac mortgage rate survey, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage has dropped to 3.62% nationwide. This is down from 4.08% in March, ...

For the first time in more than 100 years, the growth in America's cities is outpacing the growth in its suburbs.  According to the 2011 estimates of the U.S. Census Bureau, between July 2010 and July 2011, city centers grew faster than their surrounding suburbs in 53% of the nation's largest hou...

30-year fixed rate mortgage rates made new, all-time lows once again this week. According to Freddie Mac's weekly mortgage rate survey of more than 125 banks nationwide, the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate fell 4 basis point to 3.62% nationwide. The rate is available to conforming, prime...