October was a good month for real estate agents and home sellers, according to the latest data from the National Association of Realtors. The Washington-based trade group says pending home sales rose 10.4 percent last month.
“Home sales have been plodding along at a sub-par level while interest rates are hovering at record lows and there is a pent-up demand from buyers who normally would have entered the market in recent years,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun………………………………………..Full Article: Source

New-home sales edged slightly higher last month, as more Americans hunted for bargains in the struggling housing market. The Census Bureau reported an annual sales rate of 307,000 new homes last month, up 1.3% from a downwardly revised rate of 303,000 homes in September. Compared to new home sales a year ago, October sales were up 8.9%.
The 307,000 rate fell just short of expectations. Economists had forecast a sales rate of 312,000 new homes, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com………………………………………..Full Article: Source

If you live in Atlanta, San Francisco, or Tampa, the recent news was clearly not what you wanted to hear, but then you probably already know the dire situation in your housing market.
The key Case-Shiller 20-city Index showed these three metropolitan areas experienced the largest decline in home prices in September. Also consider that 17 of the 20 cities in the index witnessed price erosion in the housing market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

With the skyrocketing real estate values of the mid 1990s and early 2000s, many Americans (homeowners and home builders alike) felt over confident in this trend as the market saturated and high risk mortgages dropped the bottom of the market.
Thankfully, as the system slowly, but steadily is being treated for the ailments of yesterday’s 0% down ARM mortgages and the idea that every American can and should be a homeowner, investors can find opportunities in real estate stocks poised for an upswing as the economy heals………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government announced a clutch of steps on Tuesday to boost Britain’s ailing housing market and increase home ownership – but analysts are divided as to whether homebuilders will count among those to benefit.
Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement included plans to reinvigorate the right to buy scheme; underwrite mortgages for 100,000 young families; and launch a £400 million fund to enable housebuilders to construct up to 16,000 homes………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Home prices in 20 US metros show continuing decline, down 3.6 percent from a year ago, according to S&P/Case Shiller index. Home prices fall in September in 15 of the 20 metro areas tracked by the index.
Americans shook off some of their concerns about the economy this month but a surprise fall in house prices in September underscored the weak foundations of the recovery………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, agreed to sell $600 million of commercial property loans to Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG) as the lender pares assets.
The loans consist of mortgages from across the U.S., according to people familiar with the transaction, who declined to be identified because the terms are private. The portfolio is separate from distressed European loans the Paris-based lender is offloading, the people said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Italian real-estate investment has the potential to be a platform for growth in the medium term despite ongoing financial concerns across the Eurozone region, according to Jones Lang LaSalle research.
Robert Stassen, head of EMEA capital markets research at Jones Lang LaSalle commented: ‘Italian real estate investment has been flat since 2007, with average quarterly investment volumes of EUR 1 bn per quarter………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Despite still facing challenges, the property market in South Africa is performing better than some of its counterparts elsewhere in the world. This is the opinion of Tony Clarke, managing director of Rawson Properties.
He stated that after attending the event, it has “become clear to me that the South African real estate sector is coming through bad times less damaged than that of the USA”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Mozambique’s real estate market has been steadily growing over the past years, in sharp contrast to many other regions in the world, says South African-born Ettiene Erasmus, managing director of Mozambique Property Development and Investments.
The company is currently developing the Bazaruto Island View Estate, situated close Vilanculos, about 700 kilometres north of Maputo. When completed, the development is expected to feature a combination of privately owned homes and hotels as well as a marina and plastic surgery facility. According to Erasmus, construction work on the first houses will start in January 2012………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Real estate sector is now passing through a challenging time. Sale of apartments has dropped by at least 50 per cent during the last two years, prompting realtors to reduce the prices of their unsold flats. In order to attract buyers, the realtors are now offering discounts up to 20 per cent.
Still there have been no notable increase of sales of their flats. Over 20,000 ready flats will be added to the list of at 16,000, already lying as unsold ones, from early next year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Is now a good time to consider investing in China real estate? China’s national statistics bureau recently released data showing that prices for new homes in the 70 Chinese cities that it monitors dipped by an average 0.15 percent month-on-month in October.
The trend seems to be clear, with housing prices falling in 34 of the cities in October — twice as many as in September. Since the release of October’s surprising data, numerous headlines – all with the same theme — suggest that now may not, in fact, be the right time to be looking at property investments. “Housing Prices Fall in Chinese Cities,” is the type of headline that scares off would-be investors………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Twenty Chinese property developers, faced with slumping sales and prices, plan to hold online auctions in an attempt to attract more home buyers to their showrooms, state media said Wednesday.
Companies, including SOHO China and China Vanke, the country’s largest property developer, will each provide five apartments “periodically” for auction, with the opening bid price set at zero, Beijing Morning Post said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China will prevent property prices from falling sharply over the next six months to one year, but the overall direction of property-market regulations won’t change, an adviser to the central bank said Wednesday.
Targeted measures by the People’s Bank of China are aimed at inefficiencies in the financial system, and don’t mean controls on the country’s property market will be lifted, Xia Bin, an academic adviser to the central bank, said at a forum………………………………………..Full Article: Source

New property laws are to be introduced in Hong Kong to protect buyers of new homes from unscrupulous developers. One underhand practice the government wants to crack down on is the misleading overstatement of floor space for new builds and off-plan projects.
Residential property in the former British colony is priced and promoted on the gross floor area. But homebuyers have complained that some developers often include public spaces such as lift lobbies, clubhouses and electricity plants in the gross floor area of a private flat………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The nation’s housing market is likely to remain sluggish in the current quarter and beyond amid a gloomy economic outlook and because the new luxury tax has yet to trigger a price correction, a government survey showed.
“Prospective home buyers will remain on the sidelines as the presidential election and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis unfold,” Chang Chin-oh , a land economics professor at National Chengchi University who was commissioned by the Construction and Planning Agency to conduct the quarterly survey, told a media briefing………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The virtues of investing directly into property by asset acquisitions or indirectly through real estate investment trusts have been brought to the fore with two reports indicating that bricks and mortar win every time.
But size does matter, with high net-worth investors able and willing to buy directly, while smaller investor err towards the REIT sector……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Australian house prices have dropped in 11 of the past 12 months, with Melbourne and Brisbane leading the downward trend, new figures from property analyst RP Data-Rismark show.
The figures show Melbourne prices slid 5.4 per cent in the year to October 31, providing further hope for first-time buyers after years of rapidly rising prices………………………………………..Full Article: Source