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The number of people who say now is a good time to buy is also on the rise, increasing to 73 percent—also the highest level in more than a year. The percentage who said it’s a good time to sell a home also increased one point to 14 percent in March.

Meanwhile, more Americans expect rental prices to rise and are projecting an increase by 4.1 percent over the next year, the highest number recorded to date.

“Conditions are coming together to encourage people to want to buy homes,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “Americans’ rental price expectations for the next year continue to rise, reaching their record high level for our survey this month. With an increasing share of consumers expecting higher mortgage rates and home prices over the next 12 months, some may feel that renting is becoming more costly and that home ownership is more compelling house choice.”

Source: “Americans’ Expectations Align to Encourage Home Buying,” RISMedia (May 6, 2012)

NeighborCity.com recently has begun assigning performance scores to real estate agents, based on the number of properties they’ve sold, the number of days their listings have spent on the market, and the difference between the final sales price and asking price. The performance scores allow potential buyers and sellers who visit the site to see a list of recommended real estate agents and their score, in comparing how they measure up to other agents.

Jonathan Cardella, NeighborCity’s chief executive, says the site has information on about 80 percent of real estate agents nationally.

Cardella told The New York Times that the reason for the tool is to help match buyers and sellers with active agents who’ve demonstrated success with similar properties.

But several agents aren’t happy about the performance scores.

MLSs — Metropolitan Regional Information Systems in Rockville, Md., and NorthStar MLS in St. Paul, Minn. — have filed separate lawsuits in federal court against the Web site’s operator, American Home Realty Network, saying the sales information is being used without agents’ permission. The MLSs declined to comment publicly about the pending lawsuit.

Cardella also declined to comment about the litigation, but he told The New York Times “that brokers do give us permission to use their own listings and apparently the MLSs are not recognizing our broker agreements, which convey the right to use the listing data available on our Web site.”

Source: “New Battle on Providing Real Estate Agent Performance Data,” The New York Times (May 1, 2012)

In the construction market, the green home market share has grown to 17 percent in 2011. That percentage is expected to rise to 29 percent to 38 percent by 2016, according to a new report by McGraw-Hill Construction, “SmartMarket Report: New and Remodeled Green Homes: Transforming the Residential Market.”

According to the report, the two key forces driving the green growth: Green homes are often viewed as higher quality and can potentially save consumers money on utility costs.  

“In the current residential market, there is an enormous need to differentiate your homes for consumers,” says Harvey Bernstein, vice president of Industry Insights and Alliances at McGraw-Hill Construction. “When builders are able to offer homes that not only are green but also offer the combination of higher quality and better value, they have a major competitive edge over those building traditional homes.”

In the past, builders have cited higher upfront costs as a roadblock to building green. However, the survey found that a much lower percentage of builders view that as an obstacle now than in 2008.

The report was produced by McGraw-Hill Construction, in conjunction with the National Association of Home Builders and Waste Management.

Source: National Association of Home Builders

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According to a survey this March of 4,500 agents and brokers, no REALTORS® complained about low-ball offers. The main problem nowadays: The sudden drop in inventory of for-sale homes has led to fewer homes available to sell.

For home buyers who still think they have a chance of hitting it lucky with a low-ball offer, they’re finding in many markets that their offers are more often being rejected or countered closer to the original asking price, the Los Angeles Times reports.

West Neal with Prudential Olympia in Olympia, Wash., recalls a buyer who came in recently with an offer of $150,000 for a home listed at $250,000. Eventually, they negotiated a final sales price of $230,000, but it took a lot of negotiating on the agents’ parts to get the buyer higher.

“Low-ball offers are down a lot because we’re seeing more homes come on the market that are more realistically priced,” Neal told the Los Angeles Times.

Source: “Low-ball Offers Decline in Some Housing Markets,” Los Angeles Times (April 22, 2012)

More home owners want more space in their kitchens and are expanding the kitchen’s use for more than just cooking, according to the latest findings from the American Institute of Architects’ quarterly Home Design Trends Survey. The survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, focused on kitchens and bathrooms.

“Kitchens seem to be regaining their function as the home’s ‘nerve center,’” says AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker.

During the housing downturn, kitchen design fell as a priority for home owners, Baker notes. But as the market has picked up, Americans’ interest in kitchens has been renewed.

“The last few years have seen kitchens take on new functions with dedicated computer areas and recharging stations,” Baker notes.

The kitchen products and features growing the most in popularity, according to the survey of architects, are:

1. Computer area/recharging stations
2. Integration with family space
3. Renewable flooring materials
4. Recycling centers
5. Adaptability/universal design

Home owners are also placing more emphasis on sustainability in choosing products in the kitchen, such as with renewable flooring materials and renewable countertops increasing in popularity.

Sustainability is also important in bathrooms, the survey found. One of the biggest growing concerns for home owners in designing bathrooms is finding ways to minimize utility costs, according to the architect survey. As such, products like LED lighting, dual flush, and water-saving toilets are growing in demand, Baker notes.

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Source: REALTOR.com