Real Estate Plus+

To find out, HSH.com took the National Association of Realtors’ 2013 first quarter data for median home prices as well as our 2013 first quarter average interest rates for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages to decipher how much money homebuyers in 25 major metros would need to earn in order to purchase the median-priced home in their market.

This morning, we kicked off the 6th annual Google I/O developer conference with over 6,000 developers at Moscone Center in San Francisco, 460 I/O Extended sites in 90 countries, and millions of you around the world who tuned in via our livestream. Over the next three days, we’ll be hosting technical sessions, hands-on code labs, and demonstrations of Google's products and partners' technology.

CoreLogic released an analysis of home price trends in more than 380 U.S. markets based on the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes. The indexes are owned and generated by CoreLogic, supplemented with data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

As the housing market recovers, developers are placing bids on the site of the former Chicago Spire condominium property, which was once planned to be the tallest building in North America, but delayed due to construction.

According to people who are familiar with the bidding, Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) received a half-dozen offers in the initial round of bidding for about $93 million in debt it holds on the property.

Leaders of the National Association of Realtors are “ready to get into trouble” by considering controversial issues surrounding the trade group’s structure — including changing its relationship to realtor.com, the possibility of a national multiple listing service, and raising the industry’s professional standards, NAR CEO Dale Stinton said today.

The app aims to bring realtor.com, which is operated by Move Inc., up to speed with competitors Trulia and Zillow. Zillow launched a rental app for Android in April 2012, and a version for iPhone later that year in September. Trulia released an Android rental app in 2011, and added an iPhone version in April 2012.

Michael Pierson and Chris Eigel, principals of the prestigious Chicago -area real estate firm Prudential Rubloff Properties, have appointed Taylor Lindstrom, a Wilmette resident, to the position of managing broker of the firm’s Winnetka office...

Fueled by high demand and tight inventory, California home sales and prices both experienced strong increases in April, with the median price surpassing the $400,000-mark for the first time in five years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported. 
 

Image recognition firm Facebanx is introducing webcam identity verification for online insurance sites banks commerce and gambling.

What that mobile world has created, however, is a brave new world for the consumer who now wields more power than ever. That power comes mostly in the form of reviews of a business’ products and services. It all leads to a customer who can voice great joy or great dissatisfaction with a business and that is power.

But the craziest thing that Google introduced just might be a product that no one onstage in the three-hour keynote ever mentioned, or even hinted at. The announcement? It turns out that  you can now attach money to your email using Gmail.

Google has revamped its key products and services, including Google Maps, further improved its social network Google+, and also released a streaming music service called Google Music All Access.

Builder confidence at all levels of the homebuilding industry showed some of its strongest numbers in years in May, with both the Housing Market Index and the 55+ single-family Housing Market Index increasing. The indices, both of which are measured and released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), reflected new levels of homebuilder optimism and greater interest from homebuyers.

It's a good thing I'm not a jargon police officer. If I were, I'd send out arrest warrants, fines, citations -- anything I could to get people to ditch certain trite words and phrases.

Cartavi, a Naperville-based startup that makes real estate software, has been acquired by DocuSign, an electronic signature technology company.

his month's CoStar Commercial Repeat Sale Indices (CCRSI) provide the market's first look at March 2013 commercial real estate pricing. Based on 1,062 repeat sales in March 2013 and more than 100,000 repeat sales since 1996, the CCRSI offers the broadest measure of commercial real estate repeat sales activity.

Along with its economic findings, NAR's 2012 Member Profile also offered great insight into the demographics of today's Realtors – including median age.

How using women as entertainment at professional events hurts brands' efforts to speak to what is arguably their most important demographic.