Home staging—a popular trend in the competitive housing market—is often the next step in selling your house more quickly, and sometimes at a higher price. Staging is preparing the home before it goes up for sale. The practice has become somewhat of an industry—there are certified stagers, staging assessments, and a spattering of literature on the subject. Since the ’90s, staging has been practiced by designers and now increasingly by homeowners themselves.

* Full Story: Available on US News

Beside price, the best way to sell your home in a down market is to:

• Hire an aggressive agent who shows you a plan for selling your house - and make sure they follow through.
• Give your house a facelift with new paint and repairs.
• List it online with such sites as eBay and Craigslist.
• Offer to pay the buyer’s closing costs.
• And finally, take any reasonable offer.

* Full Story: Available on CBS News

People selling preowned homes will be lucky to sell it, because the U.S. is in the worst slump in more than two decades, and it is getting deeper.

The National Association of Realtors released the latest numbers, which found sales of existing homes in June fell more than twice the expected decline.

The report shows existing home sales dropped 2.6 percent. That is 15.5 percent below what they were a year ago.

The Commerce Department also released June’s numbers for sales of new homes. They are also down, but did not fall as badly as existing homes.

New, single-family homes dropped just 0.06 percent.

This decline is slightly smaller than had been expected, but compared to last year, they are down by 33.2 percent.

* Full Story: Available on Central Florida News

Mortgage rates jumped this past week, making it even harder to purchase a home. But if you think it’s hard to buy in today’s real estate market, with jump-through-hoops loans and the fear of overpaying, try selling your home. Home sales are the lowest in a decade, and median home prices fell 6.1% compared to this time last year.

You’ve got sleepless nights thinking about how much you can afford to let your price drop, all the while working with a real estate agent who’s trying to juggle a notebook of unsold inventory and can’t even remember your first name. And on top of that, you have the average 6% commission you’ll pay this person to sell your home. For a home that sells for $500,000, that’s $30,000.

* Full Story: Available on Main Street

Even as a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate voted Saturday to send a sprawling housing bill to the White House, economists, consumer advocates and other analysts said the package of programs for cash-strapped homeowners and shaken mortgage lenders is unlikely to relieve the foreclosure crisis that is driving the nation toward recession.”This is not the end of the housing crunch,” said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Housing prices have already fallen 15 percent and they need to fall 10 percent more. This bill isn’t going to change that.”

Full Story: Available on Chron.com

Painting, cleaning and remodeling the kitchen are some of the projects self-proclaimed handyman Kevin Garvey is ready to delve into now that he has a home of his own.

After he had browsed more than 30 houses in Northern Virginia, the price and location of the single-family house off Liberia Lane made the first-time home buyer move to Manassas.

* Full story: Available on Washington Post

Home sellers, brace for some grim news. The spring home-buying season now underway is widely expected to be the worst since the 1980s.
Many would-be buyers lack strong enough credit to get a mortgage. Home values are sinking. And in front yards around the country, “For Sale” signs are as ubiquitous as garden weeds.

The median price of an existing home in March was 7.7% less than it was a year ago, the National Association of Realtors reported this week. “Sellers are having to capitulate,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com. “If you’re a seller, it is the worst season since the early 1980s.”

Yet, what’s bad for sellers is good for buyers — at least those blessed with excellent credit and enough money for a sizable down payment. They can enjoy lots of homes to choose among, time to browse, and typically, the advantage in negotiations.

* Full Story: Available on USA Today

Miami-area home sellers looking to unload their properties might want to make sure they have comfortable couches.

It looks like they’re going to be there a while.

That’s because Miami tops our list of the nation’s most sedentary housing markets. These 10 spots feature a potent mix of dropping prices and sluggish sales rates. Also on the list: Denver; San Diego; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Tampa, Fla.; Phoenix; Orlando, Fla.; and Chicago.

* Full Story: Available on Forbes

If their plans pan out, John and Judith Mehrens soon will own a waterfront condominium in a brand-new Bremerton complex that’s currently advertising units starting at $109,000. But they’ll have to be on their toes because this isn’t your typical real-estate transaction.

Instead, 28 units in a project called The 400 will be auctioned off to the highest bidders April 20 in an eBay-like experience: unbelievably low starting prices followed by last-minute bidding frenzies if the goods strike the public’s fancy.

* Full Story: Available on The Seattle Times