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Over the past year, the real estate industry has become more and more concerned about Web sites that offer buyers and sellers new ways of connecting without an agent. And that concern should be growing because–according to some sources–those sites are about to step up their game. A recent CNN.com article said that soon, value estimates for almost any home in the U.S. will be available online–for free–on sites like Zillow.com, HomeGain.com and RealEstateABC.com. The danger, CNN says, is that such sites are free of the financial incentives agents have to push prices up in deals. An agent is working…

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in the news often lately–and an interesting article in today’s New York Times touches on some of the challenges the agencies face that could make headlines in the future. The article illustrates why the mortgage market needs both companies, and discusses why it’s in danger of potentially losing them. (Given today’s announcement that Fannie Mae posted a more than $2 billion first quarter loss, that concern is more timely than ever.) And although the government has relied on both companies to help bail out the mortgage market, its close ties to Fannie and…

On Friday, we touched on why some new condos are transforming into rental buildings. Can single-family homes make a similar switch? Yes–and no. If a new single-family home doesn’t sell, turning it into a rental can be difficult. They’re just not quite as versatile, for a number of reasons: It could be costly, thanks to extra fees. Single-family homeowners don’t want a large number of rental properties on their street because rentals often aren’t maintained as well as owned homes–which can drive property values down for an entire area. Yet the foreclosure rate has caused that to happen in a…

As overall residential building declines, the multifamily and single-family housing markets are having two very separate experiences: Although both were down in March, they were down in varying amounts, and for different reasons. And that’s painting an interesting picture of how each may start to recover as we tentatively try to claw out of the housing slump. Thursday’s news showed that building in general has slowed considerably: Total housing starts fell 34.5 percent to 1.035 million in the first quarter. They’ll probably remain under 1 million until the middle of 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal. But single-family starts…

The Commerce Department said today that construction spending dropped in March–but the news was offset by a surprise revision to February’s numbers. The revision showed an 0.4 percent increase in construction in February–a vast difference from the original 0.3 percent decline that had been reported. And yet, spending fell 1.1 percent in March from the month before; total construction spending is down 3.4 percent from last year, MarketWatch reports. Residential spending didn’t do so well in March, either. Private residential construction declined 4.6 percent from February to March–hitting its lowest level since the department began calculating these statistics in 1993,…

The Fed announced a quarter percentage point reduction of its key interest rate today–which may be the last rate cut for awhile. The federal funds rate is now 2 percent. The Fed’s statement mentioned–as previous ones had–that rate cuts were meant to invigorate the economy. However, because the statement did not include the phrase "downside risks to growth remain," which had been present in previous statements, and also said that "uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high," some sources, including CNNMoney.com, are forecasting the aggressive rate cut era is over. And maybe that’s best, since some sources, including Forbes, reported…

Companies and entire cities–such as Chicago, which banned all indoor smoking, starting on January 1, 2008–are encouraging smokers to put out their cigarettes. Could apartment owners be next? Maybe. Citywide smoking bans in places like New York and Chicago have been successful–just last week, Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Mason said the ban, which is not even six months old, had been accepted across the city. Companies are also trying to get smokers to quit because it reduces their health insurance costs–although for some companies, it’s a touchy subject. Last week, the 16,000-strong Tribune Company recently rescinded on a plan…

Back in March, we reported that the prolonged housing decline hadn’t affected the popularity of home improvement shows–in fact, TLC was coming out with six new ones this season. And now, the Chicago Tribune says that while consumers may not want to buy homes, we still want to play with them. Take for example, "Build-a-lot," a video game that presents players with home-building challenges including balancing cash flow to meeting the mayor’s demands to ordering supplies. Created for the Windows set by HipSoft, the game was released late last year–when the slump was in full effect. It has since been…

Forget concern about the U.S. sliding into a recession. According to a survey of all 50 state fiscal directors, many states are already in a recession–and as the July 1 fiscal year approaches, the situation may get worse, the New York Times says. The National Conference of State Legislatures report, released Friday, said that "whether or not the national economy is in recession– a subject of ongoing debate — is almost beside the point for some states." The funding shortfalls are so severe in some areas of the country, it looks like–even once the housing slump does noticeably improve–states may…

The government’s new home sales and price results are in–and they don’t seem to indicate that the housing slump might finally be ending. According to the Commerce Department, new home sales fell in March to their lowest level in 16 years–and median home prices fell by the biggest amount in almost 40 years. New home sales declined by 8.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units. That’s the slowest new home sales pace since 1991. Sales were down last month in all regions–most prominently in the Northeast, where they fell 19.4 percent. In the West,…