WASHINGTON — New-home sales soared in June from the previous month, the third increase in a row and supplying fresh evidence the housing market is beginning to recover from its long crisis. Read the full Wall Street Journal article here… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124870175008183715.html

WASHINGTON – The U.S. housing market is finally on the mend after its most far-reaching collapse in 70 years. That could help rebuild consumer confidence and revive the economy. Read more from msnbc.com at http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=105955364565&h=Sjm3k&u=DfNqh&ref=nf

Interesting article on pop-city.com about Pittsburgh’s pursuit of Top Tech-Savvy City status. Read the article here… http://www.popcitymedia.com/timnews/techburgh0715.aspx

Pittsburgh is sure spending a lot of time in the spotlight for a plethora of reasons – livability, home values, technology, healthcare, cost of living – you name it! But this month Pittsburgh gains the national spotlight as world champion bass anglers will cast their lines into the region’s rivers. Read more of this Pop-City article…

http://www.popcitymedia.com/timnews/Default.aspx

Pittsburgh is in the spotlight again as Forbes Magazine announces the Best Cities – not just to live in – but get ahead! It joins cities such as Houston, Dallas, Minneapolis and Boston as a top metropolitan area with livable incomes, economic diversity and lower-than-the-national-average unemployment rates. Read the full articles at http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/19/cities-unemployment-expenses-lifestyle-real-estate-cost-of-living_slide_8.html and http://www.popcitymedia.com/inthenews/forbes070809.aspx

Real estate agents say that, thanks to the Web, open houses are no longer necessary. One columnist explains that in boom or bust times, this is one selling tool that won’t go out of style. Read this great article from Wall Street Journal columnist June Fletcher:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124655847980687451.html

Construction of new homes jumped in May by the largest amount in three months, an encouraging sign that the nation’s housing recession was beginning to bottom out. The Commerce Department said today that construction of new homes and apartments jumped 17.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 532,000 units. That was better than the 500,000-unit pace that economists had expected and came after construction fell in April to a record low of 454,000 units.

In another encouraging sign, applications for building permits, seen as a good indicator of future activity, rose 4 percent in May to an annual rate of 518,000 units.

The better-than-expected rebound in construction was the latest sign that the prolonged slump in housing is coming to an end, which would be good news for the broader economy.

Read more in today’s Pittsburgh PG :http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09167/977735-28.stm#ixzz0IscFkKTp&C

In a Pittsburgh Post Gazette article, Chris Pummer of Marketwatch discusses the rebounding real estate market – and the indicators that tell us confidence in the real estate market is growing! Read the full article at http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09164/976764-30.stm

 

Pittsburgh once again is the most livable city in the United States — and 29th worldwide — in a 2009 survey by British magazine The Economist! The Magazine cited livability, affordability, home values and more! Bask in the glory of our great city by reading more in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09161/976252-53.stm

RISMEDIA, May 20, 2009-Nationwide housing affordability jumped 10 percentage points during the first quarter of 2009 to its highest level since the series began 18 years ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). The HOI showed that 72.5% of all new and existing homes sold in the first quarter of 2009 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,000, up from 62.4% during the previous quarter and up from 53.8% during the first quarter of 2008.