Tom Kelly

The agency is continuing to insure "forward" loans and the home mortgage market continues to be active, especially in Seattle.

"I think the investor market is largely past us," Doug Lebda, chief executive of Lending Tree told CNBC. "People were buying investment properties three, four, five years ago. What I hear is that's slowing now."

The site ranked the cities based on filming activity for movies and TV shows, as well as their music scenes - and just for good measure, it threw in the average rent in each city.

Approval of the Kitsap couple's home loan was held up until they could get all of their neighbors to sign a road-maintenance agreement detailing who was responsible for maintaining the dirt road in front of their home.

Coldwell Banker Bain Seal started publishing the unfiltered comments about a month ago. The majority of the comments have been positive, the brokerage says, but a few negative comments - about communication barriers with agents, for example - have also rolled in.

An open floor plan was cited by 39 percent as the No. 1 preferred amenity.

Redfin's analysis found that even within the same neighborhoods, homebuyers are willing to pay substantially more for homes that fall in a top school district than for homes served by average-ranked schools.

Some analysts foresee the pace of the recovery slowing in the coming months, but they don't expect the recovery to come to a halt.

Critics of Value Range Marketing said it was merely a way for agents to avoid submitting a listing price that would need to be adjusted upward in a few weeks or days. It also perplexed buyers who thought if they made an offer "within the range" it would be accepted by the seller.

A judge ruled man did did trespass at the real estate open houses because he used deception to enter the homes.

Researchers evaluated five years of sales data in several major metros with various public transportation options. They found that homes located within a half-mile of public transportation were valued 41 percent higher than properties located outside that area.

Kids come and go at all hours and doors need to be secure and walkways well lit.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, shocked the financial world by announcing that the Fed would wait "a little longer" before tapering its $85 billion-a-month bond-purchasing program.

"Two of the most important things home buyers tell us they look for in a new home is affordability within their price range, and quality of schools for their children - often with specific schools in mind," said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow chief marketing officer.

Some neighborhoods have seen prices rise 25 percent in the past year. The appraisals, however, haven't caught up to reflect the rise in prices, brokers say.

Investors are banking on a big recovery for the sector and redirecting their assets in anticipation of a senior housing boom.

During the housing market crash, home prices fell dramatically in some areas, causing the home in a marriage to become one asset that no one wanted in a divorce because of the large amount of mortgage debt it carried.

There should be some room to negotiate a listing price between what the seller expects and the agent's market data. Yet let's be realistic with the fudge factor.

The number of homeowners underwater on their mortgage-owing more than their home is currently worth-continues to drop, but a few metros are still facing a disproportionate number of struggling owners.

One Seattle-area couple told Bloomberg that they were in the process of buying a $400,000 home when they learned that their mortgage payment would be about $300 more a month than it would've been in February. That prompted them to put their home search on hold.

Now that Labor Day has wrapped up the last official weekend of the summer season, owners will begin to review how they can improve their vacation rentals for next year's guests.

Due to lower demand, homes in golf communities reportedly are selling far below the peak prices of the 2000s and have yet to experience the same type of rebound as other areas of the market, Fiscal Times reported.

Homebuyers would rather concentrate on property size, crime rates, school district, and length of commute when shopping for a new home rather than focusing on the distance to other family members, according to a new survey by Trulia and research firm Harris Interactive.