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RISMEDIA, May 15, 2013–Calcagni Real Estate, Central Connecticut’s leading independent real estate brokerage, recently held their annual Spring 2013 Food Drive. The company’s REALTORS® and staff collected over 2,000 lbs of non-perishable food items over the last few weeks, and delivered the donations to the Cheshire Food Pantry, Keefe Community Center, Southington Bread for Life, [...]

RISMEDIA, May 20, 2013–CENTURY 21® New Millennium, a brokerage of Century 21 Real Estate LLC, recently announced that they will take their Smarter. Bolder. Faster.® campaign to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  CENTURY 21 has teamed up with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing (SFHR) and is the primary sponsor for IZOD IndyCar Series driver Josef Newgarden’s car [...]

RISMEDIA, May 14, 2013–Prudential Georgia Realty was recently recognized by RISMedia as one the top real estate firms in America.  The RISMedia Top 500 Power Broker report ranked Prudential Georgia Realty #30 in residential transactions.  This is the highest performance for any brokerage in Georgia.  Number two on the list of the nation’s largest firms [...]

RISMEDIA, May 24, 2013–Buffalo-based HUNT Real Estate Corporation is pleased to welcome James C. Heron to their corporate leadership team, as Chief Financial Officer for the organization. Heron brings a strong financial background to HREC, with over 30 years of experience in the areas of accounting, finance and mergers and acquisitions. “We conducted a nationwide [...]

RISMEDIA, May 23, 2013–Prudential Georgia Realty is proud to announce their new Veterans Real Estate Career program.  The program is designed to help the men and women who have served in our military forces or their immediate family members become productive and successful REALTORS®.  The program includes a scholarship that provides free basic training (pre-license [...]

MONTGOMERY COUNTY ABINGTON 1079 Maple Ave., Roy and Anne Gibson to John and Brianna Potts, $225,000.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY ABINGTON 1079 Maple Ave., Roy and Anne Gibson to John and Brianna Potts, $225,000.

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Why is it that website redesigns with the best intentions always seem to find a way to go awry? Although every company is different, we tend to see the same types of redesign challenges casting common frustrations to those stuck in the mud of developer contracts, .psd files, and web assets. To spare as many [...]

There has been lively debate on the merits of prospecting for leads versus using a paid lead program. At realtor.com® and Top Producer® we provide both solutions—and what we offer is segmented by where your agents are in their careers. A newly licensed agent would have likely invested more capital than they planned– and there [...]

Do you want to share your E&O insurance coverage with a bank or even the government? Most real estate professionals would agree that this does not sound like a good idea. While we’ve seen a rebound in the housing market, the market still has a good share of foreclosures and bank owned properties. Over the [...]

In a conversation with a real estate professional at a recent national convention, I was told an interesting story. This agent was working a builder’s model home one afternoon when a couple in their late 50’s stopped by and spent some time touring the home. As they returned from the second floor, the sales agent [...]

Using social media to connect with clients and prospects is a necessary part of every business’ marketing plan. As a busy real estate professional, you simply do not have enough time to join or actively participate in every new network—but which ones are a must for your business? With its highly-visual interface and easy accessibility, [...]

(MCT)—Some buyers are solving housing woes with prose. They’re not writing poems or romantic novels — just short notes to sellers, telling them how happy they’d be to buy their homes. The simple gesture is paying off in today’s market, where inventory is tight and bidding wars are typical. “Money talks, but a letter gives [...]

Terrafina , a Mexican real estate investment trust advised by Prudential Real Estate Investors, will purchase a portfolio of Mexican industrial properties from Kimco Realty Corp.

ARLINGTON, Va., May  23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --  Timios National Corporation ("Timios") (OTCBB: HOMS), a national provider of real estate services to banks, financial institutions and mortgage ...

MONTGOMERY COUNTY ABINGTON 1079 Maple Ave., Roy and Anne Gibson to John and Brianna Potts, $225,000.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY ABINGTON 1079 Maple Ave., Roy and Anne Gibson to John and Brianna Potts, $225,000.

Zillow: Homeowners with 'effective' negative equity helped keep inventory low

Despite rising home prices early in the year, a significant portion of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage — about 44 percent — still owed more on their home than it was worth or didn’t have enough equity to move at the end of the first quarter, according to Zillow’s first-quarter Negative Equity Report.

Zillow’s analysis showed that 25.4 percent of homeowners with a mortgage were underwater on their homes, while another 18.2 percent more were “effectively” underwater, with less than 20 percent equity in their homes.

Taken together, about 22.3 million U.S. homeowners likely don’t have enough equity in their homes to afford a down payment on another home, Zillow said, keeping them in their homes and preventing new inventory from hitting the market.

“Reaching positive equity, even barely, is an important milestone,” said Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries in a statement. “But things like real estate agents’ fees and a down payment for the next home traditionally come out of the proceeds from the prior home’s sale. Without enough equity, these costs will instead have to come out of a homeowner’s pocket, leaving many still stuck,” he said.

“Looking at the effective negative equity rate could explain why recent, healthy declines in the number of underwater borrowers haven’t yet translated into more homes for sale,” Humphries added. “The only cure is patience, as rising home values continue to build equity to the point where more homeowners can realistically sell.”

Among the 30 largest metro areas covered by Zillow, those with the highest effective negative equity rate, including homeowners with 20 percent equity or less, include Las Vegas (71.5 percent), Atlanta (64.1 percent), and Riverside, Calif. (59.7 percent).

Zillow predicts that the negative equity rate among all homeowners with a mortgage will fall to 23.5 percent by the first quarter of 2014. Of the 30 largest metro areas, the majority of these newly freed homeowners are anticipated to come from: Los Angeles (94,642 homeowners), Riverside (74,693 homeowners), and Phoenix (51,580 homeowners).

Copyright 2013 Inman News

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