Miami and Fort Lauderdale are both among the most-searched-for cities by those looking to buy homes nationwide, the Miami Herald reported. Numbers from Realtor.com showed that Fort Lauderdale ranked 17th, and Miami ranked 18th. Another Florida metro area, Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, was ranked fifth. [more]

Housing inventories declined month-over-month

The streak of declining inventories of homes listed for sale nationwide continues into its eighth month. Inventories in January fell 6.6 percent to 1.77 million last month from December 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported from a Realtor.com tally.

The largest year-over-year decline occurred in Fort Lauderdale in January. That city saw a 55 percent drop. [more]

Considering the sluggish sales activity, rock bottom pricing and glut of foreclosures, the national housing market is suffering from a new, surprising problem. According to the Wall Street Journal there is actually a lack of inventory, as the number of home sales has declined 20 percent in the last 12 months to 2.19 million homes, according to Realtor.com.

Though declining inventory is usually seen as a sign of a healthy market, the current shortage has arisen for two reasons: banks have been slow to process foreclosed properties that would otherwise be on the market and sellers reluctant to accept discounted prices are pulling their homes off the market. [more]

RealPlus, developer of real estate listings platform R.O.L.E.X., is planning to launch an enhanced version of the system, offering greater control in how firms co-broke and exchange listings, the company announced today.

The R.O.L.E.X. system will be available to all Real Estate Board of New York members as an optional, fee-based service.RealPlus handles as many as 10,000 transactions per day, it said, and supports over 500 firms, all members of the REBNY Listings Service.

Features of the new program, RealPlus said, include the option to feed listings to the New York State Multiple Listings Service, supply listings to national property site Realtor.com automatically and it offers a quicker means of co-brokering listings. — Katherine Clarke [more]

The total number of residential listings fell 19 percent nationwide in August, compared to the same period in 2010, according to data from Realtor.com. There were 2,267,327 residential units listed in the United States in August, which represented a 1.9 percent drop from July. New York City inventory fell just 2.4 percent in the same period. The average listing price for U.S. properties was $320,325, an increase of 2.6 percent from August 2010. The data also shows the average U.S. property has been on the market for 103 days. — Alexander Britell
[more]

According to national survey released today by Realtor.com, 53 percent
of potential homebuyers are not taking the plunge anytime soon. Nearly
a third cited concerns about job security as the main reason for not
entering the housing market. Meanwhile, one in five potential
homebuyers said they would be interested in buying a home if it was
steeply discounted, but nearly two-thirds surveyed said they would be
unlikely to purchase a foreclosed home due to the complicated process.
Also, while 41 percent of those surveyed said they didn’t think the
Obama administration’s $50 billion dollar foreclosure prevention plan
is working, 15 percent said they are looking to take advantage of the
$8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. [more]