Seema Sinha's (seemasinha) Blog

Housing Bright Spot: Pending Home Sales Rise, Market on UptrendCourtesy Susanne - RISMedia Pending home sales are on an upward trend, which has been uneven but meaningful since reaching a cyclical low last April, and are well above a year ago, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. T...

Housing Expected to Add to GDP for First Time in 7 YearsCourtesy Susanne - RIS Media The 2012 outlook is improving modestly from a disappointing 2011. Economic growth picked up in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 2.8 percent and is expected to come in at 2.3 percent for 2012, up from 1.6 percent gro...

Builder Confidence Increases for Fifth Consecutive Month in FebruaryCourtesy - RIS Media Home builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes increased for the fifth consecutive month in February, rising from 25 to 29 on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today....

Obama Moves Forward with Foreclosure PreventionCourtesy Susanne, RIS Media Last Wednesday, February 1, President Obama announced the details of a plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages in hopes of bolstering the housing market. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Deve...

Treasury Investigates a Bet Against Home OwnersSource: “Treasury Investigates Freddie Mac Investment,” The New York Times (Jan. 31, 2012) The Treasury Department is investigating allegations against Freddie Mac that accuse the government-sponsored enterprise of “betting against home owners’ abili...

Finding the Positives in Economic and Housing conditions in 2012 - Seema Sinha, Realtor, Vienna, VACourtesy - Mark Fleming of RISMEDIA While 2011 was clearly a challenging year, there is a lot to be positive about looking ahead. Economically, while buffeted by natural disasters and fiscal policy ...

The Right Kind of DentCourtesy: Scott LevittPresident, Oakley Signs & Graphics “We're here to put a dent in the universe.” - Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor (1955-2011) There's not a lot we can say about Steve Jobs that hasn't been said in the past few weeks. But I would like to share a few...

July Housing Scorecard Shows Home Price ImprovementCourtesy RISMEDIA U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently released the July edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard—a comprehensive report on the nation’shousing mark...

Alliance to Save Energy Hails 25-30% Advance in 2012 Energy Code for New & Renovated Residential, Commercial Buildings By Ronnie KwellerCourtesy RIS Media The Alliance to Save Energy recently hailed a newly released model building energy code upgrade that will improve energy use in commercial and...

Staying ConsciousContributed by Daily Om For a more grounded life, choose not to get caught up in the fast-paced world around you. 1. Live simply and live deliberately. By choosing not to get caught up in the details of this fast-paced world, you are doing your part to slow down. You will discove...