Square footage is the most common driver of a comparables approach to market valuation of real estate. For example #SF x average comparable sale price per square foot = market value assessment. There are other methods of valuation, but this is most common. It's also laden with complexity. 

The Seattle Post PI.com is reporting that after clearing a Senate hurdle this week that the New Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8,000 is widely expected to pass congress this week to extend the credit into the spring season of 2010, which would be most welcome across the country. The program essentially creates a refundable $8,000 tax credit for qualified first-time home buyer tax credits (some limitations apply and "first" doesn't always mean "first"). This is very welcome news.

The inestimable Lucia Mutikani reports for Reuters that existing home sales rose to a 2-year high in September. These numbers are more meaningful than how, in two posts ago as I mentioned, new home builders have just been messing all over themselves. From Mutikani's article:

The National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes jumped 9.4 percent in September to an annual rate of 5.57 million units, the highest level since July 2007. Financial markets had expected sales to rise to a 5.35 million unit pace...

I can't emphasize enough, especially now that the new home buyer tax credit should be extended into the spring this week in congress, that figures of existing home sales along with forward indicators of durable goods orders and business sentiment indicators (precursors to job growth) are the real numbers to watch. Don't look at the bad numbers arising from bad strategy from bad managers at bad builder corporations.

The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2008 to govern certain aspects of closing most residential transactions in the United States. RESPA had a giant impact on how business is conducted in certain segments of the real estate industry, especially in title/escrow companies and mortgage lending companies.

Okay so new home sales numbers weren't reported to be up last week. So? First of all, the housing market is local in nature. If all politics is local as Tip O'Neill said, then real estate and housing is darn near skin-tight.

Holiday decorations are a wonderful thing and frankly they help property values. Residents in Northampton and The Woodlands have been delighting kids and families for 40 years during every holiday, and residents of the newer sections of those communities and of Auburn Lakes, Wimbledon Falls, Augusta Pines, Gleannloch Farms, Magnolia, you name it -- the residents and associations and many clubs and organizations go all out, especially for these big holidays like Halloween, which are a total hoot to watch every year. Having spent a number of years living in Manhattan, which is supposed to be the Halloween capital of the world, I can confidently say I'd rather be around these parts any Halloween than in those truly ghoulish streets on Halloween night... This is good clean fun.

The website alexa.com tracks various statistics regarding web traffic across the Internet worldwide. Its methods are sometimes questioned - full disclosure - they use a large sample of people who download their "toolbar" is how I understand they get their sample. Nonetheless it's a commonly referenced source for Internet traffic statistics.

From Reuters on Friday:

We've recently completed a review of year-over-year sales figures in our general market area, and the results confirm a dynamic we've noted for several months now: inventory is low, which is supporting values of quality properties.