Median list prices nationwide have risen 4.05 percent on a year-over-year basis, according to November housing data of 146 metro areas from Realtor.com. Fewer cities are reporting year-over-year list price declines, “suggesting a growing optimism on the part of sellers about 2012 market conditions,” according to Realtor.com. So where have prices risen the most in the last month? The following are the 10 cities that saw the largest median list price increases from October to November. Read more.

The Wall Street Journal Online has today selected 1763 Sulgrave Rd as its House of the Day. The home is currently listed by Sandy Gulick and Kentucky Select Properties for $2,950,000. This house near Cherokee Park in Louisville, Ky., includes a Tuscan-inspired courtyard, nearly 4 acres, and a pool as well as a sunroom and a wine room. The current owner designed the interiors, adding a mix of French, English, Chinese, Japanese and contemporary furniture.  The 8,741-square-foot home has six bedrooms and 5½ bathrooms. Dorothy Cherry says she and her late husband, Wendell Cherry, bought this Greek Revival home in Louisville, Ky., 33 years ago, just a month before they married. 'I called it my honeymoon cottage,' Ms. Cherry says. Read more.

For some home sellers, it was a long summer without a home sale. That means this fall, some buyers — smelling the desperation — may be able to cut a better deal. “Sellers who had their homes on the market all summer are anxious to move on, especially before the holidays hit,” said Bill Golden, a real-estate agent with ReMax in Atlanta. The closer it gets to the holidays, the more anxious unsuccessful sellers can become, he said. Read more.

The National Association of Home Builders is debuting a new economic index that highlights metro areas that are seeing the most improvement in their housing markets. The First American Improving Markets Index reveals 12 metro areas that have seen a turnaround for at least six months in three core economic areas — housing permits, employment, and housing prices. 'Despite the challenging conditions in the national economy and housing sector, there are areas throughout the country where we are seeing pockets of improvement,' Bob Nielsen, chairman of NAHB, said in a statement. 'We created this new index to shine a light on those housing markets across the country that have stabilized and have begun to show signs of recovery.' Read more.

For the first time in 12 months, Louisville Realtors sold more houses and condos in July than they did a year earlier. The most likely explanation is that Realtors are no longer comparing their monthly sales to figures boosted by the long-expired federal tax credits (like the one that was worth up to $8,000 for first-time buyers). Though deadlines were extended, all the tax credit deals were pretty much closed by June 2010. 'Realtors® may be quietly putting the Home Buyer Tax Credit sales figures into the history books, as they move to a post HBTC market,' the group said. Buyers still have a lot of choices, while sellers have a lot of competition. There were 26 percent more houses and condos on the market on July 31 than a year earlier. Read more.

Standard & Poor downgraded the U.S.'s credit rating on Friday, despite Congress reaching a deal in the final hours on the debt ceiling crisis last week. And now many of your customers may be asking: What does this mean for interest rates? The impact on your wallet of the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the nation's credit rating is similar to what would happen if your own credit score declined: The cost of borrowing money is likely to go up,” the Washington Post explained in the aftermath of S&P’s decision. S&P downgraded the U.S.'s top-notch AAA credit rating for the first time in history, moving it down one notch to AA+; the rating reflects a downgrade in S&P’s confidence in the U.S. government’s ability to repay its debts over time. It’s not clear, however, whether S&P’s downgrade will instantly effect rates, analysts say. Read more.

1. Honesty and Credibility

Win them over with the truth!
When these buyers talked about honesty and credibility, it often came with stories about past negative experiences with agents. The stories were about agents trying to push them towards a more expensive purchase and a strong dislike for the false sense of urgency they feel agents create when it comes to placing an offer on a house. Buyers have expressed how hard it is to trust anyone in today’s real estate market so it’s even more important for agents to help them feel comfortable. Read more.

Nearly nine in 10 Americans say homeownership is an important part of the American dream, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. And they are keen on making sure it stays that way, for themselves and everyone else. Support for helping people in financial distress over housing is higher than support for helping those without a job for many months. Read more.

Home prices in most major U.S. cities are rising for the first time in eight months, boosted by an annual wave of spring buying. Analysts cautioned that the increases may be temporary and don't signal a rebound for the depressed home market. Prices rose in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index, according to the April report released Tuesday. The sharpest increases were in Washington, D.C. The next-largest were in San Francisco, Atlanta and Seattle. Read more.

Freddie Mac Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said mortgage rates will likely remain historical lows of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent for the remainder of the year. Also, he expects more buyers to stop waiting on the sidelines as recent price drops in home prices have improved affordability. Nothaft said consumers’ uncertainty about the economy has caused them to delay home purchases and other “big-ticket items.”  'Some potential buyers who have the means to buy are awaiting clearer signs that home values have firmed,' Nothaft says. But Nothaft says they should be getting their signs in the second half of the year, with projected job gains, and a growing, improved economy. Read more.

A recent analysis in the Wall Street Journal concludes that Kentucky was one of the most difficult states in 2010 for borrowers to get a loan or refinance. Nationwide, lenders denied 26.8 percent of loan applications in 2010. In Kentucky that number was 31.1 percent of borrowers. The most common reason for denying loans, according the Journal, was 'insufficient collateral'. Read more.

Louisville named #10 best city in the United States for families to live in 2011 study by Parenting.com. The top-ranked American cities to live and raise a family were judged on great schools, affordable homes, low crime rates, jobs and parkland. Read more.

Going to the open house of a home for sale down the block may make you feel like a nosy neighbor. But there are good reasons, beyond sheer curiosity, to take a peek inside.By knowing the selling prices and how properties look inside, homeowners can become more educated about values in their neighborhood, said Karen Goodman, a real-estate agent with Keller Williams Realty in the St. Louis area. Read more.

The Obama administration on Thursday halted payments to three of the largest U.S. banks until they make “substantial” improvements to their performance in a mortgage assistance program.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co. can no longer receive fees from the program known as the Making Home Affordable Program, until they make changes to ensure their processes work better, the Treasury Department announced. The program seeks to help troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure.

The big banks have been broadly criticized for foreclosure documentation errors, and in many cases, institutions have assigned only a single employee to rapidly approve numerous foreclosures. Read more.

I have had several inquiries recently about incorrect real estate information on the site Zillow.com, particularly as it relates to their “Zestimate” valuation tool. As the site states, “A Zestimate home valuation is Zillow's estimated market value. It is not an appraisal. Use it as a starting point to determine a home's value.”

 As I have noted in my replies, neither our office nor our agents have the ability to remedy incorrect information on the Zillow site.

 Zillow.com gets the majority of its information from publically available data sources such as tax records, PVA info and recent sales information. Unfortunately, if the data from any of these sources is wrong it impacts (often significantly) the value of a home’s Zestimate. Homeowners can join Zillow and manually enter information about their homes. They then must choose to make this information “public” so the site can include the homeowner’s data in their valuation model.

 I’ll give you an example of how wildly inaccurate a Zestimate can be: Say someone purchased a house in 2005 for $200,000 and it was 2,000 square feet ($100 per square foot). In 2007, the homeowner added a 600 sq foot family room/kitchen addition (investing, say, $120,000). Unless this homeowner joins Zillow and manually enters the information about adding the square footage and other renovations, Zillow and its Zestimate will attach a value to the house based on the data is has, i.e. that the homeowner paid $200,000 for it in 2005 and assuming it is still only 2,000 sq ft.

 I have yet to see a Zestimate that, in my opinion, “over values” a house. In the handful of examples I have checked on, Zestimates have undervalued houses by anywhere from $50,000 to more than $200,000 depending on the amount of renovations, etc.

 When my clients ask me about Zillow and why their house has such a low Zestimate, I try to put it...

Spice up a space with a rug, whether a large rug that gives definition to a living room area or a carpet runner that enhances an otherwise dull hallway. Rugs can be a great, low-cost lifesaver when staging properties. You can use a rug over any type of flooring–tile, hardwood, laminate, slate, and, yes, even carpeting. A rug can add pops of color or pattern to make a room more visually interesting (even if it’s otherwise vacant) and provide definition to a large room. Read more.

Low interest rates, defaults and refinancings have shaved more than $100 billion off the nation's annual mortgage bill — an amount comparable to all unemployment benefits for one year or this year's Social Security payroll tax cut. 'This is a form of economic stimulus that goes to Main Street rather than Wall Street,' says Nicholas Carroll, a journalist on consumer finance and author of Walk Away From Debt for a Better Future. When freed from a mortgage payment, people's first purchases tend to be necessities, such as socks and underwear, he says. Read more.

Existing-home sales continued to recover in the first quarter with gains recorded in 49 states and the District of Columbia, while 22 percent of the available metropolitan areas saw prices rise from a year ago, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors®. Total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, rose 8.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of 5.14 million in the first quarter from 4.75 million in the fourth quarter, and are only 0.8 percent below a 5.18 million pace during the same period in 2010. Read more.

Enjoy the Kentucky Derby from this Louisville Beauty! Whether its bourbon and branch or the official drink of the Kentucky Derby, the Mint Julep, you'll want to drink it from this veranda overlooking the gracious lawns and boxwood garden. This stately southern mansion is the epitome of what young women dream of, reading those southern historical novels while curled up in the porch swing on lazy summer afternoons. Read more.