Since the subprime lending market collapsed around 2007, mortgage reform has been a popular topic in the federal government.
When it comes down to it, the real estate industry in general has become an issue of much discussion in Washington, D.C. The high number of foreclosures has been a concern and the same goes for falling home prices. Furthermore, there has been an emphasis on risk – the notion that lenders ought to write mortgages for people who are likely to live up to the obligations under the loans.
It is a …

A proposal to merge three boards of Realtors in northwest Arkansas was defeated earlier this month, but the matter will be taken up again in February.
On Jan. 11, the Metro Area Board of Realtors met in Fayetteville and defeated a proposal to merge that board with the Bentonville-Bella Vista Board of Realtors, Rogers Board of Realtors. Members of the Metro Area Board defeated the proposal by 13 votes.
The matter will be taken up for another vote at a noon meeting of the Metro Area Board on Feb. 2 at the …

The past week was a somewhat busy one, so it would be no surprise if you missed a post or two here at First Arkansas News.
There are, of course, ways to prevent missing posts around here. It’s a simple matter to subscribe to our RSS feed, “like” us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to email updates. It is free to use any of those services, so pick your favorite one and take advantage of it. Oh, and you can always get a recap of the week’s events …

We’re continuing with a report started Friday about CBS Radio Mystery Theater. That program was started by Hiram Brown in 1974 and ran through 1982, thriving on both nostalgia for old time radio and new fans of the program, which aired every weeknight throughout its run. Paul Chester founded CBSRMT.com so that visitors can listen to the original 1,399 shows produced for the series. There is no charge to listen to the shows or find out more about the series through CBSRMT.com.
Fans of CBS Radio Mystery Theater have their favorite …

A good credit score has always been important for anyone wanting to take out a mortgage, but it is a critical requirement for borrowers these days.
Remember a few years ago when taking out a mortgage was easy? If a lender decided a borrower was too risky, the potential homebuyer could likely find a subprime lender or a banker offering some loan options designed to get people with less-than-stellar credit into a home.
After a few years of somewhat freewheeling lending practices, we saw a lot of defaults starting around 2007. Some …

Back in 1974, Hiram Brown established a new radio drama — the CBS Radio Mystery Theater (CBSRMT).
The program owed much to old time radio (OTR) programs, even if it aired long after the Golden Age of radio had passed. From January 1974 through the end of 1982, 1,399 episodes were produced and broadcast every weeknight.  That fact leads to a question — how did the program find an audience at a time when OTR was virtually extinct?
Paul Chester of CBSRMT.com — a site dedicated to the preservation of CBS Radio …

In spite of five straight months of improving market conditions, homes sales in central Arkansas were down in December and for the year.
For the purposes of this report, central Arkansas includes five counties squarely in the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area — Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Pulaski and Saline — as well as Jefferson and White counties which are not properly within that MSA. In those seven counties, there were 633 single-family, residential units sold in December — down 2.76 percent from 651 closed transactions in December 2010 and …

The numbers are in and show that real estate markets improved last year in both northwest Arkansas and the Jonesboro area. In a nutshell, both average sales prices and the number of units sold improved in the Jonesboro area while more homes were sold in 2011 than in 2010 in northwest Arkansas, but the sales price dropped.
We’ll take a look at northwest Arkansas first. For the purposes of this report, northwest Arkansas is defined as Benton, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties which make up the extreme northwestern corner of the …

We’re making a change or two here at First Arkansas News and figured we’d pass them along to our loyal readers.
Specifically, we’re moving Dr. Zodiac’s horoscope and our Weekend OTR feature to another site, The Natural State Hawg. Why? Well, there are a couple of reasons for that.
First of all, The Natural State Hawg is more geared for such things. We’re talking about purely entertainment items when it comes to horoscopes and reruns of old time radio programs, and they’re kind of out of place on a news site. Don’t …

Here’s a newsflash – unemployment remains a concern.
In Arkansas, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in November – that’s down from 9.3 percent, but is still high for Arkansas. What that number means is that 106,500 people in the Natural State want jobs but don’t have them. That’s a large number, roughly equal to the population of Saline County.
That’s a major problem for the economy for the economy for a number of reasons, but we’ll just deal with one since this column focuses on real estate issues – how can …