Housing starts in January reached their highest rate in four months, increasing more than analysts expected, the Commerce Department reports. Housing starts jumped 14.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 596,000 units. Housing starts in January were helped by a 77.7 percent jump in multi-family homes. Single-family home construction, on the other hand, fell 1 percent. Meanwhile, new home completions dropped to a record low of 512,000 units in January, falling 9.5 percent from the previous month. And after housing permits surged in December by 15.3 percent, housing permits for future housing projects sank in January. New building permits dropped 10.4 percent to a 562,000-unit pace in January–mostly pulled down by a drop in multi-family and single-family unit … Continue reading →

A victory was recorded for the personal financial privacy for many Montanans, as House Bill 16 was tabled in the House Business and Labor Committee on Thursday. HB 16 would have disclosed the sales price on the Realty Transfer Certificate for residential property. HB 16 was on the Montana Association of REALTORS® legislative agenda heading into the 2011 session, and MAR testified against the legislation. Not only would the bill have disclosed personal financial information, it would not have lessened the “sticker shock” that comes with the current reappraisal process and only information on the Realty Transfer Certificate would be used. Whole segments of the economy are exempt from the RTC process, most notably of these are agriculture and forestlands. … Continue reading →

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