Single female households continue to grow: About 20 percent of recent home buyers were from single females, according to National Association of Realtors® data. Single female home buyers represent a growing segment of homeowners. An article at Realty Times notes the following characteristics female buyers tend to want in a new home:
Proximity to family. Female home buyers tend to say they want to live closer to their extended family than their job.
Safety. They’ll likely want to review crime trends for neighborhoods, streets, and buildings as safety tends to be a big priority for female home buyers.
Traditional use. According to a recent Coldwell Banker survey, men are four times more likely than females to turn an extra 12' x 12' foot space into an entertainment room, but females tend to be more traditional in their sense of space. Realty Times notes that while you may point out to a male home buyer all the extra rooms that can be made into media centers or entertainment rooms, a woman is more likely to respond to seeing a house how it already is. “She’ll come up with her own plans,” the article notes.
Source: Realty Times
Proximity to family. Female home buyers tend to say they want to live closer to their extended family than their job.
Safety. They’ll likely want to review crime trends for neighborhoods, streets, and buildings as safety tends to be a big priority for female home buyers.
Traditional use. According to a recent Coldwell Banker survey, men are four times more likely than females to turn an extra 12' x 12' foot space into an entertainment room, but females tend to be more traditional in their sense of space. Realty Times notes that while you may point out to a male home buyer all the extra rooms that can be made into media centers or entertainment rooms, a woman is more likely to respond to seeing a house how it already is. “She’ll come up with her own plans,” the article notes.
Source: Realty Times
The U.S. housing market will begin to mount a turnaround this year, building toward a solid recovery in 2013, according to a forecast by the chief economist of a homebuilding industry trade group. The outlook by National Association of Home Builders Chief Economist David Crowe calls for U.S. sales of new homes and single-family home construction to improve this year compared with 2011, when they hit record lows. The forecast still leaves new home sales and construction well below levels of a healthy housing market, however. That reflects the severity of the industry's downturn, and suggests the housing market could be years away from full health. "I'm looking at 2012 as sort of a ramping event to get a much more solid recovery in 2013," Crowe said in a telephone interview. The economist, who gave his forecast at the trade association's annual conference in Orlando, Fla., sees sales of new, single-family homes climbing 19% this year to 360,000. Next year, he expects those sales to rise a whopping 40% to 505,000. Crowe's outlook also hinges on unemployment staying below 8.5% and the economy adding more jobs. And he's assuming that tight lending requirements will ease this year, enabling more homebuyers to qualify for financing. 
Knowing the significance of this obstacle, the industry has done much to make obtaining real estate “cash friendly.” While the surging economy has provided much impetus for increasing real estate purchases, industry initiatives have really paved the way to facilitate the whole process. 
While home sales may be sluggish in many parts of the country, more buyers are placing an emphasis on green -- with some studies showing that green homes can sell for higher dollar than non-green homes. In Portland, Ore., an analysis from the Earth Advantage Institute found that green-certified new homes sold, on average, for 8 percent more than non-certified green homes--and in one of the counties included in the study even more than 23 percent higher. Earth Advantage Institute analyzed sales data from May 2010 through April 2011 from the Portland Regional MLS. The study found that the sales price was even higher for existing homes outfitted green -- an average of 30 percent more, and one county reporting a more than 61 percent premium on green-certified homes. The green certifications on the homes were from Energy Star, LEED for Homes, Earth Advantage, or an Earth Advantage/Energy Star combination. This is the fourth year in a row that the Earth Advantage Institute has conducted such a study and has found green-certified homes sell for higher prices than non-certified homes. “There's certainly a premium there to be had,” says green builder Josh Wynne from Sarasota, Fla. “Clients are naturally skeptical of green building. If you're disingenuous or sell green as an upgrade like a granite counter,” it won't work. But the hook, experts say, is to promote the upgrades by showing the energy savings that green homes can offer. 