Though a core part of our mission here at RBI is to provide stats and trends as they pertain to the local real estate market, we are mindful to keep an eye on what is happening at the national level as well. We've recently begun frequenting the Economists' Outlook, the National Association of Realtors® blog containing timely and comprehensive analysis of national market trends. A recent post by George Ratiu contained some interesting insights about first time home-buyer trends.

While the investment property buyer makes up nearly 20% of the general homebuyer group, 4.1% of first-time homebuyers in July purchased a home for investment. Ratiu attributes this in part to the historically low interest rates and high affordability. This number is line with the average for the year of 4.2%, but it is up from the 3.6% figure for July of 2010. Click here to see the entire post on NAR's site.

The Q2-2011 MRIS Economic and Market Watch Report has been published and can be viewed here:

MRIS Economic and Market Watch Report - 2nd quarter (PDF)

To find historical versions of this quarterly report, use the "Get Reports" widget on the RBI home page or find them on the "Reports" tab of the Mid-Atlantic stats page.  RBI is still planning on integrating quarterly and yearly increments into our Interactive Chart offerings and Local Market Insight reports, stay tuned...