Valerie Fitzgerald's (valeriefitzgerald) Blog

Two weekly reports show Christmas has arrived early for mortgage borrowers, with rates at or near record lows. In its survey for the week ending today, home-loan buyer Freddie Mac said the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage had dropped to 4.78%, tying a record ...

Home buyers last month snapped up previously owned properties at the fastest pace in more than two years, a Realtors group said Monday. Home resales increased 10.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units in October from a downward-revised pace of 5.54 million in September, acco...

Existing home sales surged in October to the highest level in more than 2-1/2 years, according to a real estate industry report issued Monday. The National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose 10.1% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million units, up...

Despite the lowest mortgage rates since May, applications for new home loans continued to taper off, according to a Mortgage Bankers Assn. survey released today. Seasonally adjusted applications for purchase loans decreased 4.7% during the week ending last Friday compared with the week before. I...

Southern California's housing market showed fresh signs of a comeback last month as first-time buyers took advantage of a federal tax credit aimed at keeping the fragile recovery on track.And the tax credit program, which was expanded this month, may be helping boost the all-important move-up mar...

Heart and Sold, written by top selling Los Angeles real estate broker Valerie Fitzgerald, takes you on a journey through the emotional and tangible challenges of regaining one's personal power while building and maintaining a successful business. The book recounts Fitzgerald’s personal journey f...

 Take a close, hard look at the new $6,500 federal tax credit for so-called move-up home buyers that passed the Senate and House recently. Though it's been getting second billing to the original $8,000 credit for first-time purchasers -- now extended by Congress through June 30 -- the $6,500 cred...

First-time buyers made up a bigger share of the housing market in 2009 than any other year on record, according to a study released this afternoon. The number of first-time home buyers rose to 47% of all home sales from 41% of transactions in last year’s study, and was the highest on record dati...

Many say time is one life’s most important luxuries.   Celebrities and the well-heeled are becoming more socially conscious - sharing their time, leveraging their power in the press and redefining what luxury means in the process.   On Wednesday, Ashton Kutcher bought wife Demi Moore a brand new...

The Carlyle Residences is a brand new 24-story crescent-shaped luxury condominium tower that's located at the center of Wilshire Corridor’s “Golden Mile" in Los Angeles, CA. Built by ELAD Properties and developer of New York City’s Plaza Hotel, the building has 78 private luxury residences rangin...