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REAL ESTATE NEWS: NATIONAL
WMA seeks 2004 Web Award nominees
The Web Marketing Association has launched its 8th annual Web Award competition, which recognizes achievement in web site design in 80 industry categories, including real estate. The deadline for entry is June 30.
The competition judges web sites on design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, navigation and ease of use.
Past winners for best real estate web sites include Corcoran.com, RealEstateJournal.com and HomeAdvisor.com.
The competition is open to all organizations and individuals involved in developing corporate web sites worldwide, including interactive agencies, web site owners and corporate marketing and e-commerce departments. Web sites must have been or will be in general use for at least part of 2004 to be eligible.
For more information, visit www.webawards.org.
Judges uphold NAR’s right to Realtor mark
A three-judge panel of the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board unanimously ruled that the terms “Realtor” and “Realtors” are not generic terms. Petitions to cancel the National Association of Realtors’ rights to these terms were denied.
The judges found that the terms are not generic, that is, they are not synonymous with real estate agent or real estate agents and concluded that the petitioner failed to prove otherwise.
“This is a tremendous victory for Realtors everywhere, affirming our right to the terms ‘Realtor’ and ‘Realtors,’ which designate the highest standards of professionalism and commitment to a strict code of ethics. The trademark decision puts to rest any question about NAR’s exclusive rights to these terms,” said NAR President Walt McDonald.
Top 500 residential real estate companies named
NRT and HomeServices of America topped an annual ranking of 500 residential real estate companies. The newly released 2004 REAL Trends 500 survey separately ranks companies based on 2003 data for sales volume and closed transaction sides.
NRT is a subsidiary of powerhouse Cendant Corp., which also owns the Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA real estate franchise networks, among other companies. NRT placed first on both the REAL Trends closed transaction sides list and the sales volume list, while HomeServices of America, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company, placed second on both lists.
REAL Trends, a publishing and communications company, reports there are about 80,000 residential real estate firms in the nation. The top 500 companies represented about 27% of all new and resale transactions in 2001, the most recent year for which data is available. That year, the top 500 companies closed about 2.64 million home transactions, valued at about $560 billion, REAL Trends also stated.
To be ranked in the top 500, companies must respond to a REAL Trends survey sent in January. Surveys are mailed to all companies that are “potentially large enough to be listed in the report.”
HomeServices expands into northern South Carolina
The second largest real estate company in the country is getting bigger. The mega-brokerage HomeServices of America Inc. expanded operations into two more states with its recent acquisition of Prudential Carolinas Realty. An affiliate of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, HomeServices will have operations in 18 states. Prudential Carolinas has 16 offices and 750 sales associates and posted $2.3 billion in sales volume in 2003.
Prudential Carolinas has had a focus on the Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Kernersville, High Point, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Charlotte and Lake Norman areas of North Carolina and the Rock Hill and Lake Wylie markets of South Carolina, according to a HomeServices announcement.
Foreclosure rates spike
The number of new foreclosed residential properties listed in March increased 14% from the previous month, according to data released by Foreclosure.com. Overall, the total number of active and pending foreclosure properties rose 6.3% in March, the company said.
“Nationwide, residential foreclosures have steadily risen in each of the first three months of this year. However, in the last month we saw a small spike in new foreclosure listings,” said Greg Sullivan, vice president of Foreclosure.com, an online foreclosure listing service.
March’s increases were spread across the country, with the largest volumes of foreclosures remaining in states such as Michigan, the Carolinas, Texas, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana.
“These high volumes indicate that foreclosures in these areas are a result of generally less favorable economic conditions,” Sullivan said.
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