REALTORS’® firms provide them with additional resources, including websites and relocation departments. Nine in ten REALTORS® reported that their firms have a web presence, and 2 percent indicated that there is not currently a presence, but a site is planned. Almost 40 percent of REALTOR® firms had a relocation department or business development department responsible [...]

While most home buyers continue to see their home purchase not only as a place to live, but also as a good financial investment, a smaller share of buyers expressed this view than in the past. Seventy-eight percent of buyers feel that their home purchase is a good financial investment, while only 8 percent felt [...]

2011 was the most dramatic year for the euro in the decade since the single currency was launched. Countries such as Ireland and Greece had to be bailed out after the cost of their debt soared as the euro zone debt crisis engulfed the region. Italy and Spain-the region's third- and fourth-largest economies, respectively-looked in danger of needing to seek a bailout. There has even been speculation that the currency itself will not survive this crisis, which would have been almost unthinkable a year earlier. While it seems secure for now, experts predict that the value of the euro is likely to fall against the dollar next year. "The problems with the euro will express themselves most clearly against the dollar," Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist, BNY Mellon, told CNBC.com. "I thought we would bottom out towards the end of this year, but that looks optimistic now." He believes the euro will finish 2012 in the low 1.20 range against the dollar. The euro, which closed 2010 at 1.3385 against the dollar, has ranged between 1.2950 and 1.4247 this year. It looks set to close down slightly on the year despite market turbulence throughout 2011.

(Reuters) - Italy's short-term debt costs halved at auction Wednesday as a new package of budget austerity and an injection of cheap long-term money from the European Central Bank won Rome some respite in thin year-end markets. Analysts warned market nerves could easily reignite and pointed to a tougher test Thursday when Italy will sell up to 8.5 billion euros ($11.1 bln) of longer-term bonds, including three- and ten-year paper. But the lowest six-month auction yield and strongest bid-to-cover ratio since September added to a sense that some of the tension around the countries now at the center of Europe's debt problems had eased for a moment. European stocks .EU rose and the euro edged up in response. "This is the first piece of good news for Italy's bond market since the crisis erupted (for Rome) in July," said Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy.