Using Drones to Collect Data:

The government tracks commercial construction data, as do other companies, through building permits, but it is often revised over and over and is never exact. CoStar, like its competitors today, used to put more than 1,000 researchers in cars crisscrossing the nation to gather data from the ground. That is time-consuming, tedious and expensive. It would take CoStar, for example, a year to fully cover the Baltimore area; with the small Cessna plane and mapping system, it can do it in three days, with far more accuracy and cost efficiency.

Above Southern Maryland, Andy Florance is spying on millions of miles of real estate in the United States and around the world, as his team is doing on this day over the suburbs of Washington.

Using a low-flying, military-grade reconnaissance plane, equipped with cameras once used to gather data over Iraq and Afghanistan, CoStar Group, a commercial real estate information company, is gathering about twice as much construction data as its competitors. It is exactly what CoStar CEO Florance envisioned a year ago, when he made a multimillion dollar buy into the technology.

"Investors, lenders, developers, people that manage apartment buildings need to understand exactly how much new competitive supply is coming into each sub-market or neighborhood so they can set rents, they can determine what additional inventory they want to build," said Florance, standing in a hangar in front of the small white plane. "This technology allows us to track construction activity in the United States in a way that no one has ever been able to do."

"We can actually operate and cover the United States, 168 markets, for less than $1 million a year using this technology," said Florance. "We typically collect twice as much under-construction activity as any of our competitors, and that can be as much as hundreds of thousands of apartment units that we know about that no one else knows about."

"New construction activity will move rents down, so if I own a large building, and two new buildings are being built right next to my building, I need to lower my rents before they deliver, so that I can lease up my building before I have to compete against these new buildings," Florance said. "Often the decision-makers that are setting rents are thousands of miles away. Being able to capture really high quality information like this and provide it to our clients allows them to more effectively set their rents and be able to position against competitors remotely."

Home Builder's Sentiment Jumps Two Points:

Builder confidence in the market for newly constructed single-family homes  in August rose two points to 60 from a reading of 58 in July on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Any reading above 50 is positive, a reading below 50 is negative.

“New construction and new home sales are on the rise in most areas of the country, and this is helping to boost builder sentiment,” said NAHB Chairman Ed Brady, a home builder and developer from Bloomington, Ill.

“Builder confidence remains solid in the aftermath of weak GDP reports that were offset by positive job growth in July,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.  “Historically low mortgage rates, increased household formations and a firming labor market will help keep housing on an upward path during the rest of the year.”

Two of the three HMI components posted gains in August. The component gauging current sales conditions rose two points to 65, while the index charting sales expectations in the next six months increased one point to 67.  The component measuring buyer traffic fell one point to 44.

Looking at the three-month moving averages for regional HMI scores, the South registered a two-point uptick to 63, the Northeast rose two points to 41 while the West was unchanged at 69. The Midwest dropped two points to 55.

Mortgage applications jump 7% as rates drop on weak GDP

Lower interest rates driven by a weak GDP reading for the second quarter boosted mortgage applications last week, a sharp reversal from the previous week.

Total mortgage application volume increased 7.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis last week from the previous week, when applications fell 3.5 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The drop in interest rates for the second week in a row also spurred a 10 percent increase in mortgage refinance activity from the previous week.

With lingering concerns over a weak second quarter reading of US GDP growth, along with continuing anxiety over global growth and financial markets, rates edged lower for the second week in a row, " said Joel Kan, associate vice president of industry surveys and forecasts at the Mortgage Bankers Association. He said Friday's strong employment report for July was too late to influence average mortgage rates.

He said home purchase applications increased 2.6 percent last week, reversing three-straight weekly declines. The level was almost 13 percent higher than a year ago.

GDP for the second quarter came in at 1.2 percent, versus an expected 2.6 percent.

The increase in refinance activity was led by government refinance applications, which saw a 27 percent increase. 

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) decreased to 3.65 percent from 3.67 percent, with points increasing to 0.34 from 0.30 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio loans. That rate is down 48 basis points in the past year.

Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily, said that the strong uptick in refinancing applications made sense given recent events, which spurred demand.

"It might seem like refi apps increased more than is justified by the drop in rates, but it actually makes fairly good sense if we break down the timing," Graham wrote in an email. "The following week [after the July FOMC decision] began with rates near two week lows, more aggressive government loan pricing noted at several lenders... all serving to motivate application demand."

UPDATED: This story was updated to include comments from Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage Daily News.

Source: Ivan Levingston

Special to CNBC.com

Pending Home Sales 2nd Best in Last 12 Months:

Pending home sales, based on signed contracts but not yet closed, rose 0.2 percent in June compared to May and is 1 percent higher than June 2015, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The improvement puts sales at the second-highest level of the last 12 months.

"Until inventory conditions markedly improve, far too many prospective buyers are likely to run into situations of either being priced out of the market or outbid on the very few properties available for sale," said Lawrence Yun, the NAR's chief economist, in a release.

Housing inventory was almost 6 percent lower at the end of June compared to a year ago, and home prices, while easing up slightly, are still rising at a faster pace than wage and income growth.

Realtors say the one positive development in the first half of this year was a decline in investor sales activity, from a high of 18 percent in February to a low of 11 percent in June. That is the smallest share since July 2009 and likely due to the drop in the number of distressed homes for sale.

"Limited selection of homes at bargain prices is reducing the number of individual investors willing or able to buy," wrote Yun. "This will hopefully open the door for first-time buyers, who made some progress last month but are still buying homes at a subpar level even as rents increase at rates not seen since before the downturn." 

New Record High Home Prices:

boosted by a greater share of sales to first-time buyers not seen in nearly four years, existing-home sales maintained their upward trajectory in June and increased for the fourth consecutive month, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Only the Northeast saw a decline in closings in June, and sales to investors fell to their lowest overall share since July 2009.

Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, climbed 1.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million in June from a downwardly revised 5.51 million in May. After last month's gain, sales are now up 3.0 percent from June 2015 (5.41 million) and remain at their highest annual pace since February 2007 (5.79 million).

The median existing-home price for all housing types in June was $247,700 (a new record), up 4.8 percent from June 2015 ($236,300). June's price increase marks the 52^nd consecutive month of year-over-year gains and surpasses May's peak median sales price of $238,900.

Total housing inventory at the end of June dipped 0.9 percent to 2.12 million existing homes available for sale, and is now 5.8 percent lower than a year ago (2.25 million). Unsold inventory is at a 4.6-month supply at the current sales pace, which is down from 4.7 months in May.

The share of first-time buyers was 33 percent in June, which is up from 30 percent in May and a year ago and is the highest since July 2012 (34 percent). Through the first six months of the year, first-time buyers have represented an average of 31 percent of buyers; they were 30 percent in all of 2015.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the impressive four month streak of sales gains through June caps off a solid first half of 2016 for the housing market. "Existing sales rose again last month as more traditional buyers and fewer investors were able to close on a home despite many competitive areas with unrelenting supply and demand imbalances," he said. "Sustained job growth as well as this year's descent in mortgage rates is undoubtedly driving the appetite for home purchases." 

Video Game May Help Sales:

Pokemon Go, has teenagers and adults jumping off of the couch and into the real world with fresh air and vitamin D.  And savvy real estate agents smell "opportunity". Real estate agents are starting to play the game of using the game. An ad on Zillow for a home in Redmond, Washington, details a long list of upgrades, including a new roof, new hardwood floors, a tankless water heater and, at the bottom of the list, a "Pokemon Go" gym less than five minutes away. Another in Tacoma, Washington, goes into more detail: "3 Pokemon Go Gyms, and 5 Pokestops. Confirmed Squirrtle sighting in the backyard, and there may or may not be a Charzard lvl 7 in the neighbors shed. Must see to appreciate!" Using "Pokemon Go" to drive higher foot traffic to any form of real estate seems like a no-brainer, but when it comes to residential real estate, foot traffic hasn't exactly been the problem this year. Still, you never want to pass on any marketing gimmick. Real estate agent Jay Glazer hoped a redesigned roof deck might help draw potential buyers to the open house at his $1.5 million listing but, just in case, he added this to the ad: "I'm fairly certain there is a PIKACHU at this open house, don't miss it." Of the dozen or so people who showed up, only one knew exactly what "Pokemon Go" was, but Glazer said it was still worth adding the app as something of an appetizer to the ad. "I think at the end of the day the goal is to get as many people through the door and interested in the apartment, and ultimately, if there's a 'Pokemon' obsessed person out there who also likes this home, then we want them here, and this is the best way to attract them," said Glazer, 32, a "Pokemon Go" player himself.

Foreign Buyers Flood our Market:

With Inventory levels tight and rising prices, the last thing our red hot real estate market needs is more demand.  Yet, that is exactly what we have and it is providing even more support for our housing market.

The appetite for U.S. real estate continues to flourish, but international buyers are shifting their sights from luxury to less-pricey properties. This may be due to overall higher home prices, along with a stronger U.S. dollar, which both cost foreign buyers more at the negotiating table.

Foreign buyers purchased $102.6 billion of residential property in the U.S. between April 2015 and March 2016, according to NAR's annual report on international activity in U.S. real estate.

The number of properties purchased rose 2.8 percent to 214,885. The value of homes bought by foreigners was typically higher than the median price of all U.S. homes.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that foreign purchasers' overall sales dollar volume was the second highest since 2009.

Chinese purchasers continued to outpace all others, with their dollar volume exceeding the total of the next four ranked countries combined. Their dollar volume of sales, at $27.3 billion, was a slight decrease from last year's survey but was still three times as much as Canadian buyers, who were ranked second. Chinese buyers also bought the most expensive homes at a median price of $542,084.

London had been a favorite of foreign investors, but the impact of the Brexit vote is already hitting the housing market there. Buyers from the United Kingdom were the fourth-largest consumer of U.S. real estate in the data that was gathered before the Brexit vote.

As for U.S. destinations, five states accounted for half of foreign buyer purchases: Florida, (22 percent), California (15 percent), Texas (10 percent), Arizona and New York (each at 4 percent). Latin Americans, Europeans and Canadians, who historically favor warmer climates, were most prevalent in Florida and Arizona. Asian buyers flocked to California and New York. Texas was more a mix of buyers from Latin American, the Caribbean and Asia. Texas may be more of an investment play, as demand for single-family rentals there remains strong.