The Census Bureau releases May figures for new home sales on Thursday, June 22, while the National Association of Realtors releases existing home sales on Friday, June 23. As expected, new home sales in the United States jumped 15 percent in April to 504,000 on the back of the rush by buyers to take advantage of the home buyer tax credit. This takes it to the highest level seen since May 2008. Existing home sales also showed strong gains, increasing by 7.5 percent, taking it to 5.7 million...

Get a sneak preview of the June 22 RICS & IPTI webinar by listening to our latest podcast with speaker RICS Fellow Peter S. Brooks of Ernst & Young.

Ireland and the United States are set to see the biggest rise in distressed sales, according to RICS research published today. Real estate professionals expect the number of distressed properties coming onto the market in the second quarter of 2010 to increase across 19 of the 25 countries surveyed. Respondents in Ireland and the United States expect to see the fastest growth in activity, followed by Scandinavia, New Zealand and Hungary.

Elizabeth Belenchia MRICS discusses the creation of an Urban Infill Restorative Ecology project for a Sustainable Village in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and the leadership role an RICS member can play in local communities.

Using the five counties of the Los Angeles metropolitan area as a case study, this research by Peter Gordon and Huanghai Li of the University of Southern California explored whether there is a relationship between homeowners’ satisfaction with the provision of municipal services and different forms of local governance, looking in particular at whether income, privatization and place matter.

Randy Scheidt FRICS tells the Wall Street Journal that business owners are optimistic.

One in five property professionals globally believe that 90 percent of the commercial real estate stock will still fall short of meeting good sustainable standards by 2020, according to an RICS survey of commercial property agents released today.

RICS Americas and Real Capital Analytics today issued the first Commercial Real Estate Report, with news that the first quarter of 2010 saw a significant increase in transaction volume in North and South America, approximately $17 billion, up an impressive 68 percent from a year earlier.

Rob Nahigian, FRICS, SIOR, CRE of Auburndale Realty Co., has recently been invited to speak at a number of regional real estate events throughout the United States as part of the NAR Signature Series program. He was selected as a NAR Signature Series speaker during 2009 which is a grant program offered by NAR Commercial to commercial overlay boards.

In an exclusive RICS Americas Property World podcast, Andrew Mann FRICS, Managing Director for U.S. operations of Gardiner and Theobald Inc., explains the classifications of projects that utilize BIM, and how to produce the basic documentation for bidding on projects.

The commercial property upswing continued into 2010 with Latin America and Asia leading the way, according to the RICS Global Commercial Property Survey .

Scott Muldavin FRICS, of the RICS Americas Sustainability Working Group, visited China for eight days in March.

The Canadian Real Estate Association has announced the election of Karen Barry MRICS as the Canadian Commercial Council (CCC) Chair on the CREA Board of Directors.

The world’s top design, planning, construction and project management firms were selected to create the World Trade Center Memorial. The Memorial that will commemorate the tragedies of September 11, 2001and February 26, 1993 is currently one of the most extraordinary, challenging and historic development projects in the United States.

RICS Asia Chairman and RICS president-elect for 2010/2011 See Lian Ong visits the RICS Americas office in New York City to meet with Tom Justin, RICS Americas chairman. The two RICS leaders discuss the value of RICS membership, the challenges facing real estate and construction experts worldwide, and opportunities for property professionals from Asia to the Americas.

US existing home sales data for March are due on Thursday 22nd from the National Association of Realtors with new home sales data also for March released the following day from the Census Bureau. Both have been worsening in the past few months. In February new homes sales data hit a historical low of 315,000 units (annualized) and US existing home sales declined to 5.02mn units (annualized), its fourth consecutive monthly fall.

RICS chief operating officer, Sean Tompkins, has been named chief executive officer of the organization and will assume his new role later this year following the retirement of Louis Armstrong. The decision was made by RICS Governing Council today at its meeting in London.

RICS today held elections for its new officers at the organization's Governing Council Meeting. Robert Peto was also confirmed as the president for 2010/2011. The RICS global vision and strategy is set by the 70-strong Governing Council, which is chaired by the President and includes RICS members from all world regions.

The coming week promises to be a busy one for both property and macro economic data releases. The numbers and surveys due out are likely to reinforce the encouraging picture painted by the surprisingly strong January GDP figure which, on a year on year basis, moved into positive territory for the first time in sixteen months.

Valuation Principles and Standards in America - Brian Glanville FRICS addresses FAS 157 and international valuation standards.

Armstrong contributes his comments to Commercial Property Executive's ongoing CPE TV series.

RICS brought together key sustainability, housing and valuation stakeholders in an event titled "Getting all the green ducks in a row: Energy performance, value and green buildings." The event highlighted the challenges faced in putting in place the conditions whereby the value attributed to homes' energy performance could be increased. Reinforcing RICS' global reach RICS Head of Global Sustainability Ursula Hartenberger introduced US member Scott Muldavin FRICS on "Value...

Barden Prisant FRICS and Alan Fausel FRICS discuss the latest trends in art, donations, estate valuation, and more.

RICS published the first-stage discussion paper for its Vision for Cities work programme at MIPIM - an international real estate conference in Cannes, France. On Wednesday, March 17, RICS launched a discussion paper for the international property community at an RICS-hosted seminar at MIPIM.

RICS Americas is pleased to announce the upgrade of 16 qualified Members (MRICS) to RICS Fellowship (FRICS) status since October 2009. Most MRICS are eligible to apply for Fellowship as soon as they are elected.