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The article focuses on the online survey conducted by BBVA Compass concerning the attitudes of first-time buyers to manage cost of home ownership in the U.S. Shelaghmichael Brown, head of the company, stated that there are 88% of the buyers were unprepared for the financial difficulties due to insufficient knowledge they had with mortgage payments. Frank Rathbun of Community Association Institute stated that condominium association-governed communities have practiced property maintenance fees.

The article focuses on the survey made on real estate markets by the Consumer Reports Research Center. The respondents of the survey include sellers of houses, the buyers, and those individuals who engaged into both transactions. The findings of the survey reveals that deals are mostly closed due to proper market transactions, sellers or buyers usually hire the services of brokers or agents, and when the agents cut deals on commissions.

The article cites findings of the National Multi Housing Council's January 2007 quarterly survey of conditions in the multifamily market in the U.S. The survey found that sales of multifamily properties are down in more markets overall. Sixteen percent of the respondents thought that borrowing conditions had improved compared with the period for the last survey, while 74% thought conditions were unchanged.

The article cites the findings of a survey from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate conducted by the Center for Real Estate, University of Wisconsin. New York has been viewed by foreign real estate investors as the best place for real estate investment in 2007. Japan and China are cited to be the places where investors are most likely to invest in Asia. India is also viewed as the country with the second highest potential for real estate capital appreciation, after the U.S.

Comments on issues related to customer satisfaction surveys in the real estate business in the U.S. Benefits of the J. D. Power customer survey on the real estate businesses; Reasons behind the increase in the number of builders participating in the survey; Initiatives undertaken by the J. D. Power surveying team to prevent fraudulent practices of some survey participants.

The article reports on the decline of the average right-to-buy (RTB) discount in England in 2009. It states that it has fallen from 27% to 11% from 1999-2009 and notes that the decline is even more prominent in London with a dramatic fall from 29% of average house prices in 1997/1998 to just 6% in 2007/2008. Discounts in England, when expressed as a percentage of the price of council homes sold through the RTB scheme, dropped from 49% to 24%.

The article reports on a survey by law firm DLA Piper which has revealed that almost two-thirds of high-level real estate executives don't expect the real estate markets to stabilize until 2010. As reported, nearly 60% of respondents in the follow-up survey have said that the current crisis surpassed the savings and loan collapse of 1989-91. The survey has a strong local flavor because 40% of the 424 respondents are in the Chicago, Illinois.