On March 30th, 2012, San Diego, California made CNBC’s list of cities nationwide where homes are selling the fastest. How do real estate showings influence home sales within San Diego in 2012? On average, an increase or decrease in home showings predicts where the real estate market is headed within the next 30-60 days. When comparing Zillow’s home sales data and Showing Suite’s CBSA real estate showings data from 2011 to 2012, it is apparent that the market is picking back up in San Diego, and is trending to have more home sales in 2012.

In down real estate markets, many home sellers will do anything it takes to tempt prospective home buyers to make a purchase, especially by offering incentives to make the home seem a little more appealing. More common incentives include closing cost credits, HOA credits, or new home appliances. But will offering crazy buyers incentive really sell a house faster? Take a look at these unconventional incentives offered by home sellers in order to give buyers that extra push to and to get their home sold:

As the cost of renting continues to rise and home values keep dropping, buying a home is beginning to make more financial sense than renting. According to real estate data provided by Trulia’s rent vs. buy index, buying is more affordable than renting in 98 out of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. The index is based on asking prices for rental units and homes for sale on the company’s website between Dec. 1, 2011, and Feb. 29.

Everyone has their own opinion on the current real estate market, whether it’s recovering or still in a downfall. There are many contributing factors that are influencing the current market conditions, including how many real estate showings, or “foot traffic” a home gets. We’ve compiled our CBSA real estate showings data for the United States throughout April 2012 and it proves to raise a few questions about where the market is headed for the rest of 2012. Real estate showings were steadily on the rise from January 2012-March 2012, but saw a large drop in April. Compared to the previous months of 2012, real estate showings in April are down 3% compared to March 2012.

Phoenix, Arizona has been making headlines all over the news in real estate recently due to the local increase in home sales and prices so far in 2012. Factors such as unemployment rates, economy, and location are known influences on home sales, but could the amount of potential home buyer “foot traffic” be an influence on home sales? As the market began to pick back up in 2012, the volume of home real estate showings have also increased.

According to a new property feedback report from S&P/Case-Shiller, home prices in February 2012 have hit new post-bubble lows, and have not been this low since November 2002. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities recorded an overall decline of 3.5% from 12 months earlier.