Spending money to purchase a better rate is your prerogative as a mortgage consumer.

And the RE classes are time consuming and a lot of cramming.....That being said having RE license is certainly helpful.

/ backyard space preferences, because you want to think like an investor, not a consumer.

That's suspiciously like: thinking like a consumer, not an investor! 

I'm definitely looking forward to consuming the wealth of information available on here.

This is good for consumers in that you can price/rate shop far and wide. 

Houston Real Estate Highlights in October Single-family home sales continued their post-Hurricane Harvey rebound as volume rose 7.5 percent year-over-year with 6,381 units sold;Single-family home sales remain 2.8 percent ahead of 2016’s year-to-date volume;Total property sales increased 6.6 percent with 7,614 units sold;Total dollar jumped 10.8 percent to $2.1 billion;The single-family home median price rose 3.9 percent to $226,491, which represents an October high;The single-family home average price increased 2.7 percent to $285,858, also the highest level for an October;Single-family homes months of inventory grew year-over-year to a 3.9-months supply, but is down from a 4.3-months pre-Harvey peak – the result of a surge in consumer demand for housing;Townhome/condominium sales rose 5.8 percent, with the average price down 1.1 percent to $195,393 and the median price down 3.1 percent to $153,000;Leases of single-family homes rose 13.6 percent with the average rent up 2.8 percent to $1,776;Volume of townhome/condominium leases jumped 34.8 percent with average rent up 2.9 percent to $1,533.HAR still encourages anyone who has housing available for temporary occupancy (up to 12 weeks) to please post it on our Harvey Temporary Housing page at www.har.com/temporaryhousing to provide housing to those in need.http://www.har.com/content/mls/?

The average consumer does not use the reports/tools which are a great way to help you get more granularity in your analysis and develop custom mapsZipwho: income and other statsESRI Demographics data by zip code: Love this!

The attorney may also suggest you get an opinion letter fromDOL/IRS which is time consuming and costly.

So even as people are buying (highest levels of consumer confidence), we just don't need as many physical retail stores or restaurants anymore.