Housing Market | featured news

The resurgent U.S. housing market has sent builders calling again for Richard Vap, who owns a drywall installation company. Vap would love to help - if he could hire enough qualified people. "There is a shortage of manpower," says Vap, owner of South Valley Drywall in Littleton, Colo. "We're probably only hiring about 75 or 80 percent of what we actually need."

Sales of new single-family homes rose in March, indicating the housing market recovery remains on track.

Home resales edged downward in March, a pause in the housing market recovery that has helped boost the economy.

Big investors are pouring unprecedented amounts of money into real estate hard hit by the housing crash, bringing those moribund markets back to life but raising the prospect of another Wall Street-fueled bubble that won’t be sustainable.

Relief checks issued as part of a settlement over foreclosure abuses have bounced, an unfortunate twist for consumers who have already faced problems over reviews of troubled mortgage loans.

U.S. builders broke ground in March on homes as a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.04 million — the fastest pace in nearly five years — on a surge in apartment construction. The gain signals further strength in the housing market ahead of the spring-buying season.

From household wealth to spending at stores, many of the U.S. economy's vital signs have recovered from the damage done by the Great Recession. Home foreclosures and layoffs have dropped to pre-recession levels.

The number of underwater homeowners in the Washington area decreased again in the last quarter of 2012, continuing a trend that has brought relief to thousands of borrowers.

Fannie Mae earned $17.2 billion last year, the biggest annual profit in the U.S. mortgage giant's history, helped by a record fourth quarter.

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday signaled he will not rubber-stamp Citigroup Inc's proposed $590 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of hiding tens of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage assets.