Real Estate | featured news

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.

Mortgage rates ticked up slightly after sinking last week for the first time since late January, according to the latest data released by Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed-rate average rose to 3.57 percent with an average 0.8 point. It was up from 3.54 percent a week ago but down from 3.99 percent a year ago. The 30-year fixed rate has remained below 4 percent for more than a year now.

Sales of new homes fell in February after climbing to the highest level in more than four years in January. Sales of new homes dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 in February, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. That is a decline of 4.6 percent from the January level of 431,000, which had been the strongest sales pace since September 2008.

Single-family home prices rose in January, starting the year with the biggest annual increase in six-and-a-half years in a fresh sign the housing market recovery remains on track, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

Home resales hit a three-year high in February and prices jumped, adding to signs of an acceleration in the housing market recovery, even though the supply of properties on the market increased.

Groundbreaking to build homes rose in February and new permits for construction climbed to the highest level since 2008, a sign the nation's housing market recovery is gathering steam.

U.S. home prices jumped in January, a sign the housing market is gaining momentum as it nears the spring selling season.

A measure of the number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes rose in January from December to the highest level in more than 2 ½ years. The increase suggests sales of previously occupied homes will continue rising in the coming months. The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales rose 4.5 percent last month to 105.9. That's the highest since April 2010, when a homebuyer's tax credit was about to expire.

U.S. home prices closed out 2012 with the biggest annual gain in more than six years while sales of new homes spiked in January, the latest sign that the long-suffering housing market was on the mend, data showed on Tuesday.

Almost 2 million American homeowners were freed from negative equity in 2012, and the overall percentage of all homeowners with a mortgage in negative equity fell to 27.5 percent at the end of the fourth quarter, according to Zillow’s fourth quarter Negative Equity Report.