Real Estate | featured news

Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly fell in June as fewer properties came on the market, an industry group said on Thursday, pointing to weak home resales in July.

New single-family home sales in June fell by the most in more than a year and prices resumed their downward trend, suggesting a setback for the budding housing market recovery.

Spain's 17 regional governments are a big part of the country's financial problems. Like the regional savings banks, they are victims of the country's property boom and bust. During the boom years, regional government tax revenues were swelled by stamp duties on property sales, and by income taxes paid by immigrants that came to work on the country's construction sites... Then the bust came...

U.S. home prices in the second quarter rose from the year-ago period for the first time since 2007, according to a closely watched index, the latest indication that the housing market is starting to recover.

Average rates on fixed mortgages fell again this week to record lows, creating more incentive for buyers to enter the recovering housing market.

Home resales fell in June but the median sales price was higher than a year earlier as fewer people sold their homes under distressed conditions, giving mixed signals for the country's nascent housing market recovery.

Groundbreaking on new homes rose in June to its fastest pace in over three years, lending a helping hand to an economy that has shown worrisome signs of cooling. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that housing starts rose 6.9 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 units. That was the highest rate since October 2008.

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders is swelling to a five-year high, with many now anticipating that sales of new homes will strengthen this year even as signs point to a slowing economy.

San Bernardino County, with some of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates, may use eminent domain to buy up mortgages and cut them to the current value of the homes.

Wells Fargo Bank will pay at least $175 million to settle accusations that it discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers in violation of fair-lending laws, the Justice Department announced Thursday.