Housing Market, Real Estate | featured news

The rebound in the U.S. housing market accelerated in August as residential construction starts increased 2.3% and sales of existing homes rose 7.8%, according to new figures released Wednesday.

San Francisco-based online real-estate listing firm, Trulia, is expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this coming Thursday, Sept. 20, under the ticker, TRLA, according to a report. The company plans to sell 6 million shares with a price range of between $14 and $16 a share.

Record-low interest rates are out of reach for many homeowners, and a big reason is that millions are underwater. Obama and others are trying to assist them. U.S. interest rates are at rock-bottom levels, but that's not helping most Americans with mortgages.

Nationwide home prices shot up 3.8% in July, making their largest year-over-year leap since 2006, according to real estate data provider CoreLogic. The gain marks the fifth straight rise in the gauge, part of a positive swing following a year and a half of slumps. The last time prices rose so much was in August 2006, when they jumped 4.1%.

Citigroup said on Wednesday that it had agreed to pay $590 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders who contended that they had been misled about the bank’s exposure to subprime mortgage debt on the eve of the financial crisis.

Home prices rose more than expected in June, the fifth month in a row of gains in a fresh sign of improvement in the housing market, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

New single-family home sales rose in July but prices fell, giving mixed signals about the strength of the country's budding housing market recovery.

In Vietnam’s major cities, a once-booming property market has come crashing down, adding to an economic slowdown that is being compared to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

The Treasury said on Friday it is changing the way Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will repay taxpayers in a move the Obama administration said would accelerate the winding down of the government-owned mortgage financiers.

With millions of homeowners still underwater, some local governments are considering a novel solution: condemning their mortgages through the power of eminent domain. “Federal programs have not been very successful at all, and the private programs have been of limited help,” said Gregory Devereaux, administrator for San Bernardino County, explaining the government's decision to consider eminent domain, a plan the mortgage industry considers the equivalent of the nuclear option. The hard-hit county's board of supervisors is expected to meet Thursday to consider proposals to help homeowners, including the possible use of eminent domain.