Real Estate News

Home loans float around 5 percent

Rates for 30-year home loans inched downward this week, the first decline in a month, but remained above last month's record lows. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 5.09 percent this week, down from 5.14 percent a week earlier,... Full story

Are they empty promises?

Lenders rejecting homeowners who apply for Obama plan

McClatchy Tribune News Services

WASHINGTON — Ten months after the Obama administration began pressing lenders to do more to prevent foreclosures, many struggling homeowners are holding up their end of the bargain but still find themselves rejected, and some are even having... Full story

Mortgage rates up slightly

Mortgage rates rose for the second consecutive week but the number of homeowners who applied for refinancing remained strong. The average fixed rate on a 30-year mortgage was 4.94 percent this week, up from 4.81 percent last week, Freddie Mac said... Full story

30-year morgages hit record low

WASHINGTON — The average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage dropped to a record low of 4.71 percent this week, pushed down by an aggressive government campaign to reduce borrowing costs. The rate, published Thursday by Freddie Mac, is the... Full story

New rules unveiled to speed up short sales

By J.W. Elphinstone/Associated Press

The Treasury Department unveiled sweeping rules this week to help financially troubled homeowners who need to sell but can't get a price high enough to pay off their mortgages. Homeowners will even get $1,500 to help cover their moving costs. The... Full story

Teamwork protects a neighborhood

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

DETROIT — Eric Blount, 51, an accountant at DTE Energy, spent the spring and summer mowing grass at his own yard in Detroit's Sherwood Forest and also at the large corner lot next door. And when a real estate agent nailed plywood over the... Full story

New U.S. home sales rise 6.2 percent

Government’s first-time homeowner tax program given all the credit

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Sales of new homes rose last month to the highest level in more than a year as strong activity in the South offset weakness in the rest of the country. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that sales rose 6.2 percent to a... Full story

Western home resales post 10 percent annual gain

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Home sales rose 10 percent in the Western region of the country in October, driven largely by first-time homebuyers racing to qualify for a tax credit that had been set to expire at the end of this month, according to two reports... Full story

Real estate prices climb

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The summer's trend of rising home prices faded at the end of the traditional home shopping season, two reports Tuesday showed. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities rose only 0.3 percent to... Full story

October housing starts fall

By Alan Zibel/Associated Press

Construction of new homes unexpectedly plunged last month, as builders waited to see whether lawmakers would extend a tax credit for homebuyers. The results show how much the housing market has been relying on government support for its fledgling... Full story