REAL ESTATE

Home sales in Southern California rose above their seasonal pattern in December from November with a 20.5 percent gain but were down 12.5 percent from a year earlier, reflecting a sluggish jobs market and tight credit, MDA DataQuick said on Tuesday.

The Obama administration on Tuesday stepped up efforts to make it easier for struggling homeowners to renegotiate the terms of their mortgage, although it could be more than a year before such efforts pay off.

New York City expects to record a 3.75 percent rise in real estate market values for the fiscal year starting in July, the finance commissioner said on Friday, as he issued tentative assessments for property taxes.

Banks seized more than a million U.S. homes in one year for the first time last year, despite a slowdown in the last few months as questions around foreclosure processing arose, a leading firm said on Thursday.

After repossessing more than a record 1 million homes in the U.S., banks are now poised to foreclosure on even more properties in 2011, according to Realty Trac Inc.

Applications for U.S. home mortgages increased last week as lending rates eased from recent highs, an industry group said on Wednesday.

U.S. housing prices overall are expected to hit bottom by spring 2011 and begin a gradual rise in 2012, Frank Nothaft, chief economist and vice president of housing lender Freddie Mac said on Wednesday.

The U.S. real estate market is improving, at least for foreign investment dollars, according to the Association for Foreign Investment in Real Estate, or AFIRE.

Sales of new single-family houses climbed 5.5 percent in November 2010 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Residential real estate in 35 large and medium-sized cities in China is, on average, about 29.5 percent overpriced, according to estimates of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The value of U.S. homes is expected to decline by more than $1.7 trillion during 2010, following a drop of more than $1 trillion in 2009, according to data from Zillow Real Estate Market Reports. Since the market peak of June 2006, U.S. housing has lost $9-trillion in value.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes improved a tad in November, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

The White House said on Thursday the administration is reviewing legislation that could make it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions.

The percentage of home sellers who cut their asking price fell in September, with price reductions smaller than the month before.

The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it was probing reports the nation's top mortgage lenders improperly evicted struggling borrowers from their homes as part of the devastating wave of foreclosures unleashed by the financial crisis.

The number of U.S. homes listed for sale in September rose from the previous month for the 9th straight month, according to data released by real estate brokerage ZipRealty.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage did not cut corners to speed up the foreclosure process as some of its competitors have admitted to in recent weeks.

U.S. mortgage applications for home purchases rose for a second straight week, with demand at its highest level since early May as potential homeowners took advantage of record low interest rates

California Democrats in the House of Representatives are calling for federal investigations into whether financial institutions broke any laws in their handling of foreclosures in the midst of the housing crisis.

An influential U.S. senator on Tuesday raised the prospect of an industry-wide moratorium on foreclosures as he pressed three banks accused of fraudulent practices to outline steps they are taking to fix their procedures.

Pending sales of previously owned homes rose to a four-month high in August, implying the housing market was regaining some stability after recent steep declines following the end of a home-buyer tax credit.

Predatory lending aimed at racially segregated minority neighborhoods led to mass foreclosures that fueled the U.S. housing crisis, according to a new study published in the American Sociological Review.

Connecticut's attorney general on Friday called on state courts to freeze home foreclosures for 60 days after borrowers claimed that major lenders may be making misstatements in the foreclosure process.

A Maine state court judge reprimanded GMAC mortgage over its foreclosure practices and concluded that it submitted a company official's affidavit to support a foreclosure in bad faith.

Yet another reason to contemplate a trip to Sydney: the newish Bison Ceramics store, spotted a while back on Decor 8 (with images by Australian photographer Jillian Leiboff).

While in Seattle this summer, I made my annual visit to Inform Interiors and spotted the Tom Dixon marble-topped screw table. The table is stunning—a modern industrial take on the cafe table that is at once glamorous and utilitarian, practical yet luxurious. My encounter with the Tom Dixon table inspired me to round up a collection of high and low-priced favorite round tables—perfect for an eat-i...

Fallout over GMAC Mortgage's foreclosure practices deepened on Tuesday as Ohio's top law enforcement official asked courts in that state to review all foreclosure cases involving the Ally Financial Inc unit.

U.S. mortgage-backed securities issuance jumped in the first nine months of 2010 from the same period a year earlier as credit markets loosened up and investors' risk appetite improved

An outcry over questionable foreclosures by GMAC Mortgage and other lenders is likely to hit some states more than others because of major differences in real estate law across the nation.