In a win for online discount real estate brokers, the Justice Department and the National Association of Realtors announced a settlement Tuesday that will let Internet brokers use the same for-sale home listings used by traditional bricks-and-mortar brokers.
The Justice Department says the proposed antitrust settlement will create more competition among traditional and discount brokers, while […]

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Sales of new homes across the United States rose an unexpected 3.3 percent in April from the prior month, to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 526,000 homes, a government report showed Tuesday. The spike in sales confounded most economists forecasts of a […]

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The gloom enveloping the US housing market intensified on Tuesday as home prices dropped at the fastest annual rate since records began 20 years ago.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller national house price index fell 14.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier, a decline that […]

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U.S. Has Most Unsold Homes Since ‘85
Sales of Existing Homes and Median Home Prices Fall Again as Inventory Stays High
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing homes in the U.S. fell for the eighth time in the past nine months, with the backlog of unsold single-family homes rising to the highest level in more than two […]

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(WASHINGTON) — U.S. home prices posted their sharpest first-quarter decline since the government began tracking the data 17 years ago.
The Washington-based Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Thursday that home prices fell 3.1 percent in the first quarter compared with last year. The index also fell 1.7 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 […]

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IF you have a mortgage, consider yourself lucky.
That is the upshot of the most recent survey of mortgage lenders by the Federal Reserve Board, which found that banks’ lending standards were significantly tighter in April than they had been in January, when credit was already tight.
Some prospective borrowers who just a few months ago were […]

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Home Sales Rise Unexpectedly but Prices Keep Tumbling
WASHINGTON (AP) — After falling for six straight months, sales of existing homes posted an unexpected increase in February which may have reflected more aggressive price cutting by sellers in some parts of the country, a real estate trade group reported.
The National Association of Realtors said that sales […]

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The peach-colored house in a modest subdivision near downtown Modesto, Calif., used to be someone’s dream home. But it stands out in a row of similarly hued homes where many have a “For Sale” sign planted in their front yards. The two-story appears battered: its address has been scratched on a front panel and weeds […]

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WHAT image does the term “lowballer” conjure up for you? A smirking bottom feeder in a bad suit? A fast-talking investor working the phone?
How about a couple of young newlyweds who have saved their wedding cash to put toward their first home?
James and Valentina Sbarra fit the last description, and they are relieved to be […]

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IF there is a bright spot in New York City’s uncertain real estate market, it is that over the last several months, some first-time buyers have found it easier to buy apartments.
With mortgage rates low and prices steady, some of these buyers are getting apartments at the most favorable prices and terms in years.
“I haven’t […]

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