REAL ESTATE

Demand for loans to buy U.S. homes raced to a seven-month high last week in the last hurrah for federal homebuyer tax credits that ended April 30, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) data showed on Wednesday.

No. 1 U.S. homebuilder PulteGroup Inc posted a far narrower-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday due to lower land charges and said it expects to record a profit for 2010 overall.

The percentage of U.S. home sellers who cut their asking price rose in April, but price reductions were smaller, real estate website Zillow.com said in a report.

Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes hit a five-month high in March as buyers rushed to sign contracts before a tax credit expired, while a jump in factory orders pointed to manufacturing strength.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Thursday slammed mortgage service companies for failing to do enough to help Americans avoid losing their homes and promised to crack down on shoddy practices.

Fewer than a third of office workers said their buildings are environmentally friendly, according to the poll of 6,486 office workers conducted for IBM Corp.

Foreclosure activity fell in 14 of the top 20 U.S. metropolitan areas in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, even though total U.S. foreclosures rose, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Home buyer tax credits have been a boon to the U.S. housing market, but their expiration this week is unlikely to deter home purchasing activity as consumers grow more confident, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications fell last week as a drop in home refinancing volume outweighed the highest demand for home purchase loans in six months, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank faces a U.S. class-action lawsuit over mortgage-related securities it helped arrange, Germany's biggest lender said in its first-quarter report.

U.S. home prices fell in the month of February, but rose compared to a year ago for the first time in more than three years, in the latest sign that the housing market is slowly recovering.

The share of empty U.S. homes fell slightly in the first quarter, a government report on Monday showed, though vacancies remained at elevated levels amid continued weakness in the housing sector.

Mell Lawrence Architects in Austin manages to achieve that delicate balance of combining traditional barn vernacular with a relevant, modern style.

A state judge in Florida has ruled against U.S. Bank N.A. which filed a lawsuit against Ernest Harpster when the homeowner defaulted on a loan that he supposedly received in January 2007.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes rebounded strongly in March to touch their highest level in eight months as buyers rushed into the market to take advantage of a homebuyer tax credit, a government report showed on Friday.

U.S. home prices fell 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in February and dropped 3.4 percent in the year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Thursday.

U.S. existing home sales climbed in March as Americans rushed to take advantage of a tax credit for home buyers, but activity remained severely depressed from levels preceding the country's sharpest housing downturn in modern history.

Investors are backing off worst-case housing scenarios for the first time in this cycle -- a milestone shift that is keeping a mortgage bond rally alive and setting the stage for a recovery in securitization.

Home improvement spending is expected to rise 5 percent in the United States in 2010, but the surge might not foretell an increase in sales of new homes.

Uniformed doormen and apartment building workers reached a deal with New York building owners on Wednesday, narrowly averting a strike that would have left residents running elevators, disposing of trash and doing other chores themselves.

Most consumers think U.S. homes are affordable and the time is ripe to buy as many expect prices to rise in the next year, a new survey showed on Wednesday.

U.S. mortgage applications bounced from three-month lows last week as potential buyers locked in lower borrowing costs before the federal tax credit expires, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

The Obama administration should consider forcing lenders to make principal reductions for struggling homeowners who owe more than their home is worth, the watchdog overseeing the $700 billion bank bailout.

First-time buyers accounted for nearly half of all U.S. home sales in March as they took advantage of tax credits and more affordable prices resulting from distressed transactions, according to a real estate survey on Monday.

UK publishers Thames & Hudson have just come out with Vincent Van Duysen: Complete Works, a comprehensive monograph of the Belgian architect's work, featuring more than 30 projects photographed by Alberto Piovano.

U.S. housing starts rose more than expected in March to their highest level since November 2008 and permits to build new homes scaled a 17-month peak, offering hope the housing market recovery remained on course.

U.S. mortgage rates have fallen for the first time in five weeks, retreating from an eight-month high and remaining near historically low levels, a closely watched mortgage survey showed on Thursday.

U.S. home foreclosures actions spiked in March and set a quarterly record despite federal programs to combat the unrelenting pace that homeowners are defaulting on mortgages, RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Abruptly changing the structure of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would likely lower home prices and could threaten the fragile U.S. economic recovery.