REAL ESTATE

A continued rise in consumer confidence helped push up Canadian home sales and prices in the first quarter, but interest rate hikes expected later this year should cool the market.

Rising bond yields sent U.S. 30-year mortgage rates to the highest level in eight months on the brink of the important spring sales season, data from home funding company Freddie Mac showed on Thursday.

The house price bubble, the most prominent global bubble in generations, was caused by lower interest rates but...it was long-term mortgage rates that galvanized prices.

U.S. mortgage rates spiked last week, slashing refinancing demand, while requests for home purchase loans held steady amid a final rush for federal tax credits, Mortgage Bankers Association data showed on Wednesday.

Manhattan commercial real estate leasing and sales activity surged in the first quarter, as companies and investors sought to lock in good deals on falling rents and lower prices ahead of a recovery.

Vacancy rates at U.S. shopping centers and malls rose to the highest levels in at least 10 years in the first quarter, accompanied by a drop in rents that wiped out years of growth, research firm Reis Inc said on Wednesday.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans think the time is right to buy a house, with a majority believing prices will be the same or higher over the next year, according to a Fannie Mae survey released on Tuesday.

Two real estate brokers, three lawyers and five others were charged with fraudulently obtaining more than $10 million in home loans from American Home Mortgage Investment Corp and BNC Mortgage, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, U.S. prosecutors in New York said on Tuesday.

U.S. apartment vacancy rates stopped rising and rents increased modestly in the first quarter, signs the market is poised to recover, according to real estate research firm Reis.

U.S. mortgage insurers' stocks have touched new year-highs on confidence about success of the government's plan to let homeowners keep their homes, but the big question is how much steam the rally has left.

A roundup of townhouse gardens, most in New York and Brooklyn, a few in London.

The U.S. office vacancy rate in the first quarter reached its highest level in 16 years, but the decline in rents eased and crept closer to stabilization, according to a report by real estate research firm Reis Inc.

This five-story Gramercy Park townhouse is owned by Carin van der Donk and actor Vincent D'Onofrio (of Law and Order fame) who enlisted architect Peter Himmelstein to completely renovate the structure in 2007.

The double-whammy of rising Treasury yields and the end of the Federal Reserve's $1.25 trillion mortgage-buying program could prove to be a buying opportunity for the biggest bond investors.

Goodbye, Federal Reserve. Hello Fannie and Freddie.

Chicago foreclosure homes are the most affordable investment you can get to make in the vibrant city of Chicago. This city has a lot of commercial properties that are flooding the foreclosure market.

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled another bailout program for troubled homeowners, pledging to divert $600 million in housing rescue funds to 5 more states on its list of hardest-hit markets.

Bank of America Corp has agreed to forgive some bad mortgage loans and the government is pushing other lenders to follow suit, but on a scale too small to make much of a dent in the nation's huge pile of bad debt.

The Floating Bungalow demonstrates all the restraint, craftsmanship, and functionality of a Japanese house mixed with an unbridled So Cal creative vibe in the use of industrial materials and color throughout.

Signs are that some overseas buyers are drifting back into the New York real estate market, betting a decline in prices may be about to turn.

Toll Brothers Inc, which dominates the market for large, expensive houses known as McMansions, is shrinking its square footage as the worst housing market downturn since the Great Depression grinds on.

U.S. mortgage rates rose for a second straight week, a trend that could continue as key support from the government ceases at the end of the month, a closely watched mortgage survey showed on Thursday.

Serious delinquencies among mortgages jumped in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, led by a sharp increase in serious delinquencies by the most credit-worthy borrowers, U.S. banking regulators said on Thursday.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday U.S. house prices appeared to have bottomed out but were still fragile and that the country would not be out of crisis until prices stabilized.

Sales of newly built U.S. single-family homes fell for a fourth straight month to a record low in February, a government report showed on Wednesday, heightening fears of renewed weakness in the housing market.

Bank of America will on Wednesday announce plans to start forgiving mortgage loan principal for troubled homeowners who owe more than 120 percent of their home's value or are battling ever-expanding negative amortization loans.

A U.S. program aimed at helping struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure has been oversold by the Treasury Department and is likely to be a failure when it wraps up in 2012, a report from the watchdog overseeing the $700 billion bank bailout said on Tuesday.

U.S. mortgage applications fell for a second straight week, with demand for home loan refinancing sinking to its lowest level in a month as interest rates jumped, data from an industry group showed on Wednesday.

The government should continue to play a role in any new system of housing finance Congress develops, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told lawmakers on Tuesday as they began to debate an overhaul of the way Americans buy their homes.