Americans applied to buy homes at the highest pace last week since May, but more than 8 of every 10 loan requests was for a refinancing, Mortgage Bankers Association data show.
AP
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39043095/ns/business-mortgage_mess/"><img align="left" border="0" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/ap/housing aid-1863047144_v2.thumb.jpg" alt="Up to 1.5 million homeowners owe more on their properties than their homes are worth." style="margin:0 5px 5px 0" /></a></p><br clear="all" /> more >>
AP
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39028834/ns/business-real_estate/"><img align="left" border="0" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/100906-biz-landgrabs-108p.thumb.jpg" alt="Columbia University's Manhattanville Development looks northeast from Riverside Drive, in New York. Columbia, like many colleges across the country, has bought acres and acres of land that it doesn't immediately need and doesn't yet know how it will use it." style="margin:0 5px 5px 0" /></a></p><br clear="all" /> more >>
The number of buyers who signed contracts to purchase previously occupied homes increased in July but remained well below last year's levels, a sign that demand for housing remains weak.
The developers planning to build a $100 million Islamic center near the World Trade Center site are nearly a quarter-million dollars behind on real estate taxes and late fees.
You look back 10 years, what did you get? A little bit cleaner and deeper in debt. With apologies to Tennessee Ernie Ford, that’s a brief synopsis of how U.S. home life has changed during the past decade.
Mortgage applications rose 2.7 percent last week as more borrowers took advantage of the lowest rates in decades to reduce their monthly loan payments.
The Obama administration has not decided whether it should resurrect a popular tax credit for first-time homebuyers, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.
One in 10 American households with a mortgage was at risk of foreclosure this summer as the government's efforts to help have had little impact stemming the housing crisis.
AP
<p><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38855427/ns/business-real_estate/"><img align="left" border="0" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/100823-biz-empirestate-333p.thumb.jpg" alt="This artist's rendering shows the proposed 15 Penn Plaza, center, rising 67-stories in Midtown Manhattan, just 34 feet shorter than New York's iconic Empire State Building at left." style="margin:0 5px 5px 0" /></a></p><br clear="all" /> more >>
