While home prices were falling last fall nearly nationwide, the pace of sales has picked up more recently. Overall, it seems clear that the worst of the housing debacle has passed. It's just that the U.S. remains on a slow, grinding track back to housing health.
Lee County, Florida has become infamous for the "rocket docket" -- its system of speeding foreclosure cases through the courts. DailyFinance spoke with the Lee County Clerk who says the super-charged system was his idea.
2010 was an especially tough year for homeowners, according to a year-end report from RealtyTrac. Many foreclosure proceedings, however, were stopped late in the year, which means that as many as a quarter million foreclosure filings could be added to the data in early 2011.
The U.S. economy has strengthened, but not enough for the government to pare down its bond-buying program, according to the latest Fed minutes. In late 2010, investments rose and the job market improved -- but the housing market remained depressed.
Housing remains in a slow, but uncertain recovery, as existing-home sales increased a less-than-expected 5.6% last month, to a 4.68-million-unit annual rate. At least, home sales rose in every U.S. region, and inventories fell.
U.S. mortgage rates have grown for five straight weeks, in the last week hitting their highest levels in seven months. Ten-year Treasury note yields have been climbing on inflation concerns, driving the higher rates.
The number of homes taken back by banks fell sharply in November As lenders work to resolve claims of botched paperwork. But even with the decline, the total number of repossessions so far this year leaped to more than 980,000.
Jerilee Wei never expected to be living next to a cow pasture when she bought her home in Lakeland, Fla., in 2007. In her upscale community, newly constructed houses were selling for between $300,000 and $425,000. Then one morning she woke up and found some cattle had moved in.
Millions of houses are in foreclosure in the U.S. Even if your house is safe, your neighbors may be in trouble, and your neighborhood could suffer as a result. Here's the story of one house in a neighborhood in New Jersey.
Simply put, the losses Irish taxpayers will be forced to cover are larger than the nation's economy can support, even with the promised bailout. The EU and Irish political leadership's attempts to put a brave face on the crisis is no match for this crippling burden.
In some parts of the U.S., the real estate market remains deep in recession. But even with housing prices sitting at multi-year lows, millions of houses remain empty, unable to attract buyers haunted by unemployment and a weak economy. As part of a new series, DailyFinance takes a look at one town near New York City that is still struggling with the effects of the great real estate bust.
Home sales tumbled this summer, and foreclosed properties bore the brunt of the pain. Sales of foreclosed homes plunged 31% from the year-ago period -- and 25% from the previous quarter. Prices for these properties also fell more than other homes.
A recent Fed working paper happily points out that even as other sources of municipal tax revenue have plummeted, property taxes have held fairly steady, and the authors expect that to continue. Unfortunately, their optimistic prediction ignores the bigger picture.
For years, the property management business has been stuck in the Dark Ages -- using faxes, paper ledgers and out-of-date spreadsheet software. But as the foreclosure crisis adds millions of people to the rental market, new startup RentJuice is aiming to bring property management into the Internet Age.
In a case with wider implications for the financial industry, jurors in a class-action securities fraud suit found that BankAtlantic Bankcorp was liable to shareholders for about $42 million for making false statements about the bank's real estate portfolio and net income.