housing inventories

Sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 10.4 % in October. But that one spark of hope comes against a backdrop of declining prices, bulging inventories and ongoing legal issues around foreclosures. Don't count on a real estate recovery next year.

U.S. housing starts unexpectedly plunged 11.7% in October to a 519,000-unit annual rate, weighed down by a 47.5% decline in apartment and condo construction. But building permits, a leading indicator of future housing construction, did inch 0.5% higher last month.

Pending home sales in the U.S. unexpectedly fell 1.8% in September, the National Association of Realtors reported Friday. It was the statistic's first decline in three months, and one that suggests that the housing sector's recovery is likely to remain uneven through at least early 2011.

The U.S. housing sector took another hit this month as homebuilder sentiment unexpectedly fell to 13 in August from 14 in July. The measure has been drifting lower since the federal homebuyers tax credit expired this spring.

The U.S. housing sector's road to recovery is getting rougher: Housing starts fell a worse-than-expected 5% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000. Is it time for another home buyer's tax credit?

It's getting harder to avoid the evidence pointing to more trouble ahead for housing. Essentially, there's a massive mismatch between rising supplies of homes for sale and dwindling demand from buyers. Not even high-end markets are immune.

The news about real estate isn't reassuring -- new mortgage delinquencies are rising and the federal government owns 46% of the nation's foreclosed homes. But some cities are seeing higher prices, even as others continue to fall.

The nearly year-long positive trend in the U.S. housing sector continues. Boosted by the $8,000 federal credit for first-time home buyers, U.S. existing home sales surged 9.4 percent in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units, the National Association of Realtors...