The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) reported today that home purchase prices fell by 1.3 percent nationwide during the fourth quarter of 2007 from the previous quarter and were down 0.3 percent for the year. This marks the first four-quarter decline in the purchase-only index since 1991. By comparison, the purchase-only house price [...]

Foreclosure activity continued its upward trend in January, rising 8 percent from the previous month and climbing 57 percent from January 2007, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosed properties. Foreclosure filings, which include default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions, were reported on 233,001 properties in January. It is the sixth straight [...]

The rising number of foreclosures has created an abundance of vacant homes in some communities. Now it appears that homeless people are beginning to take advantage of the situation by becoming squatters, reports the Detroit Free Press. For squatters, foreclosed homes have an advantage over abandoned, dilapidated housing because the heat, lights and water still [...]

According to a U.S. Commerce Department report released yesterday, housing starts rose in January to a rate of 1.012 million, a 0.8 percent increase from the revised December 2007 total. But the January figure was 27.9 percent lower than during the same period last year. The Northeast and Midwest regions posted month-over-month increases of 18.9 [...]

For the tenth consecutive quarter, Indianapolis ranks as the most affordable major U.S. housing market, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index. During the fourth quarter of 2007, 89.5 percent of the houses sold in Indianapolis were affordable to people making the area’s median household income of $63,800. Youngstown, [...]