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RISMedia, June 9, 2011—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced recently that $3.6 million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants will be awarded in fiscal year 2011 to assist in the transformation, rehabilitation and preservation of public housing and privately owned HUD-assisted housing.

RISMedia, June 8, 2011—At a time when new home construction in the Northeastern region of the United States has dropped by more than half since 2007, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), there is at least one Connecticut builder/developer whose company remains well in the black—and whose innovative single-family homes and multi-family condos are attracting a new kind of consumer.

RISMEDIA, June 2, 2011—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently awarded nearly $15 million to more than 200 public housing authorities across the U.S. to help public housing residents find jobs that lead them toward economic independence.

RISMedia, June 1 2011—The disparity between available jobs and skilled talent has sparked companies to adapt to a more competitive market and nearly half of hiring managers and recruiters say they have started to recruit talent from geographies outside their local market due to talent shortages, promising a boost

RISMedia, May 27 2011—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced that it is offering up to $9.1 million to address the critical housing needs of low-income persons and families living with HIV/AIDS, including homeless individuals and families. HUD’s funding notice is offered through the

RISMedia, May 23 2011—Existing-home sales slipped in April, although the market has managed six gains in the past nine months, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, eased 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.05 million in April from a downwardly revised 5.09 million in March, and are 12.9 percent below a 5.80 million pace in April 2010; sales surged in April and May of 2010 in response to the home buyer tax credit.

RISMedia, May 21, 2011—The inventory of homes in foreclosure awaiting resale fell slightly in April, but they are still 12.7 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to Lender Processing Services April 2011 month-end mortgage performance statistics. Some 2,184,000 homes are in the presale foreclosure inventory. The total presale foreclosure inventory rate is 4.14 percent of all mortgages. However, month-over-month mortgage delinquencies of 30-days or more rose 2.4 percent during the month. They are still 16.3 percent lower than last year at this time.

RISMEDIA, May 20, 2011—The U.S. continues to remain a top destination for foreign buyers as international purchases surged by $16 billion this year, one of the highest increases in recent years. This is according to the National Association of REALTORS®' 2011 Profile of International Home Buying Activity. According to the survey, total residential international sales in the U.S. for the past year ending March 2011 equaled $82 billion, up from $66 billion in 2010. Total international sales were split evenly between non-resident foreigners and recent immigrants, while combined total domestic and international existing-home sales in the U.S. were $1.07 trillion.

RISMedia, May 19, 2011—For the month of April, Massachusetts foreclosure activity remained at levels dramatically below those recorded last year. However, foreclosure petitions—which mark the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts—posted the highest number so far this year. The number of foreclosure petitions statewide dropped almost 51 percent year-over-year to 1,192 from 2,431 in April 2010. In the three previous months, petitions have ranged from 694 to 1,048. This was the highest level of petitions since September, when there were 2,358 starts. Through April of this year, 3,727 petitions to foreclose have been filed statewide, down 58.6 percent from 9,008 during the same period in 2010.

While the past few years have been challenging for many, owning a home continues to be a goal for Americans of every background, according to John D. Trasviña, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the first quarter of 2011, fixed-rate loans accounted for more than 95 percent of refinance loans, based on the Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC) Quarterly Product Transition Report released recently. Refinancing borrowers overwhelmingly chose fixed-rate loans, regardless of whether their original loan was an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) or a fixed-rate.

RISMEDIA, May 16, 2011—Price declines will end and average U.S. home prices will stabilize by Labor Day. Prices in even the hardest-hit markets will level out by the end of 2012. That’s the latest prediction from the authoritative Moody’s Analytics and Fiserv, Inc, after an analysis of home price trends in 375 markets tracked by the Fiserv Case-Schiller Indexes. Fiserv reports that home prices have fallen so far that they are at pre-bubble levels, creating affordable housing relative to income which, coupled with a slowly improving economy, will finally end price declines.

RISMEDIA, May 13, 2011—Reforms to America's housing finance market must ensure a reliable source of affordable mortgage lending for creditworthy consumers. That's according to REALTORS® and other industry insiders who examined the federal government's future role in the secondary mortgage market

RISMEDIA, May 13, 2011—According to new data released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), stark contrasts exist in housing affordability between major races and ethnic groups across the United States. The NAHB’s quarterly index, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI),

RISMEDIA, May 12, 2011— Existing-home sales continued to recover in the first quarter with gains recorded in 49 states and the District of Columbia, while 22 percent of the available metropolitan areas saw prices rise from a year ago, according to the latest survey by the National Association of REALTORS®.