Pulte Homes Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter loss narrowed from a year ago as the home builder booked fewer charges on land and unsold inventory despite a worsening housing market.

The housing slump continued to take its toll on homebuilder NVR Inc. as second-quarter earnings dropped 43 percent amid declining orders for new homes and falling income from mortgage lending, the company reported Tuesday.

Among the earnings stories for Tuesday, July 22, from AP Financial News:

A government report on new home construction and building permit applications for June is forecast to show declines as builders scrapped development plans amid the ongoing housing slump.

A reading of housing developers' sentiment about the U.S. market is expected to remain at its all-time low in July.

Brent Wilsey says he's surprised at what he found when he went looking for investment prospects among housing-industry stocks. The strategist shared his picks with CNBC.

Retail, financials and homebuilding.  Sectors to avoid at all costs?  Not according to Bob Turner, chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Turner Investment Partners. His five-star Turner Core Growth Fund is up an average of 15.23 percent per year over the last five years.