Author: Diana Olick

The residential rebound is under way in fits and starts, but it is volatile, and it is local.

Thanks to high gasoline prices, today's home buyers want to be close in. D.C., with so many  thriving suburbs and an expansive Metro system, offers ample opportunity.

The American dream of owning a home is still alive and well, but a large percentage of Americans today feel that for now, renting might be the better option.

Not since the spring of 2008 have the nation’s homebuilders felt this good about the potential for new business. An industry association survey showed that builder sentiment rose for the third straight month in December.

Despite a seasonal slowdown in overall foreclosure activity, and a process still bogged down and backed up by the "robo-signing" processing scandal, the U.S real estate market is about to be hit by another surge of bank repossessions, according to a new report from the online foreclosure sale site RealtyTrac.

After a year of fruitless negotiations between major U.S. banks and the nation's state attorneys general, Massachusetts has filed the first major lawsuit over so-called "robo-signing" foreclosure processing.

Potential home buyers came out of the woodwork in October, signing contracts to buy existing homes at a higher-than expected pace.

The government's mortgage insurer is coming dangerously close to holding no excess cash reserves for loan losses.