The Realtors tend to see the glass half full, that is, that 1/3 of the nation’s top 149 metro markets are still showing price increases year-over-year. But for those of us living in the other 2/3, we probably see the glass half empty.    Read More

The latest inflation number for the UK economy is punchy. The analysts were looking for CPI at a little over 2.5 percent - the annualized figure as delivered is 3 percent. April came in at 0.8 percent. Food and energy prices are making it hard for the Bank of England to cut interest rates. This should be supportive for the British pound. But the market smells blood.   Read More

I get a press release probably once a week from the National Association of Home Builders on some or another green improvement, initiative, product or conference. So I was surprised by a study that claims none of America’s 13 largest publicly traded home builders has “fully embraced" the green market...   Read More

I’m doing a story on jumbo loans today and how their price and availability are affecting the million-dollar home buyers. In the course of my research, I decided to take a look at Greenwich, CT, one of my favorite enclaves of multi, multi-million-dollar homes.   Read More

Before Democrats could even utter the words, “housing,” “rescue,” “FHA” or “predatory,” President Bush had already let the threat fly: “I will veto the bill that's moving through the House today if it makes it to my desk.” Nuff said, Sir.    Read More

The continued rise in U.S. crude oil prices, which hit an all-time high above $122 a barrel on Tuesday, seems almost unending...   Read More

I have to say I never really bought the so-called “recovery” in the homebuilder stocks that we saw at the beginning of the year. There was a lot of talk of a “bottom” in the stocks, despite the fact that nobody is ready to call a bottom in the housing market.    Read More

Analysts this morning began raising some red flags over the Bank of America/Countrywide deal, citing deterioration in the mortgage market that could lead BofA to walk away, or at the very least lower its asking price.    Read More

Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with billionaire investor Warren Buffett. During the interview, Buffett discusses the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders meeting, Yahoo! & Microsoft and Fed rate cuts, among other topics.    Read More

I want to talk about a huge number: 457,000. That’s the number of construction jobs that have been lost since the sector peaked in September of 2006. What’s interesting to me about this number is that at the beginning of the downturn in housing we didn’t see a huge drop in construction jobs, primarily because workers moved from residential into commercial.    Read More