The median value of existing U.S. single-family home sales in metropolitan areas fell 7.7 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, the National Association of Realtors said.

Toll Brothers, the largest U.S. luxury home builder, said on Tuesday it expects to report a 30 percent drop in home-building revenue for the quarter ended April 30.

A California man who has defaulted on nine homes and expects banks to foreclose on all of them, forcing him into bankruptcy, says he now considers it a mistake to have invested in the real estate market.

While there is still debate over whether now is the right time to buy a house, there are other opportunities to make a profit in real estate.

The battered housing market has steadied and is ready to bounce back off an inevitable pullback from its boom times in the earlier part of the decade, said Ron Peltier, the CEO at Warren Buffett's Homeservices of America real estate company.

Pending sales of previously owned homes fell 1 percent in March, as expected, as turmoil in the housing and mortgage markets continued, a real estate trade group report Wednesday showed.

Chief executives from around Europe discussed their companies' earnings, opportunities and the challenges they face in 2008 with CNBC Europe Tuesday.

Engineering group Alstom said on Tuesday some of its employees had been questioned as witnesses in a Swiss legal investigation, but said a report it was being investigated for paying bribes was based on speculation.

Thinking of buying a house? Mortgage rates may not go much lower than they are right now and are likely to start rising. And if you're looking to refinance your current mortgage, do it soon.

Federal Deposit Insurance Chairman Sheila Bair is finalizing a legislative proposal that will let the Treasury Department issue direct loans for nearly 1 million homeowners, in a move to prop up the housing market, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday.

Prices of existing US single-family homes extended their slump in February, with 17 of the 20 measured regions posting record annual declines.

Though prices in many regions are still heading lower, luxury home prices in some areas appear to have hit bottom and are starting to rebound.

Bank of America said Tuesday it plans to stop offering some riskier mortgage loans after it finishes buying Countrywide Financial, the largest U.S. mortgage lender.