After lagging housing starts for several months, construction jobs surged in February to the highest level in six years. Builders are clearly acting on the big jump in new home orders, but those jobs numbers could actually be higher, were they not hamstrung by a severe lack of workers. During the housing crash construction workers left the business in droves, and many are not coming back.
Realty Check with Diana Olick
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Use this interactive map to track the latest numbers in some of the largest housing markets across the country. As a home owner, home buyer or multi-market investor, you are just one click away from the latest moves in sales, prices and inventory.
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Housing Recovery Leaves Some Behind
Posted By: Diana Olick
While the national housing picture may look brighter, certain states are still mired in a mess of distressed homes.
These states tend not to get much attention in the national discussion because they are not the well-known "sand states" that fell the hardest during the housing crash and prompted the biggest headlines. New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland are still sitting on a ticking time bomb of troubled loans.
Meanwhile other states, such as hard-hit Arizona, California and Michigan are recovering far more quickly. The difference? They do not require a judge in the foreclosure process. So-called "non-judicial" states are recovering faster than "judicial" states.
Housing: Picking Up the Pieces
Posted By: Diana Olick
In October of 2007, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average soared above new highs, housing was headed in the opposite direction. An historic boom in home sales, spurred by often questionable and more often reckless mortgage lending, was imploding from within. Home building, which had soared well above any possible demand, was crashing.
Here's What Is Fueling the Housing Boom in Vegas
Posted By: Diana Olick
Jacob Kepler | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A recently constructed home stands next to a home under construction in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Chris and Candace Rodgers wanted to move to a bigger house in a better neighborhood. With the Las Vegas housing market recovering—prices still down over 50 percent from the recent peak—they figured it was the perfect time. Unfortunately, there was nothing to buy.
Home Buyers Are Back, but Where Are the Houses?
Posted By: Diana Olick
The first official day of Spring may still be 20 days away, but the Spring housing market is already underway. Buyer traffic is rising along with home prices, but one traditional Spring phenomenon is sorely absent: rising supply. The raw number of homes for sale is now at its lowest level in over 13 years, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the numbers continue to fall.
Foreclosure-Related Homes Still Driving Sales
Posted By: Diana Olick
Getty Images
The housing market appears to be surging ahead suddenly on all cylinders, but that does not mean it is free of the remnants of its recent downfall.
The number of distressed home sales, either bank-owned or short sales, may be shrinking, but it is still making up a significant share of the overall housing market.
Pending Home Sales Soar Despite Rough Winter
Posted By: Diana Olick
Rough winter weather across much of the nation at the start of this year apparently did not keep home buyers away.
Contracts to buy existing homes in January rose a strong 4.5 percent from the previous month, according to the National Association of Realtors, which also revised December's numbers down. That beats expectations of a 1.8 percent gain. Volume is now 9.5 percent above January 2012 and is the highest reading since April 2010. This as closed sales of existing homes, where contracts were signed toward the end of last year, were basically flat.
(Read More: Taking The Real Estate Recovery Local)
Home Prices Soar on Short Supply, Investor Demand
Posted By: Diana Olick
Getty Images
The numbers keep going up. Both new and existing homes are showing the strongest price gains since the housing crash, but distressed properties are playing a lead role in these dramatic moves.
"What we've seen in city after city over the last couple of years is a city will get hit with a wave of foreclosure activity, Atlanta was a case in point, and for two, three, four months the numbers bounce around a lot because you've got a whole lot of new supply coming on the market, and in any market, you dump new supply on you're going to get a price response," said S&P's David Blitzer.
(Read More: Home Prices Log Best Gain Since 2006: Case-Shiller)
What Tops Home Buyers' Wish List Now
Posted By: Diana Olick
Now that Americans are buying houses again, the nation's home builders are eager to find out what may have changed on consumers' wish lists and how the recession may have impacted overall attitudes toward lifestyle at home.
From new construction to renovation and remodeling, consumers are clearly more cautious and price-sensitive than they once were.
"They are doing projects to enjoy themselves, not just to flip [the home]," said Gary Case of Rockville, Maryland's Signature Kitchens, Additions and Baths. "They are also keeping resale in mind."
They Bailed on Their Homes—Now They Want Back In
Posted By: Diana Olick
Home sales are slowly climbing back, thanks to investor demand, improving consumer confidence in housing, and the surprising return of former homeowners who once walked away from their commitments.
These so-called, "strategic defaulters," some of them investors and some owner-occupants, are coming back to the market, despite damaged credit, and apparently the market is welcoming them back.
(Read More: The Real Estate Recovery, in Your Neighborhood)
About Realty Check
Realty Check takes you from the housing boom to bust and beyond. Led by Diana Olick, we were here when the house came crashing down and we have the singular expertise to explain how it will be rebuilt. The goal of this blog is to bring the market, the rescue plans, the politics and the pontification home to you, with clear concise explanations of the wildly complicated issues in all facets of real estate today and tomorrow. Realty Check is read by leaders in the real estate industry: Investors, Realtors, Big builder CEOs, Mortgage Bankers, Wall Street Analysts and Administration Officials to name a few.
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Olick serves as CNBC's real estate correspondent as well as the author of the "Realty Check" blog on CNBC.com.
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Real Estate Explained
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You may have heard this term in the aftermath of the real estate bubble. So what is an underwater mortgage?
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Sometimes financial terms sound exactly like what they are. CNBC explains jumbo mortgages.
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The Case-Shiller Index tracks changes in the value of residential real estate nationally and in 20 metropolitan regions.
Real Estate
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As the housing market rebounds, so do sales of home priced at $10 million and up. CNBC's Robert Frank lists the zip codes where sales are the hottest. (2:48)
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Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week, as a decline in refinancing activity offset higher demand for purchase loans.
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London's blue chip neighborhoods like Belgravia are increasingly owned by rich, and largely absent, foreigners.