Court stands pat on do not call

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit today rendered a judgment that allows the federal government to continue operating the National Do Not Call Registry in its current form. The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission operated and enforce the registry, which contains 56 million residential telephone numbers of people who don't want to receive unsolicited business marketing calls.  more...

Million-dollar homeowners dominate household wealth

Owners of "million-dollar" houses represent nearly one-fifth of all household wealth in the United States, and two-fifths of this country's household net wealth is in the hands of the owners of "half-million-dollar-plus" houses, according to a new study released by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.  more...

HIV/AIDS sufferers to get housing grants

Housing and Urban Development Acting Secretary Alphonso Jackson on Tuesday announced the award of more than $31 million that aims to help local housing programs across the country better serve persons with HIV/AIDS and their families. Earlier this month, HUD announced it is seeking $295 million in funding for AIDS housing programs under President Bush's proposed fiscal year 2005 budget.  more...

Home construction loses steam

Privately owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.9 million, down 7.9 percent from the revised December estimate of 2.06 million, according to estimates reported today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

January's pace, however, is 4.1 percent above the year-ago rate of 1.82 million.

Single-family housing starts last month were at a rate of approximately 1.54 million, down 8 percent from December's 1.67-million-unit rate. The January estimate for units in buildings with five units or more was 339,000.  more...

Real estate purchases rebound

Overall mortgage purchases climbed 4.9 percent last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, as interest rates fell for the second consecutive week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey.

The MBA seasonally adjusted purchase index increased by 2.9 percent to 413.9 from 402.2 the previous week. The seasonally adjusted refinance index increased by 6.4 percent to 3,298.3 from 3,099.1 one week earlier.  more...

Houston real estate makes gains

Overall home sales in Houston for the month of January totaled 3,760, an increase of 0.5 percent over last January's total of 3,743, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. By a slight margin, this represents the highest number of sales the region has ever recorded in the month of January.

Single-family home sales, however, decreased 2 percent last month to 2,991 from last January's 3,053. The median price of single-family homes dropped to $126,000 in January, compared to $129,000 last January.  more...

Mortgage rates take a dip

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield remained at 4.04 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 5.25 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate decreased to 4.53 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up slightly at 3.25 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield decreased to 4.91 percent.

Rates are current as of 7:15 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.  more...