Toronto suffers fifth month of slow sales

Home sales in the Toronto, Canada, market slipped for the fifth straight month in October, while inventory levels failed to dampen price growth, the Toronto Real Estate Board reported today.

The 6,876 single-family home sales recorded through the TorontoMLS system last month were 4 percent below the 7,174 sales in October 2005, according to TREB, but were up from 6,622 in September.

The average price of an existing home in the metro area registered $356,423 in October, up from $349,142 in September, and up 4 percent from $342,450 posted in October 2005.

"The marke  more...

Realtors' ad campaign says time is right to buy, sell

The National Association of Realtors trade group is paying for advertisements in six major U.S.  more...

New York state shifts to buyer's market

Sales of existing single-family homes in New York continued their downtrend in September, as rising inventory finally cut into prices, according to preliminary single-family sales data accumulated by the New York State Association of Realtors.

Realtors recorded 8,876 home sales in September, down 15.7 percent from the record 10,533 sales in September 2005.  more...

Technology enables one-click online listings delivery

A new technology system has emerged to help real estate brokers who want to be able to send their property listings to various Web sites where consumers are searching for real estate without having to re-enter data or deal with complicated data feeds.

Morgantown, W.V.-based Threewide Corp.  more...

Slide continues for overnight real estate rates

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower again Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield edged up to 4.6 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average sank to 5.78 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate fell to 5.49 percent. The 1-year adjustable held at 5.33 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield gained to 4.72 percent.

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

Mortgage rate figures are according to Bankrate.com, which publishes nightly averages based on its survey of 4,000 banks in 50 states.  more...

Fed chief backs more study of subprime lending

The "democratization" of credit has created more opportunities for home ownership, but questions remain whether uninformed consumers pay too much for home loans and whether lenders are competing in historically underserved communities.

Those were views Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke shared with community development bankers this week at the Opportunity Finance Network's annual conference in Washington, D.C.

In his prepared remarks, Bernanke said the Fed and community d  more...