Missouri Realtors offer home listings in 13 languages

The Missouri Association of Realtors will offer consumers a choice of 13 languages to view available home listings at agent and broker Web sites, the association announced today.

The trade association signed a contract with Immobel.com, which provides language services to Realtor organizations worldwide.

"Prospective home buyers now have equal access to all current Missouri Realtor home listings in Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Chinese (two varieties), Japanese, Korean and Vietnames  more...

Three Atlantans arrested for real estate loan fraud

Three arrests related to alleged mortgage fraud schemes were made in one week at the scene of two separate real estate closings in Fulton County, Ga., officials said last week.

Damon J. Robinson, 35, was arrested March 21 when he arrived at a closing attorney's office in Alpharetta to finalize the purchase of a $225,000 house in southeast Atlanta, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard Jr.  more...

Pending real estate sales drop

A National Association of Realtors index that tracks pending home sales dropped 5.2 percent from February 2005 to February 2006, and fell 0.8 percent from the January 2006 level.

The Pending Home Sales Index, which is based on home-sale contracts signed in February, was 117.7 in February.  more...

GM to sell controlling interest in GMAC

General Motors will sell a 51 percent stake in General Motors Acceptance Corp., better known as GMAC, to a consortium led by Cerberus Capital Management for approximately $14 billion in cash over three years, with an estimated $10 billion by closing, GM said today.

GMAC is the troubled auto manufacturer's finance arm, and is its most profitable unit.  more...

Residential real estate construction spending hits record

Residential construction spending increased for the eighth straight month in February, reaching $665.7 million, the U.S. Census Bureau announced today. Residential spending was up 1.3 percent from the revised January estimate and 7.1 percent from February 2005 residential spending.

Overall U.S.  more...

South Carolina real estate blooms

Home sales in South Carolina climbed approximately 7.2 percent in February from a year ago, the South Carolina Association of Realtors reported.

Realtors recorded 4,694 sales for February, up from 4,380 in February 2005.

A total of 8,967 homes were sold in South Carolina during January and February, up nearly 6.1 percent from the 8,453 homes sold during the same period last year.

The median price of homes sold in South Carolina rose nearly 9 percent for the month to $148,000, and has increased by 12.3 percent year-to-date compared to the same period last year.

 more...

Overnight real estate rates edge up

Long-term mortgage interest rates were up again Friday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield slipped to 4.85 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average climbed to 5.98 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate gained to 5.67 percent. The 1-year adjustable was up at 5 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield dipped to 4.89 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...