Real estate rates fall overnight

Long-term mortgage interest rates were lower Tuesday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield dropped to 4.12 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average sank to 5.84 percent, and the 15-year fixed rate dipped to 5.4 percent. The 1-year adjustable rate held at 5.59 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield edged down to 4.54 percent.

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

Congress OKs tax relief on forgiven mortgage debt

Congress has passed legislation that would open up a three-year window during which homeowners who end up in foreclosure -- or negotiate workouts or short sales with lenders -- won't have to pay taxes on up to $2 million of forgiven debt.

The House has approved the Senate's amendments to HR 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which eliminate provisions of the bill opposed by the Bush administration.  more...

Frontdoor gets more property listings

Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a global network of real estate companies, has struck a deal with Scripps Networks' HGTV to provide property listings for the cable network's new real estate Web site, Frontdoor.com, launched just last week.

The deal aims to get the home listings inventory of LeadingRE's members, which include 700 companies and 145,000 sales associates, in front of HGTV's consumer audience.  more...

Home loan apps plunge 19%

Mortgage application volume last week posted the sharpest drop in recent years as interest rates continued higher, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.

The group's market composite index, a measure of home loan application volume, tumbled 19.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the first week of December.  more...

Builder Hovnanian takes $469 million net loss in Q4

Builder Hovnanian Enterprises reported a net loss of almost half a billion dollars for the three-month period ending Oct. 31.

Hovnanian recorded a $469 million net loss for the fourth quarter of the 2007 fiscal year, or $7.42 per share. That compares with a net loss of $118 million, or $1.88 per share, in the fourth quarter of the 2006 fiscal year.  more...

California, Florida top list with local market price declines

Home prices fell in 21 states from October 2006 through October 207 and dropped in 21 of 31 major metro areas reported in a study released today by First American Corp.'s LoanPerformance.

The price of single-family detached homes tumbled 15.7 percent in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., market area from October 2006 to October 2007, according to the LoanPerformance Home Price Index, which analyzes data for repeat sales transactions.  more...

Nevada tops U.S. rate of foreclosure filings

Nevada continued to lead the nation for its rate of foreclosure filings per household in November -- a position it has held for the past 11 months, foreclosure data company RealtyTrac reported today.

The company reported a 67.8 percent nationwide gain in the volume of foreclosure filings in November 2007 compared to the same month last year, though filings declined 10 percent compared to October 2007.

The national rate of foreclosure filings in November was 1 for every 617 households -- Nevada had a rate of 1 filing for every 152 households during that month.

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