The bust in high-end homes

After a year on the market, the seller of a six-bedroom, 20,000-square-foot home in Weston, Mass., slashed the asking price by $8.1 million. The new home, located near Boston, first entered the market at $18 million, then fell to $13.9 million and now stands at $9.9 million.

"It won't be reduced anymore," said Sophia Camann, the listing agent with Hammond Residential Real Estate in Greater Boston.  more...

California million-dollar home sales surge

Million-dollar home sales in the Golden State soared to record levels last year, the result of strong appreciation rates and a robust real estate market, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

A total of 19,080 homes sold for $1 million or more last year, up 37.6 percent from 13,871 in 2002, DataQuick reported.

Sales in Southern California were up 48.7 percent from 7,611 in 2002 to 11,316 last year. Bay Area sales were up 21.1 percent from 5,477 to 6,598.  more...

ERA revamps real estate tools

At its annual International Business Conference in Las Vegas, ERA Real Estate today announced enhancements to its Sellers Security Plan, consumer Web site and the launch of ERA.com Mobile, a wireless software tool for real estate professionals and their customers.  more...

New Yorkers endure longest commute times

New York City residents spend an average of about one full week a year getting to work – the longest commute time in the nation among large cities, according to a new ranking of American Community Survey data by the U.S. Census Bureau.

New York City residents take an average of 38.4 minutes to get to work each day – more than five minutes longer than Chicagoans, who face a commute of 32.7 minutes.  more...

RealtyU adds real estate courses

RealtyU on Thursday announced it had concluded a strategic alliance with The School of Mortgage Lending (SOML) to add 20 new mortgage courses to its educational network.

SOML is a provider of mortgage-lending educational content, offering correspondence-based online learning, published materials for Instructor Lead, platform delivery education, and mortgage broker continuing education courses in 80 percent of the states requiring continuing education.  more...

Fannie Mae ordered to clean up flawed accounting systems

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae's chief federal regulator this week gave the company 30 days to submit its remediation plan for its financial reporting and end user systems.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight conducted a special review of the company's accounting policies after it reported a $1 billion mistake in its third quarter earnings last year.  more...

Overnight mortgage interest rates flat

Long-term mortgage interest rates were virtually unchanged Thursday, and the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond yield rose to 4.04 percent.

The 30-year fixed-rate average inched up to 5.26 percent, and the 15-year fixed-rate remained at 4.54 percent. The 1-year adjustable dropped to 3.04 percent.

The 30-year Treasury bond yield increased to 4.92 percent.

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