Home Price Index Shows 1st Annual Gain in 3 Years

Home Price Index Shows 1st Annual Gain in 3 Years
April 27, 2010, The Associated Press

Home prices rose in February, the first annual increase in more than three years, but fell short of analysts' expectations. But results of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index were mixed, as 11 of the 20 cities showed declines. Home prices in February increased 0.6 percent on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, according to the index released Tuesday. The last time prices rose on a year-over-year basis was December 2006.Y


Profiting From Distressed Homes
April 21, 2010, New York Times

Sitting in the office of his 20,000-square-foot mansion on seven and a half acres here, Harsimran Singh Sabharwal, a real estate investor, recently shared his rags-to-riches tale: how, in 1973, he came to the United States from India with $8 in his pocket and now has a house whose kitchen dwarfs the home where he grew up, in a family of eight.


Las Vegas Short Sales Skyrocketing
April 25, 2010, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Short sales are increasingly becoming the alternative to foreclosures in Southern Nevada, which is still seen as "ground zero" in the nation's housing crisis. The number of short-sale homes now in escrow is nearly four times that of real estate-owned homes, though REO closings are still twice the amount of short sales, Nevada Title Co. reported in its April market summary.


Economists: The Stimulus Didn't Help
April 26, 2010, CNNMoney.com

The recovery is picking up steam as employers boost payrolls, but economists think the government's stimulus package and jobs bill had little to do with the rebound, according to a survey released Monday. In latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the index that measures employment showed job growth for the first time in two years — but a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact.