Washington DC - March 4 - The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in January, fell 7.6 percent to 90.4 from an upwardly revised 97.8 in December, but remains 12.3 percent higher than January 2009 when it was 80.5.

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Washington DC - March 2 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that applications are being accepted to provide affordable rental housing to rural residents through the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program.

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Washington DC - March 2 - Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco announced the extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program, a refinancing program administered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to June 30, 2011. The program is a key component of the Administration’s Making Home Affordable Program announced last February.

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Washington DC - March 1 - The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced that construction spending during January 2010 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $884.1 billion, 0.6 percent below the revised December estimate of $889.6 billion.

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Washington DC - February 26 - Existing-home sales dropped 7.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.05 million units in January from a revised 5.44 million in December, but remain 11.5 percent above the 4.53 million-unit level in January 2009.

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Washington DC - February 26 - The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that the average interest rate on conventional 30-year, fixed-rate, mortgage loans increased 5 basis points to 5.10 percent in January.  The average interest rate on 15- year, fixed-rate loans remained unchanged at 4.54 percent in January.

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Washington DC - February 25 - U.S. house prices fell slightly in the fourth quarter of 2009 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s seasonally adjusted purchase-only house price index(HPI). The HPI was 0.1 percent lower on a seasonally adjusted basis in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter of 2009.

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Washington DC - February 25 - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded $26.5 million in “sweat equity” grants to produce at least 1,500 affordable homes for low-income individuals and families.

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Washington DC - February 24 - Sales of new single-family houses in January 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 11.2 percent below the revised December rate of 348,000.

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Washington DC - February 22 - President Obama, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, announced funding for innovative measures to help families in the states that have been hit the hardest by the aftermath of the housing bubble.

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Washington DC - February 18 - From major highway projects to green retrofits of military facilities and manufacturing of advanced batteries, more than 55,000 projects across the country have now been funded through the Recovery Act.

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Washington DC - February 17 - Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose two points to 17 in February as favorable home buying conditions and signs of healing in the job market helped boost the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

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Washington DC - February 17 - Privately-owned housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000.  This is 2.8 percent above the revised December estimate of 575,000 and is 21.1 percent above the January 2009 rate of 488,000.

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Washington DC - February 11 - Strong gains in existing-home sales were the predominant pattern in most states during the fourth quarter, with many more metro areas seeing prices rise from a year earlier, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Realtors.

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Washington DC - February 8 - Overall U.S. job growth continued to be undermined by the severe downturn affecting the construction industry as another 75,000 construction workers lost their jobs in January 2010 and the industry’s unemployment rate jumped to 24.7 percent.

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