Census Bureau says the pace of new home sales was weaker in September and revises August's numbers to an 11-year low.
The latest reading on the state of the battered market for new homes was pretty bad. Experts say it's even worse than it appears. New home sales in September came in at an annual pace of 770,000, according to the Census Bureau report Thursday. That's up from the revised 735,000 rate in August, but it's down from the original August reading and just below the forecast of economists surveyed by Briefing.com, who had been looking for sales to slow to a pace of 775,000 in the month.

Number of vacant homes on the market nationwide equivalent to all homes in Detroit; another sign of weak housing market
The number of vacant homes for sale rose in the third quarter, according to the latest government reading that casts new harsh light on the weakness of the housing market. The Census Bureau report puts the number of vacant homes for sale at 2.07 million in the period, up about 2 percent from the second quarter, and 7 percent above year ago levels.

Economists offer dour outlook for housing prices and construction, citing continuing credit crisis - weakness is likely to persist into 2009
The battered markets for real estate and home building still have farther to fall, according to a range of economists who spoke Wednesday at a forecast conference sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders. "The fact that building wasn't cut as early as it should have been is one of the reasons that that prices continue to fall,"

MSNBC Special - Home Wreckers
You open your home and wallet to contractors. But do you really know who they are?  MSNBC Undercover investigates this underground economy and finds homeowners who are misled and ripped off. Premiered Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007 See Video Report

Home a $2.2 million wreck, NBA star says
All NBA legend Allen Iverson wanted was a simple home for his family in Atlanta. Instead, the tattoo-covered icon of the hip-hop hoops generation contends he got a $2.2 million dump marred by such shoddy construction, his wife and four children had to abandon the home after just 60 days. Now, Iverson has hired Atlanta lawyer Kurt Hilbert and filed suit against the builder, seeking more than $6.2 million in damages. Iverson wants to force the builder to refund the purchase price of $2.2 million and to pay the family for relocation expenses, custom-built furnishings and other damages.

Subprime Mortgage Crisis Spurs Formal SEC Inquiry Into Nation's Largest Lending Company
The Securities and Exchange Commission's is undergoing a informal inquiry into Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo R. Mozilo, sources say, Thursday, Oct. 18, 2007. Mozilo sold some $130 million in Countrywide stock in the first half of the year through a prearranged 10b5-1 trading plan. The plans, popular among corporate executives, allow a company insider to set up a program in advance for such transactions and proceed with them even if he or she comes into possession of significant nonpublic information.

HANO contractor denies Jackson got him job
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Thursday he will cooperate with investigators after questions arose about how one of his friends got nearly half a million dollars for work at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which currently is under the oversight of the federal government. Jackson, who testified before Congress this year that he doesn't intervene in awarding contracts, acknowledged he may be under investigation in a case that involves just that. Others connected to the case say HUD's inspector general and the FBI have seized HANO equipment and have asked questions about Jackson's possible role in HANO's hiring of Jackson's friend, South Carolina construction contractor William Hairston. Hairston's construction company was hired by HANO in January 2006 and subsequently won a no-bid "emergency" contract awarded to Hairston's construction company in July 2006.

Homeowner's 'nightmare'
In the wake of recent comments by attorney K. Brian Hanna about local contractors who are perfomring shoddy work on houses, some homewoners affected by this malpractice are now sharing their "horror" stories... Six months after moving into her new home, Davis said she is left dissappointed and feels cheated. "They left a lot of crooked walls, all the windows are crooked, every plumbing fixture in the house is leaking," she said, adding that those complaints are among many others, including unhealthy mould growing on her walls as a result of the flawed work, countertops that were never installed and a garage door that she had already paid for but has yet to receive.

Shelby County Home-Builder In Deep Trouble
The Cordova-based home-builder faces 98 tax liens for thousands of dollars in unpaid bills to banks, subcontractors and vendors.  The unpaid vendors include Waste Connection of Tennessee, the owner of those filled-to-the-brim dumpsters.  The builder is advertising foreclosures on its properties in Hernando, Mississippi.  Cadence Bank, a Starkville, Mississippi-based bank, has sued Matthews Brothers in Shelby County Chancery Court for a million dollars.  The bank claims Matthews Brothers' promissory notes are delinquent.

LA Times: Stuck in a housing glut
ARE you a homeowner who is having trouble selling your house? National housing experts say you can heap some of the blame on those big builders with their much-ballyhooed sales and the banks that have put too many foreclosed homes on the market. And if that isn't enough to banish those Goliaths to Dante's Ninth Circle, some experts also hold them responsible for dragging down existing homes' sale prices in certain parts of the nation -- including communities in Southern California.