MeterRead (http://zerogate.com/) is a money-saving, eco-friendly iPhone app that makes it easy to read a home’s electric meter and provides feedback on energy use with each reading. Monitoring the kilowatt-hours of power that have been used since the last reading will encourage homeowners to save power and money. It’s $2.99 well spent.

A new report shows 154 of the 206 U.S. metropolitan areas with a population of 200,000 or more posted year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity. The report by RealtyTrac® also showed nine of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates experienced declines. Four states—Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona—accounted for the top 20 metro foreclosure [...]

A coalition of the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the Advertising Council recently launched a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign to raise awareness among struggling homeowners of the Making Home Affordable Program. The campaign encourages qualified homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments to seek [...]

Commercial and multifamily mortgage loan originations rose 1 percent in the second quarter of 2010 compared with the second quarter of 2009 and 35 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis, according to a survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The one percent overall increase in commercial/multifamily lending activity during the second quarter was driven by [...]

Construction spending rose 0.1 percent in June compared with May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $836 billion, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Commerce. The June figure is 7.9 percent below the June 2009 estimate of $907.7 billion. Residential construction spending declined 0.8 percent [...]

Part of the financial reform bill signed into law by President Obama includes the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which will write new rules and monitor problems and abuses in areas such as residential real estate settlements, credit scores, “truth in lending,” and equal credit opportunity. Before the Bureau can begin implementing new [...]

Calif. median home price: March 2010: $301,790 (Source: C.A.R.) Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region March 2010: Santa Barbara So. Coast $890,000(Source: C.A.R.) Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region March 2010: High Desert $122,970 (Source: C.A.R.) Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Fourth Quarter 2009: 64 percent (Source: C.A.R.) Mortgage rates – week ending 5/6/10 [...]

RadioShack’s online electronics trade-in program allows customers to exchange used, portable electronics for a RadioShack gift card. Accepted items include GPS devices, MP3 players, notebooks, and game consoles. Visit http://radioshack.cexchange.com/online/home/index.rails to learn the trade-in value and download the prepaid shipping labels. Gift cards arrive within 10 to 14 days.

National vacancy rates for owner-occupied housing decreased 0.1 percentage points in the first quarter of 2010 to 2.6 percent, according to the Dept. of Commerce’s Census Bureau.  Meanwhile, vacancy rates nationwide for rental housing increased 0.5 percentage points to 10.6 percent during the same period.  The homeownership rate of 67.1 percent was 0.2 percentage points [...]

Home values in most U.S. markets continued to decline in the first quarter of 2010, according to  the Zillow Home Value Index which decreased 3.8 percent year-over-year, and 1 percent quarter-over-quarter. However, home values in several California markets showed signs of improvement, according to the report. Housing market conditions varied across the country, with 106 [...]