Foreclosure activity down in most U.S. metro areas

LOS ANGELES — Most of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas are seeing a sharp drop in foreclosure activity as banks take longer to move against homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments.

In the first half of this year, 84 percent of metropolitan areas with a population of at least 200,000 saw their foreclosure rate drop versus the same period last year, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac said Thursday. read more  . . . 

U.S. home prices up 0.7% in June: CoreLogic

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home prices rose 0.7% in June, the third consecutive monthly increase, according to CoreLogic. Year-over-year, prices are down 6.8%. Excluding distressed sales such as short sales and real estate-owned transactions, year-over-year prices fell 1.1%. "While there is a consistent and sustained seasonal improvement in prices over the last three months, prices are lower than a year ago due to the decline in prices after the expiration of the tax credit last year. The difference between the overall HPI and our index excluding distressed sales indicates that the price declines are more concentrated in the distressed sales market," said Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. The CoreLogic HPI is a repeat-sales index that tracks increases and decreases in sales prices for the same homes over time.  read full article here