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WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- American consumers give their own banks and credit card companies a 76 percent approval rating when it comes to being fair when disclosing terms to customers; they also rank their own personal banks and credit card companies far higher than the federal government when it comes to helping them handle their overall finances, according to the Second Annual Financial Fitness Survey released by The Financial Services Roundtable.

National Association of Realtors(R) Revised 2007-2008 Statistical & Forecast News Release Schedule All released at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time except November Forecast/PHSI

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --- The Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice launched a new Web site today to educate consumers and policymakers about the potential benefits that competition can bring to consumers of real estate brokerage services and the barriers that inhibit that competition

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 , /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --- The first-ever investigation of Wal-Mart's local property tax records finds that the retailer systematically seeks to minimize its payments that support schools and other government services. That's the finding of Rolling Back Property Tax Payments, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4, /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Many disaster survivors who have been forced from their homes will access critically needed housing information and assistance more quickly because of an agreement signed today between the American Red Cross and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

CHICAGO, Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Realtors(R) Center for REALTOR(R) Technology has released a free software toolkit to facilitate open standards-based Single Sign-On. SSO is an authentication process that allows users to enter one username and password to access all online real estate applications.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Planning Association (APA) today announced the country's first 10 Great Neighborhoods and 10 Great Streets to be singled out through the new national program, "Great Places in America." Launched last spring, Great Places in America is APA's flagship program celebrating places of exemplary character, quality, and planning. Places are selected annually and represent the gold standard in terms of having a true sense of place, cultural and historical interest, community involvement, and a vision for tomorrow.

Home Equity Lines of Credit --- Who Uses This Source of Credit? -- This report profiles single-family homeowners who used home equity lines of credit in 2001 and compares them to their counterparts from 10 years earlier, including age, home value, mortgage, age of home, number of loans for home improvements and proportion of people using home equity for debt consolidation.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Justice Department today sued the developers, architects, and professional engineers responsible for building five apartment complexes in Spokane County, Wash., alleging that they designed and built the complexes in violation of the Fair Housing Act by failing to make the complexes accessible to wheelchair users and other persons with physical disabilities.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Association of Realtors(R) supports the Homeowners' Defense Act of 2007, H.R. 3555, because it would help protect homeowners, commercial property owners, and potential property owners by ensuring the availability of adequate and affordable insurance, which NAR views as an important consumer issue.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Existing-home sales fell in August when mortgage availability problems were peaking, according to the National Association of Realtors(R)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has filed a civil rights complaint against Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital Holdings, LLC., Saxon Mortgage, Inc., Saxon Asset Securities Company and Saxon Capital, Inc., (collectively, "Morgan Stanley") to the United States Department of Housing & Urban Development and the United States Securities & Exchange Commission.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Most commercial real estate markets are enjoying relatively low vacancy rates and healthy rent growth from a fundamentally sound economy, according to the latest COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE OUTLOOK of the National Association of Realtors(R).

New York, N.Y. - September 17, 2007 - Turner Construction Company, the nation’s leading general builder, today published its quarterly Turner Building Cost Index forecasting that construction costs in the US building industry are continuing to increase in the Third Quarter

COLLEGE STATION, TX – High-risk home mortgages are facing national scrutiny thanks to the recent rise in subprime foreclosures, but a noted research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University is coming to their defense.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hispanic Real Estate Professionals overwhelmingly favor Federal Housing Administration reforms and believe Hispanic homebuyers and those with adjustable-rate subprime loans could be better served if proposed changes to FHA programs are quickly adopted by Congress, according to a survey released today by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP).

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tighter credit for home mortgages will measurably dampen home sales in the short term and postpone an expected recovery for existing-home sales until 2008, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors(R).

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 2nd Quarter National Delinquency Survey, released today by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), shows that mortgage loans entering foreclosure have increased in 47 states since this time last year. On average, the increases were 50% higher. Only four states -- North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming -- did not experience increases in new foreclosures. Less than two percent of the American population lives in those states.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. home prices increased only slightly in the second quarter of 2007 according to the OFHEO House Price Index (HPI). The HPI, which is based on data from sales and refinance transactions, was 0.1 percent higher in the second quarter than in the first quarter of 2007. This is below the revised growth rate of 0.6 percent for the previous quarter and the lowest since the fourth quarter of 1994. Prices in the second quarter of 2007 were 3.2 percent higher than they were in the same quarter of 2006, the lowest annual price change since the 1996-97 period.

Gig Harbor, WA - July 30, 2007 - APA–The Engineered Wood Association received accreditation as a standards developer from the American National Standards Institute in May of 2007. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) coordinates the development and use of voluntary consensus standards in the United States, and represents the needs and views of U.S. stakeholders in standardization forums around the globe.