Titan Environmental Services Inc., of Kansas City, Mo., has agreed to pay a $10,878 civil penalty to the United States to settle a series of violations of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act.
The February edition of the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index reveals the number of metropolitan areas where the housing market is recovering increased by 29, according to NAHB.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the nation’s homeownership rate fell to 66 percent in the fourth quarter, marking a seven-year drop from a fourth-quarter peak of 69.2 percent in 2004.
The CEOs of some of the nation’s biggest homebuilding companies said Thursday that they feel the housing market has stabilized, but they were careful not to be overly optimistic even with the spring home-selling season coming up.
Since June 2009, when the Great Recession officially ended, the United States has gained about 1.2 million jobs, mostly in the services sector; of the top 100 metros, 59 have added jobs overall, while 41 have lost jobs.
The Illinois Attorney General has filed a lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s, claiming that the agency gave fraudulently high ratings to risky mortgage-backed investments in the years prior to the 2008 housing market crash