Housing starts in the U.S. surged 15 percent in September to the highest level in four years, adding to signs of a revival in the industry at the heart of the financial crisis. more

If you have a pressing need to raise some cash, here’s some good news: Rising home values are encouraging lenders to revive a product that imploded during the housing bust years – second mortgages. more

BOSTON – A total of $4 million in HomeCorps grants were awarded to 18 organizations across Massachusetts to help address the foreclosure crisis, Attorney General Martha Coakley announced last week. According to a news release, the grant funding will assist homeowners and renters impacted by the foreclosure crisis, revitalize distressed and blighted neighborhoods, and guard against future financial harm. more

No one wants to take the blame for the housing bust in this political season, but scammers and rip-off artists in the hundreds are working overtime to siphon dollars out of the wreckage of the crash and its still-vulnerable victims. more

Patrick Boris, a banquet chef in Las Vegas, is inching closer to his own “fiscal cliff,” 2,100 miles away from the political brinksmanship under way on Capitol Hill. If Congress and the White House allow the country to go over the cliff later this month, Boris figures he could owe federal income taxes on more than $100,000 in forgiven mortgage debt following the short sale of his two-bedroom townhome next year – a personal financial “disaster,” in his words. more

Urban chicken-keeping in Rhode Island appeared to cross from the fringe into the mainstream two years ago when Providence legalized small, backyard flocks, followed by Warren and exclusive Barrington last year. more

You’ve probably seen the reverse-mortgage pitchmen at work on your TV screen – former Sen. Fred Thompson and actors Robert Wagner and Henry “Fonzie” Winkler prominent among them – urging seniors to pull cash out of their homes through a loan program guaranteed by the federal government. more

The end of 2012 was hectic for David Godden, director of “distinctive home” sales at Randall Realtors in Westerly, and traffic at the shopping malls wasn’t the issue. more

There are, by varying estimations, some 400 to 700 chronically homeless people in Rhode Island who cost the state and its taxpayers an average of more than $30,000 each per year in service program, incarceration and medical costs. more

With all the depressing reports about the “fiscal cliff” and potential rollbacks in tax benefits for homeowners, you might have missed some of the positive trends under way for real estate. more