Six years after the start of the foreclosure crisis, American homeowners are paying their mortgages like the housing crash never happened. more

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes probably rose in March for a third month to reach the highest level since late 2009, further evidence of an improving real-estate market, economists said before a report today. more

If you buy or own an energy-efficient house, does this make you less likely to default on your mortgage? Is there a connection between the monthly savings on utility costs and the probability that you’ll pay your loan on time? more

Single-family home prices in the Providence-Fall River-New Bedford metro area rose 1 percent from March 2012 to March 2013, according to CoreLogic’s Home Price Index. more

Resource Control Associates Inc. owner Robert C. Atwood, pictured above in his office, thinks of his firm as “a land-development company.” The 26-year-old Pawtucket business has groups of advisers focused on civil-engineering, environmental assessment and remediation and forensic engineering. Consulting services include insurance-claim investigations. Atwood often provides expert testimony. The firm has worked for more than 50 municipalities and public authorities throughout Rhode Island and Massachusetts, as well as several hundred private clients. more

Single-family home sales in Bristol County, Mass. rose 5.1 percent in March compared with the same period in 2012, The Warren Group said Tuesday. more

If you want to buy a house with minimal cash by using an FHA-insured mortgage, here’s some sobering news: Thanks to an ongoing series of fee increases and underwriting tweaks – the most recent of which were announced Jan. 31 – FHA is getting steadily more expensive, and may not work for you. more

April foreclosure starts in the Providence-Fall River-New Bedford metropolitan area dropped 7.8 percent, and completed foreclosures fell 32.5 percent compared with the same period last year, according to RealtyTrac’s latest report. more

Rebecca “Becky” Moniz, an agent with Weichert, Realtors – Cress & Co., is the recent recipient of the Kent Washington Association of Realtors Good Neighbor Award. The award honors her efforts, and those of her strategic partners, in supporting Rhode Island’s military community. During the past several years, Moniz has served on the Rhode Island Association of Realtors Realtor Troop Support Tast Force, assisting in raising funds to bring the Military Childhood Education Coalition to Rhode Island, coordinating a partnership with the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program to educate deploying military-service members on home ownership and providing advice and home-buying seminars for veterans. Moniz has been with Cress & Co. since 2009 and is the former broker/owner of Young Realty Inc. more

Born and raised along Bungay Lake in Mansfield, Scott Freerksen has a deep appreciation for and understanding of the green benefits and challenges and the emotional attachments that come with lakefront living. more