A water-sewer hookup vital to the 751 South subdivision project is on the agenda for the City Council's Feb. 20 meeting.

Although North Carolina and the Triangle have not been among the housing markets decimated by price declines and foreclosures, tens of thousands of homeowners across the state may be eligible for money from the settlement announced Thursday.

North Carolina will receive $338 million in the settlement, more than half of which will go toward principal reduction or other help for struggling homeowners.

A developer is attracting a collection of Chinese businesses to the most unlikely of places - a nearly deserted outlet mall across Interstate 40 from Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Former tenants of Liberty Warehouse gave vivid descriptions of leaking water, cracking beams, mold and erosion Thursday, while a construction manager working there gave assurances that the historic building is structurally sound.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a controversial plan to help homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments refinance their mortgages into federally insured loans at today's extremely low rates.

Conceding his earlier housing programs have fallen short, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed a vast expansion of government assistance to homeowners, aiming to make lower lending rates a possibility for millions of borrowers who have not been able to get out from under burdensome mortgages.

The number of new single-family building permits issued in Wake County remained nearly flat in 2011, falling 1 percent compared to 2010.

The Treasury Department is investigating a report that Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant, bet against homeowners' ability to refinance their loans even as it was making it more difficult for them to do so, Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said Monday.

A Houston real estate investment trust has bought the Asbury Village apartments in West Raleigh for $44.2 million, according to Wake County property records.

The Obama administration clearly won't take no for an answer when it comes to recruiting state Banking Commissioner Joseph Smith Jr. to tackle the mortgage mess that has been hampering the nation's economic recovery.

After months of painstaking talks, the nation's biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to more than two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said.

Real Deals:  When a real estate deal doesn't turn out as planned, there are two things that you can be fairly certain will occur: Monday-morning quarterbacking and finger-pointing.

Southern Durham Development has withdrawn its attempt to collect expenses and "sanctions" from plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the company's proposed 1,300-home development near Jordan Lake.

Real Deals:  Why aren't more new homes getting built in the Triangle? For the past several years, you didn't have to look very hard to find plenty of reasons to explain the lack of new residential construction taking place.

Greenfire Development said Wednesday that it plans to build an 88-unit apartment complex in downtown Durham on property the company owns at Jackson and Willard streets, adjacent to the N.C. Mutual building.

Home prices in the nation's biggest cities fell for the third consecutive month in November, a sign the housing market ended 2011 in a weakened state.

U.S. home prices fell for a third straight month in nearly all cities tracked by a major index. The declines show that most homeowners are not reaping the benefits from some signs of an improving housing market.

Buoyed by about $1 million in new funding, fledgling business software company EvoApp has leased more office space and is extending its technology into a new market.