Breaking News } Flash Flood Watch for Johnston county.

Real Deals:  These days, any tenant seeking 25,000 square feet or more of contiguous space in downtown Raleigh will have few options to choose from. While there’s plenty of older space for lease, the lack of new construction in recent years means nicer space can be hard to find.

Americans are buying more homes in every region of the country, the latest indication that the housing market could be on the mend.

Real Deals:  The downtown developer pays $1.5 million for two properties located across Hillsborough Street from Meredith College. Hatem is also renovating The Raleigh Times Bar, one of many downtown establishments his restaurant group owns.

Another restriction put in place during the region’s big drought a few years ago was lifted Tuesday when town commissioners voted to overturn a ban on new in-ground irrigation systems that use municipal water.

The number of showings and pending sales also increased in April compared to the same period last year.

Walton Street Capital paid $29.2 million for six tracts of land occupying more than 500 acres in the Holly Springs community. The subdivision has nearly 1,400 home sites.

The town manager expects a slow economy will keep Cary in stasis for another year, with money available only for a handful of new hires and top-priority projects, he said on Friday.

A former speechwriter for John Edwards testified Tuesday that the former presidential candidate told her in 2009 that he knew all along that a wealthy lawyer was providing support to his pregnant mistress.

Nearly two years after the “robo-signing” scandal forced a reboot of the nation’s home-foreclosure process, mortgage servicers have begun the hard work of buffing up their industry’s tarnished image after years of making life miserable for Americans struggling to hold on to their homes.

The former state banking commissioner says the mortgage settlement could be a model for new federal regulations. Joseph Smith Jr.’s role is to make sure the five banks involved in the settlement do what it requires.

Americans bought more new homes last month, the latest evidence that the U.S. housing market could be starting to recover.

The owners of the Shotwell Landfill, who were to request on Monday a quadrupling of the waste the facility receives annually, instead asked to put off consideration of the matter by the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

National foreclosure trends took a positive turn in April, as the number of homes seized by banks declined and fewer properties entered into the foreclosure process.

U.S. builders started work on more homes and apartments last month and requested more permits to build single-family homes. The increases suggest the battered housing market is healing.

Homes that produce more energy than they consume appeal to more consumers thanks to the falling cost of solar power. KB Home plans to build a mass-market net-zero model in Raleigh this year, and a builder of custom homes plans a net-zero community in Chapel Hill.

Tony Tata says increases in Wake County home sales for the first quarter disprove the idea that the choice-based school plan is scaring buyers away.

Real Deals:  A developer, 21c Museum Hotel, has opened a similar property in Louisville and has two more under construction in Cincinnati, and Bentonville, Ark. 21c is seeking $5 million in incentives from the city and county to renovate the landmark property.

More than 200,000 letters from Bank of America will begin landing in homeowners’ mailboxes this week, the bank said Tuesday, offering principal reduction as part of the $25 billion mortgage settlement announced in February.

Real Deals:  The son of the former Raleigh mayor recently bought a retail center on W. Morgan Street. It’s the third commercial property he’s bought in the downtown area in recent years.