The Northwest building market remains strong, say industry leaders, as construction employment in Oregon, Alaska and Washington continues to grow, according to the Associated General Contractors.

Construction leaders across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas are optimistic about regional construction activity moving into the second half of 2018.

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose to a four-month high as buyers, fueled by a solid job market and and tax cuts, quickly snapped up the limited number of available properties, National Association of Realtors data showed Monday.

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders slipped to a four-month low in March while remaining above historical averages, indicating developers expect demand to withstand rising mortgage rates, according to data from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.

For the past 18 months, Eddie Martin has been trying to find ways to keep the affordable homes he builds, well, affordable.

About 40 percent of the Texas homebuilder’s framing lumber comes from Canada. The Trump administration slapped punitive tariffs on Canadian softwood timber last year, claiming the industry is unfairly subsidized. The move has driven lumber prices to near record highs. Tilson Home Corp., where Martin is president, has so far refrained from passing on the added costs to homebuyers. To do that, it’s cut back the number of home plans it offers and is considering swapping pricier fir for cheaper Southern yellow pine, even though its tendency to bow in the Texas humidity makes it more difficult for construction crews to work with.

Confidence among American homebuilders held steady in February near the highest level since 1999, suggesting that demand for housing is expected to remain strong, according to data Thursday from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo.

Toronto home sales tumbled in the first month of 2018, as tougher mortgage qualification rules came into play and borrowing costs rose.

Sales in Canada’s biggest city fell 22 percent to 4,019 units from a year earlier, according to data released Tuesday by the Toronto Real Estate Board. It was the weakest month of sales for January since 2009. The average price of a home sold in Toronto was C$736,783 ($587,968), down 4.1 percent from January 2017, though little changed from December.

Reprinted courtesy of Natalie Wong, Bloomberg and Erik Hertzberg, Bloomberg

Two disaster recovery companies are battling over a $133 million contract to repair hurricane-battered homes in Puerto Rico, with the losing bidder formally challenging the result and suggesting the winner should have been disqualified. The commonwealth’s Housing Department on Dec. 15 gave the deal to oversee 75,000 potential home rehabs to Utica, New York-based Adjusters International Inc., which employs as an executive a former Trump administration nominee to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. AECOM, the world’s biggest engineering firm, said Adjusters failed to show adequate financial resources and good standing to do business in Puerto Rico, according to a copy of AECOM’s motion for reconsideration provided to Bloomberg. Mr. Levin may be followed @JonathanJLevin Mr. Flatley may be followed @daniel_flatley

Unbelievable reduction,” says the broker’s email.

An investor who agreed to purchase an apartment at the ritzy One Blackfriars project on the banks of the River Thames is offering the two-bedroom home on the 20th floor for 1.8 million pounds ($2.44 million), more than 22 percent less than they agreed to pay for it in 2013.

The seller, who’s from Asia, wants to offload the property before it’s completed, according to Christian Barr, new homes manager at MyLondonHome, who’s brokering the sale. Stamp duty is payable after a property’s construction is finished.

Hong Kong's one-month interbank rate has reached its highest level since the global financial crisis. But don't expect the city's real estate prices to halt their spiral anytime soon, whatever the International Monetary Fund may say.

Blame banks and property developers.

Around 94 percent of mortgages in the world's least affordable property market are tied to the Hong Kong interbank offered rate, so the surge above 1 percent will cause some pain.

The U.S. real estate industry reeled as the House Republican tax bill proposed capping the mortgage-interest deduction, a long-cherished incentive many Americans have had to buy a house.

The measure would limit the mortgage-interest deduction on newly purchased homes at $500,000 -- a departure from the current cap of $1 million for couples filing jointly, according to a memo written by the House Ways and Means Committee. The National Association of Realtors, which has been wary of the tax plan, said the memo “appears to confirm many of our biggest concerns.”