But by 2010 the magazine had pegged the typical payback at just 60%. Hardly the right time to tackle the new kitchen or master bathroom you've been dreaming of, right?Not so fast, says Kermit Baker, senior research fellow at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies."In many cases, these projects make more sense now than they did at the height of the market," he said.Assuming you like what you can't change about your home -- the neighborhood, the school district, the proximity to things that matter to you -- and you're planning on staying for five or more years, improving your home is a smart move. Here's why."The Fed doesn't want you to save -- it wants you to put your dollars into circulation," said Keith Gumbinger, mortgage market analyst at HSH.com. [Read the full article]

New home sales climbed 17.5% in December to the highest level in eight months, the government reported Wednesday.Sales of newly built single-family homes rose to an annual rate of 329,000 units last month, from a revised 280,000 units the month before, the Commerce Department said. That was the highest level since April. But compared with 2009, sales are down 7.6%.The monthly sales figure was higher than the annual rate of 300,000 analysts surveyed by Briefing.com had expected."Though it's better than expected, we're still not getting a serious rebound," said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for Channel Capital Research. "This is a U-shaped situation, where we can have monthly blips when it's positive, but we're going to be bouncing along the bottom for a while."Sales may have been boosted by homebuilders clearing out inventories at discounted rates at the end of the year, he said. [Read the full article]

The organization, which represents more than 80% of the nation's mortgage business, predicts that overall home sales will inch down 0.1% during the year. Sales of existing homes will fall 1% to 4.82 million, and new home sale will rise 10% to 358,000.The MBA attributes the sales decline mostly to slow economic recovery and high unemployment. Until hiring picks up, the market will continue to struggle.The MBA has also reduced its forecast due to recent credit liability issues affecting banks, according to its chief economist, Jay Brinkmann.Investors in mortgage backed securities have started demanding that lenders repurchase loans that are in default. The threat of having to repurchase these loans has made banks reluctant to lend, especially, Brinkmann said, to borrowers without the highest qualifications."That will hold down originations, on the edges, until the issue is resolved," he said. [Read the full article]

One out of every 9 homes in Sin City received some kind of default notice in 2010, according a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That's five times higher than the national average.But there is a silver lining: The foreclosure rate is actually dropping in Vegas, down 7% compared to the end of 2009.In fact, rates fell in all top-10 foreclosure markets of 2010. In No. 2 Cape Coral, Fla., for example, filings dropped 28%. In third place Modesto, Calif., they fell 13%; and forth place Phoenix dipped 7%.But even as foreclosures fell in the worst-hit areas, they rose in 72% of the 206 metro areas covered by RealtyTrac's report."It really says that the foreclosure problem has spread well beyond the core states," said Rick Sharga, spokesman for RealtyTrac.Foreclosures have spread beyond the original bubble cities as the economy melted down. Unemployment rates spiked nearly everywhere, and people out of work can't make their mortgage payments. [Read the full article]