| Building permits climb 11% and Existing home sales edge higher in October |
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Permits for housing construction climbed in October, signaling an uptick in optimism among homebuilders.The number of permits for future housing construction jumped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 653,000 last month, up 10.9% from the revised rate of 589,000 in September, the Commerce Department said.That was much higher than expected, with economists surveyed by Briefing.com looking for a 603,000 permit rate.But until builders actually start building, this big increase in permits may indicate that builders are hedging their bets and may not translate into an actual increase in construction, said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for Channel Capital Research."Getting a permit and actually beginning to build a house is the difference between getting engaged and getting married," said Roberts. [Read the full article] Hundreds of con artists have been taking advantage of victims through online advertisements on search engines Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Bing and Yahoo! (YHOO, Fortune 500), promising to help homeowners modify their mortgages through the government-run program known as the Home Affordable Modification Program (or HAMP).Last week, the agency that investigates fraud, waste and abuse in the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, announced that it has shut down 85 scams that were advertising on Google. Then, on Monday, it announced it had halted another 125 shady advertisers on Yahoo and Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) Bing search engine."The first place many homeowners turn for help in lowering their mortgage is the Internet through online search engines, and that's precisely where they are being taken advantage of and targeted," said Christy Romero, Deputy Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP). [Read the full article] NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- New-home sales edged slightly higher last month, as more Americans hunted for bargains in the struggling housing market.The Census Bureau reported an annual sales rate of 307,000 new homes last month, up 1.3% from a downwardly revised rate of 303,000 homes in September. Compared to new home sales a year ago, October sales were up 8.9%.The 307,000 rate fell just short of expectations. Economists had forecast a sales rate of 312,000 new homes, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com.While the higher rate in October indicated that consumers are chipping away at the huge inventory of homes on the market, there's still a long way to go.There were about 162,000 new homes on the market by the end of October. That represented a 6.3-month supply at the current rate of sale. The median sale price was $212,300.Last week, a separate report showed that more house-hunters are also eyeing previously owned homes. [Read the full article] 
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