diana olick is in silver springs, maryland, with more on that story. diana? >> that's right, bill.entiment is improving because the builders say they're seeing more demand. but that puts some in a tough predicament, a lot of them don't have a good supply of land. finished, premium lots like this one, that have already been permitted, that are near downtown, close to the metro, ready for construction. take a look at how lean on land they are. in 2005, dr horton controlled 346,000 lots. today, 115,000. lenar, over 324,000 back then. 111,000 today. you see the others as well. all way down. in fact, back in the boom one company had 658,000 lots. that's a two-year splif of new home sales nationally today. so with less land and demand coming back, albeit slowly, and locally, prices, especially for these premium so-called "a" lots are starting to come back higher. jody surveyed 74 of the top producing land brokers in the u.s., says in q-4, 30% of them said finished lot prices increased. that's up from 22% in q-3. 59% said prices were flat, up from 53%. and just 11 said prices were falling

. >>> we have breaking news from the fed chairman, diana olick has it. di?ll talk about leon cooperman who runs omega advisers is reporting new or added positions today. he has taken new positions in adarko and hall burton. we'll look at what the shares are giving you. this is perhaps most interesting of all is that he's added to his position in research in motion, which was very interesting. we had him on the show talking to his letter to president obama, six, eight weeks ago or so, and we asked him about the research in motion position and he said, he was emphatic in saying it's a small position, people saw it, people keep asking me about it. he clearly sees something there that he's willing to add, anthony, to his stake in a research-in-motion which i find the most interesting of all the moves today. >> this is the classic value half a cigar butt ben graham talked about. research-in-motion is on the ground, half smoked. someone could pick it up in a potential sale or acquisition, and i think he's expanded a little bit, not too much, and this is one of tho

let's break this down further with diana olick. how good is it?> i'm going to agree with you for once on that last point. i do think it's a good sign they're seeing traffic at zillo rising. i've heard other websites saying the same thing that people are out there testing the waters. as for other data you're talking about, you have to be really careful. housing starts came up a bit, but it was based on multifamily. a big jump in multifamily construction. single family came down. it's not as terrible as it sounds because there were revisions and single family construction rose in december higher than we thought. a lot of folks blaming it on great weather. but i wouldn't go so far as to say single family is surging back. multifamily is and that's because of rental demand. again, multifamily construction, that's a job right there. it's not a bad thing. when we look at the foreclosure numbers you talked about though, yes, delinquencies are easing a bit. but the foreclosure pipeline is still very big. and we got to work through all those loans, got to g

. >>> actually, it's diana olick live in washington.e just wanted to tell you that new york state attorney general has just announced he'll make a statement at 6:00 tonight regarding the multistate a.g. settlement over the so-called robo-signing foreclosure practices. he had been one of the holdouts on this. we learned yesterday that more than 40 states did sign on when the deadline expired. he's going to say he did not want the banks to be released from securitization issues. he also filed a lawsuit last friday against three of the five banks in the a.g. settlement over merst, electronic recording system for foreclosures. it was expected if he did decide to sign on, that he would have to drop that suit because it's also over robo-signing. some of the expectations are that the new york state attorney general will come back to the table and may announce he's joining it. if he does, he would likely have to drop the suit against merss. >> diana olick in washington, thank you very much. now let's go back to andy kessler. we led the show wit

diana olick is live in washington with details. diana, how big is this boom? >> well, brian, it's big. refis are on a roll up over 9% last week and up 16% in january. they now make up over 80% of all mortgage applications. now, record low interest rates as you said are a driving factor. take a look down to 4.05% on the 30-year fixed. that's the lowest in the history of the mortgage bankers survey. something else driving the refis though is a change in the rules on fannie mae and freddie mac government refis for under water borrowers. the cap of owing no more than 125% of your home's value was lifted. now it doesn't matter how under water you are. if you're current on your payments, you can still qualify. bank of america says they've seen such a huge surge, they've had to temporarily shut down cash-out refis which are the most time consuming for the bank. that's 10% to 15% of their business gone just to handle all the new refis coming in. brian. >> there are still people doing cash-out refis? >> i know. that stumped me for a minute. >> sorry for the pause. i he

diana olick is in washington with some of the details. hi, diana. >> hey, sue. the numbers are going up and that's enough to fuel optimism in this market. but remember we're coming off some real historic lows here in sales. that said though the numbers today bay based on contract signs, not closings, pending home sales rose 2% from a downwardly revised december number. the pending index up 8% from a year ago and hitting highs not seen since 2010 when the home buyer tax credit was in play. one caveat is cancellations are running historically high at 33% in january. so all these pending sales will not necessarily turn into closings. now, as for the optimism at least on the part of mr. buffett, it appears to be all about affordability. record low mortgage rates and bargain basement prices are leading him to say if you can, get in. >> if i had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single family homes and had a way of managing them -- the management is really the problem because they're one by one, not like apartment houses, but i would load up on it. >> now you

diana olick has the answers. diana? >> reporter: i hope so, sue. from what we know, this settlement could help close to 1 million troubled borrowers with mortgage implications of a principal reduction. but this deal only addresses foreclosure paperwork abuses. it's not going to help anyone buy or sell a house this year. for the five banks in the settlement, b of a, jpmorgan, citigroup, wells fargo and al lied financial, it's one of still of a growing number of legal actions. bank of america alone which took on countrywide is facing or has settled more than a dozen lawsuits. the same five banks are being sued by fannie mae and freddie mac's regulator, the fhfa for allegely misleading the government-sponsored entities about the mortgages they were buying. just last friday, the new york state attorney general sued wells fargo, b of a. the three are demanding the suit be dropped as a condition of this state a.g. settlement. massachusetts attorney general, martha coakley filed suits over allegedly fraudulent foreclosures. it could put an end to some sta

after a yearlong respite, foreclosures are back on the rise just as our own diana olick had been predicting for a while now. she joins us from washington with the new numbers. diana. >> that's right, tyler. foreclosure filings in january were up 3% from december according to realty track. one in every 624 households receiving a filing. this is a turn as banks post-robo get the system moving again. realty check calls it the thaw after the foreclosure processing freeze. big jumps in bank repossessions. that's the final stage of foreclosure. and big jumps in foreclosure activity in certain states, especially where you need a judge in the process. florida, illinois, indiana and pennsylvania saw foreclosure activity jump annually for the first time in over a year. now, that is the pipeline of long troubled loans that will continue to be a drag on the market for some time. but overall mortgage delinquencies are actually dropping. 7.58% of all u.s. mortgages were delinquent in q-4 according to the mortgage bankers association. down almost .5% from q-3. loans in the foreclosure process also improve

diana olick in washington now with the details. hi, diana. >> hey, tyler. you know, surge might be a little strong for the sales numbers out today especially since the december numbers were revised down so far as they totally negate that month's gains. that said existing home sales did rise 4.3% month-to-month in january. basically flat from a year ago. now, with the weather so warm this winter, you might think we'd see big every year-over-year gains but not so much. condos took the big jump over 8%. the big news was in january around reo or bank owned homes. they made a full 35% of all january sales. that's an increase from december. and heading back up to highs that we haven't seen since before the robo signing scandal about the foreclosure process to a halt. clearly it's ramping up again. realtors say there's big invest investor demand for the homes and not enough supply. all that distress keeping prices low every down 2% year-over-year. anything under $250,000 is picking up. 73% of all january sales were in that range. cancellations though still running

now, let's go to maryland, where diana olick has the impact on the housing industry. >> diana? >> that's right, phil, we're out here in poolsville, maryland. it's what the call the exurbs. out here you can get the tricked-out brand-new kitchen in 5,000 spanking feet of space. if you take this house, put it inside the beltway, you're looking at $2 million plus. the problem out here is that take a look outside, it's all beautiful, with plenty of space. but you're far from downtown. so commuting costs are going to be higher, so what's the impact on home prices out here. the federal reserve looked at this a couple of years ago, they did a study and they found out that for every 10% increase in gas prices, you get a 10% decrease in construction over the next four years in these outlying areas. now, we talked to the head of ketler homes, and he told us that he does not believe that gas prices are going to affect sales out here, because he said there are so many good factors in the market right now, being affordability, being low mortgage rates and improvement in the job market and be

diana olick is here now with the great land grab story. diana. >> well, that's right, brian. know, the builder number out this morning was huge and it was even bigger because a lot of folks consider this coming president's day weekend as the official start to the spring housing market. so since september builders sentiment has actually doubled. caution though that this is still well below the positive line. that said, if builders think the market is about to move, then they need to get moving on construction, right? now you see the stocks of the big builders moving already. the big public guys are especially well-positioned with land because they have the cash on the sidelines ready to buy those finished premium lots. take tampa, florida, for example. the national builders have taken a huge jump in market share there since the height of the housing boom. now, land prices especially, again, those finished premium lots that have already been permitted are going at a premium and have been so for the last couple years. but the builders, they're still running really lean. for exam

our real estate correspondent diana olick is in washington. but jon, if they didn't own it, they wish they did. >> the action, a lot more normal today after yesterday's crazy spike. and the news today is a new version of os-10 mountain lion. here's what investors should think about as far as this news is concerned. two things, one, china. tim cook pointed out a couple days ago that max sales in china doubled last fiscal year. this is clearly targeted at that. it's the iphone pulling people to the mac. they've integrated more iphone features into the mac. also, new chinese language and chinese service support in the mac os. the other thing is cloud services. they've got icloud built into the mac, messaging, the imessage capabilities coming over to the mac platform and boosting the mac app store. they try to see if apple can continue its momentum. >> getting ready for the spring selling season in real estate. but we've had mixed data on housing rates lately. what's the outlook for spring comes up? >> spring is going to come down to two things. i

diana olick has been all the over the story from the very beginning. we have a deal, diana, but there's still a lot of unanswered questions including the issue of fairness. >> yeah. trust me, that fairness issue is going to go on for quite a while. in fact, it's on my blog today. just a little plug. but, look, this is a $25 billion deal that could rise to as much as $40 billion in relief to borrowers if other servicers sign on. up to nine other servicers are currently in negotiations. that's the largest government industry settlement in history, way beyond big tobacco. >> that's what today's settleme settlement's all about. standing up for the american people, holding those two broke the law accountable, restoring confidence in our housing market and our financial sector, getting things moving. and we're going to keep on at it until everyone shares in america's comeback. >> all right. let's run down the facts, shall we? 49 states signed on. oklahoma the lone holdout. bank of america, jpmorgan chase, citi group, ally financial and wells fargo in for the

with some of the nation's biggest banks that deadline is today, we have our real estate reporter diana olick in washington following that story for us and simon hobbs is back at headquarters tracking everything greek in the markets and simon, i am told now that the eu officials really, really, really mean it this time when they say the greeks had better get their act together, yes? >> is there a lot of exasperation, i think it is really very clear. everybody is exasperated by the damn story, but if you look, for example, what is coming out of angela merkel today, she met the french president nicolas sarkozy in france, she was quite clear, time is running out, couldn't understand why they didn't have the delay and indeed, they were even suggesting now perhaps the greeks should put the money they would have to repay their debts into some sort of he is xroerk the degree which they don't trust them. we did think, since we have got this on the screen, tell you, we have got in the five hours of talks between the three parties on the ground in greece they moved toward each of those items that you t

. >> i'm diana olick in poolsville, maryland. you get a whole lot more house for your money out here in the exurbes. but your commute to work is getting a lot more expensive. how gas prices are affecting the spring housing market. >> here's how the major commodities have been trading so far today. mostly higher with the lower dollar today. back after this. 12k3w4r50i6r7b8g9s welcome back. i'm sharon epperson. we've been talking about the surge in oil prices. look what's happened to copper today. copper is the best performing commodity at the mer kak tine exchange. and copper keeps up with the price of oil, is due in large part to the geopolitical risk premium in this marketplace as well as the weaker dollar. keep in mind when you look at the metals complex across the board, we have seen a slight easing in gold and silver prices in this session. but we've seen a strong run-up in those metals over the course of this year. and we are looking at copper prices playing a little bit of catch-up here, and again that geopolitical risk, th

and diana olick is at the white house. she has the details for us. hi, diana. >> hi, sue. the biggest problem with the new refi plan is it has to go through congress. given details released this morning, most many washington will tell you it's likely to be dead on arrival. the speaker of the house came out this morning blasting the plan even before the president got up to sell it in his speech. they are "responsible borrowers" and would go through fha. the fha is already facing financial trouble due to high delinquencies and foreclosures, but a special fund would be put aside for these loans. officials put the cost at $5 billion to $10 billion paid for by a bank tax. and that of course is what the republicans don't like. >> to move this part of my plan, we're going to need congress to act. we're going to need congress to act. i hear some murmuring in the audience here. we need them to act. >> yeah, he said it three times. but the question is will they? now, to qualify borrowers need to be current on their loans or no missed payments for the last six months, they have to pr

our diana olick is there at the big meeting in orlando. welcome, diana. >> reporter: well, that's right, simon. as you can see, the fed chairman is still speaking. he finished prepared remarks and now taking questions. the first one was about credit. that's the biggest issue right now. not just to get to build new homes and given that demand is beginning to increase and supply is so low for new homes, but also getting credit to borrowers. especially first-time home buyers. the fed chairman said despite what the fed has done to lower mortgage interest rates and we know they are at record lows even just this week that what the fed has done is being trumped, again, by very tight underwriting standards. he also talked in his prepared remarks about the high rate of foreclosures. listen to what he said. >> although it's difficult to forecast future reo flows, we estimate that an additional one million foreclosed properties could be added to the reo held by banks, guarantors and servicers in each of the next few years. these inflows could continue

our diana olick is looking at that question in maryland and she's also digesting the latest home sales figures. diana. >> reporter: well, that's right, tyler. we're out here in a brand new home in poolsville, maryland, which is just outside the suburbs of d.c. you can get this brand new fully loaded 5,000 square foot home for just over $700,000 out here. you put this house inside the beltway, you're looking at well over $2 million. but look what you get out here for your money. you get the land, you get the size. unfortunately, you also get the high price of a commute as gas prices rise. in fact, the federal reserve looked at the impact of gas prices on home purchasing and found that for every 10% increase in gas prices, you get a 10% decrease in home construction over the next four years. and areas like this one that are far out. we spoke to the builder here, richard ket ler says he's not seeing that impact yet because he believes that the positives in the market right now are trumping that beginning concern about gas prices. he says affordability, mortgage rates, better jobs picture,

diana olick is in silver spring, maryland, with more on what's fueling the optimism. diana. >> kayla, the home builders say that buyer traffic is running higher and current sales are doing better and that's leading them to improved expectations going into spring. take a look at just how far the home builder sentiment index has come since september. it's doubled. it was virtually stalled for over a year. still, the builders warn that the market is fragile and low appraisals and foreclosures continue to strain the market. and there is reason to be cautious. just take a look at the weekly mortgage application numbers. rates on the 30-year fixed are hovering near record lows and yet applications to purchase a home are tanking. down over 8% for the week and down over 4% on the four-week moving average. investors need a mortgage to get in on the housing market. now, on the flip side, refis are on a roar hitting highest level in more than six months. they now make up 81% of all mortgage applications. this is in part thanks to the new government program, aka harp 2 that lets d

. >> let's bring in chris thornburg and diana olick as well because he talked about housing mortgageshe state of the lending market. he basically said that even today the only borrowers that are having an easy time getting money or maybe the only ones getting money period, are those with pristine credit scores. take a listen. >> we need to make sure we work with owners of mortgages such that we don't have the unintended consequence of eliminating credit for people with some blemish on their credit record. it's a big issue. >> chris thornberg, is that what's holding housing back right now? >> no. we've been hearing this for a long time, both from the banks and the national association of realtors, the idea that it's credit and confidence that's holding the housing market back. a study from the federal reserve shows a significant portion of families end up buying another house. so clearly there's lots of people out there who figured their way out through that particular land mine. >> what do you think is the main problem holding housing back, if not the lack of availability of credit? >

our real estate correspondent diana olick diving into the latest case-shiller report. >> reporter: this was a disappointment, no question. but not exactly unexpected. as we've seen price teedeert y s deterioration over the past few months. the case-shiller report, down to a new low. the city composite down to a record low. after two years of improvement in the numbers, david blitzer says, we might have reentered a period of decline. now, all real estate is local, of course. let's drill down on some of the cities. detroit was the lone gainer on annual returns. but up just barely, .5% from a year ago. atlanta wins the dubious honor of the worst, down nearly 13% annually. here in d.c. where we had seen some gains recently, we're falling again, down 1.6%. miami was one of just two cities to see monthly gains, phoenix joining that and las vegas continues to bleed despite real sales competition there for foreclosures. the hud secretary pushed for nonfannie and freddie borrowers through the fha. it would need congressional approval and most say it's likely not going to get it. he said the full

diana olick, you have the heavy stats. >> yes, i do.urprisingly heady stats which is that actually the size of a home in 2011 reached a record level. 2,522 square feet. that's after years of downsizing. 42% of homes built in 2011 had four bedrooms up 30% from the year before. 28% three bathrooms also up. 30% had finished basements and 18% with three-car garages up 16% from the year before. now, before you start saying mcmansion, first of all 2,500 square feet does not a mcmansion make. but you have to remember it's not necessarily the size of the home. it's who's living in the home. and we've been doing an awful lot of stories, i know you've watched them all, on multigenerational living. the builders have been reacting to multiple generations building bigger homes for bigger families. >> what about this being renter nation? has that been put to bed? >> yeah. renter nation is a lot of people who can't buy homes moving into rentals and apartments and also into these foreclosed homes. we're talking here about what the builders are building

diana olick is live in washington with more details. are we going in reverse?g but new delinquencies had been going down. now not so much. the number of loans at least 60 days past due rose nearly 2.25% to 6.01% of all loans in the u.s., that according to transunion. the good news is down from a year ago, but again we had been seeing quarterly drops. now there is some seasonality to the number. but transunion still cites negative equity that might be affecting people's willingness to pay their mortgages. florida, nevada and new jersey. states with the biggest jumps in dateline kwenty rates, new jerseys, vermont and south dakota. i want to note another story that we're also following. moscow shares down 13% after reporting wider than expected losses. masco sells a product used to rebuild and remodel homes. we have two new reports showing home remodels on the rise. masco's exposure in europe and increasing commodity costs in the u.s. are hurting the bottom line. carl? >> thank you very much, diana. your point on masco is well taken. when we come back, wall street

diana olick in washington. >> two different reports. start with the one breaking at this hour. 7.58% of all u.s. mortgages were delinquent in q 4, down almost after a percentage point from q 3. according to the mortgage bankers association loans in the foreclosure process also improved to 4.38% of all loans but just barely. down just five basis points from q 3. still near record highs. add it up and 12.64% of all u.s. loans in some kind of trouble in q 4. that's down ten basis points from the previous quarter. on the other side, though, is a new report from realtytrac today that hones in on just the foreclosure issues. not new delinquencies. foreclosure filings in january, the month after the mortgage bankers report range, were up 3% from december. one in every 624 households receiving a foreclosure filing. this is a turn as banks post robo get the system moving again. big jumps in bank repossessions. the final stage. big jumps in foreclosure activity in certain states, especially where you need a judge in the process, called judicial.

bring in diana olick for that. diana? >> reporter: yeah. this san interesting number.ou've got both good and bad news. you have december revised way up to 324,000, as rick said. then you have the sales coming down in january. while it's only down 1%, we were expecting a rise of 2%. january you have to remember was very influenced by warm weather. the builders' confidence has been very high. highest in four years. specifically because they've seen a lot of buyer traffic coming through their homes in the past couple of months. now, that brought the supply down to a 5.6 month supply. that is good. i was just given a price number. prices are still coming down. 240,100 last year. but prices are still down. and another thing to note is that this number is based on contracts signed in january. not closings. again, it's very much what's happening today. not so much like existing home sales where we get closings. and you're looking back two months. so, again, this number is pretty flat when we look at the december revision coming up and you look at this one coming down a little

let's bring in cnbc's diana olick for the latest. diana? we're hearing right now, we're waiting for the justice department to begin its press conference. we are told it could be a $26 billion settlement that would be announced today. but we're also being told by the california attorney general office that they're getting $18 billion of this settlement and someone there is telling us it could be as high as 39. we're still waiting for the final numbers. california's announcing they did secure an $18 billion settlement. california, of course, has one quarter of all of the mortgages in the united states. the bank signing on, of course, bank of america, citigroup, jpmorgan chase, and ally financial. representing half of the nation's mortgages. they have all signed on and others could, as well. now, it was down to the wire for some of the largest states again, california and new york the longest hold-ups, and who gets what? borrowers whose homes were foreclosed upon in 2008 and 2011 we're told will get up to $2,000 a piece, others behind on their

i'm diana olick, with breaking news. jump in homebuilder confidence from 25 to 29 on the national association sentiment index. this is the highest level on the index in more than four years. home builders confidence has doubled since september. the chairman says this consistency suggests that the housing market is moving toward more sustainable growth. he does, however, caution the housing is still fragile. of the three index components, sales expectations rose five points and current sales rose five full points. mortgage applications weekly show a continued reify boom, but applications to buy a home continue to fall and are significantly lower than a year ago, so you have to take all this data with a grain of salt. simon? >> diana, thank you very much. >>> about an hour into trading, we go higher in asia, higher in europe, but we fail to get traction at the open. have a look at the commodities this is important for gasoline prices. you'll see we are higher, 1.24 higher. that is absolutely critical. we'll explain that in

cnbc's diana olick is standing by down there in florida.simon. we're coming to you from the finance pavilion of the home builders show. this is really ground zero for the housing recovery. builders are starting to see more demand, but coming off the worst year for volume and sales in history. they need cash going forward to meet this demand, because they simply have for supply. trouble is acquisition and development loans from the big banks are gone. where are these getting their financing now? from private equity, from small regional banks, but the ltvs still very conservative. that puts the big public home builders at a huge advantage. thousand they are eating up all the land. a lot of the builders we talked to say that means many of these guys are dead men walking. >> there's a lot of builders here that the economy almost killed them, and they don't know they're walking around and already dead, because when 2013, '14 and '15 roll around an the national builders have absorbed the lot inventory, they won't have anywhere to build and they'l

with xerox, you're ready for real business. ( ♪ ♪ "w [ "who can it be now" ] >>> diana olick confirmsork, two key states that had been holding out will join the settlement, the official announcement could come today. the settlement would resolve lawsuits over foreclosure misconduct. >> looking to connect with "squawk box" online follow us on twitter, our handle i is @squawkcnbc. coming up, their master plan for making money. we turn to byron wien, ron baron and blackrock, great line-up, peter fisher. but first your tools of the trade, we're scoping out the action in the oil, dollar and futures markets, that and more. the oil we change the filter... tire rotation, suspension, we make suspension checks... what we have here is the multi-point inspection. every time a vehicle comes into a ford dealership you'll be presented with one of these. we check the belts, hoses... brakes. tires and the pressures... battery, all your fluids... exhaust system, transmission... we inspect your air filter... it gets done,it gets done quickly and it gets done correctly. the works. oil change, tire rotati