diana olick tells us, that could change soon. >> 230,000 new listings came on to the housing market in april, a much needed shot in the arm. but supplies are still well below where they should be, given all the new demands. >> it looks and smells like a really fast moving crazy market. and we should maybe be thinking about how to put the stop on it, but the truth is. it looks to me like a simple supply and demand issue. >> nationally, listings in april were up 12% month to month, still down 14% from a year ago. the picture is even more dramatic locally. for sale listings down over 20, 30, even 40% in some areas from a year ago. >> with growing buyer demand, homes are now selling like it's 2005 again. the height of the housing boom. it took just 46 days on average in april to sell a house, that's down from 62 days in march and the normal average of 3 to 4 months. >> i have sellers who are expecting to get multiple contracts the minute the house hits the market. just today i had a seller, i brought him a full price offer, and he choose not to take it because he wants multiple contracts.

diana olick explains. >> in new york today state new york stock exchange eric schneiderman accused twoe nation's largest bank, wells fargo and bank of america of reneging on a deal to help millions of troubled borrowers. >> this enforcement action which is the first taken under the settlement is based on 339 individual complaints from new yorkers against these two banks in just the last six months. >> the charges stem from the $25 billion settlement that came out of so-called robe owe signing foreclosure abuses. it directs the banks to modify loan, forgive mortgage principal and improve significantly the way they treat or service their customers. specifically, the banks must respond to customer applications quickly. j joyce harden says she and her husband have been trying to get help from wells fargo for years. >> i hope they help us and help other people like me who are suffering. >> the lawsuit comes just as mortgage delinquencies are starting to improve dramatically. fewer borrowers are falling behind on their payments for the first time and those already behind is dropping, too, fo

diana olick now digs in to the details. >> weak supply and strong demand are pushing home prices higher at a rate not seen since the height of the housing boom. >> right now they're healthy. if we go far beyond it so we're talking in six months or a year from now about 20% gains, then i ink we get worried about bubbles again. >> home prices are still nearly 30% below where they were in 2006 and lending conditions today are nothing like they were back then. >> without the mortgage rates, the housing market would not have had near the recovery that its had and it's been the real combination and in a sense a potent brew of very low mortgage rates which has helped keep demand high and that's meeting constraint supply. >> during the housing boom easy credit allowed homeowners to cash out equity and pump it out into the economy. no such luck today and housing starts which usually drive the economy are still well below historical norms, never mind where they were during the boom. >> when you look at this, buying and selling existing home is very nice and the prices are going up and it doesn't

for nightly business report, diana olick in washington. >> coming up on the program, toll brothers has been one of the big beneficiaries of the housing recove roy. in a few minutes you'll hear from the ceo and his outlook and s company's better than expected quarter. >> let's get more on what ben bernanke said today. bruce, thanks for coming on. is such a critical time whether you're an investor, borrower or saver, everybody's trying to gauge what's going to happen next for interest rates. let's start with mortgage rates, like the 30 year is now three and a quarter percent. once the fed starts withdrawing the stimulus, where are those rates going to go? >> i think they're going to goo up, i think, though, we need to be clear that the rates will go up, because the fed is responding to a stronger economy. so what ben bernanke is telling us is that if the economy continues to strengthen, sometime later this year, he could begin tapering purchases. our forecast is, that happens in the fourth quarter and the 10-year yield goes up. >> if you're in the market to buy a home, this is the time t

for "nightly business report," i'm diana olick in washington. >> diana was talking to a gentleman that was saying you don't know you're in a bubble until you're out of it. and anecdotally, we hear so many stories in this area at least of people going to see a house and then it goes into an auction phase. so you get this feeling that there is a craze. >> things in my town are selling the day they come on the market. >> exactly. >> the weekend they come on the market. >> exactly. >> but it's a good sign. it indicates to me that people are feeling more secure in their jobs and incomes and credit is more available, but not to the same extent it was back in '06 and '07 when we had the so-called liar loans that were so prevalent. >>> to market focus now and pfizer, which reported lower than expected profits and trimmed its outlook for the rest of the year. pfizerer blamed the bump in the road on poor sales over in europe and the strong yen lowering sales in japan. pfizer occupied the dow basement all day long, losing 4.5%. >>> investors cheered best buy's decision to sell its stake in a euro

diana olick joining us from d.c. housing market not in a bubble. house stocks may be so. yes, you say. >> definitely. look at the action you've seen in the last month in toll brothers, d.r. horton. but we've talked about this. the better way to play that -- >> you said that three months ago. you would have said that five months ago. >> toll brothers is in the same spot that it is today. >> but you buy these things -- i've been buying stocks on momentum. i've been consistent on that. when they run out of momentum and you see these charts, they clearly have. >> let's hit our top three trades of the day. some of the most notable moves of the session. first off michael kors, an earnings beat on both the top and bottom lines giving a pop to this stock. grasso, what do you say on kors? >> 65 is really great resistance in this name. so i won be a buyer here. we have to look at this in the spectrum of april 22nd, from that point the stock is up 23%. i think you have to let it breathe, wait for a close above 65, wait for about two or three consecutive closes above there before you

and diana olick has the details. >> well, that's right, tyler, final in the double digits on all three of the s&p case shiller indices. and top ten and 20 markets respectively, and up nationally in q1. now, while these prices are national, you have to understand it is all very locally. phoenix continues to lead with home prices up 22.5% from a year ago, followed by san francisco and las vegas, each also up over 20%. new york, cleveland, and boston posted the weakest price gains as a large backlog of foreclosures continued to plague those markets. only minneapolis and new york saw prices fall for february to march, while chicago and cleveland were flat. still, all again in the positive annually, so you have to ask, are these price gains driving the economy? well, maybe, maybe not. >> when you look at this, buying and selling existing homes is very nice, we all feel good. it doesn't add anything to gdp. >> blitzer also notes that single family home construction is still very low with most of the gains in multifamily apartments. very few people, he says, are cashing out home equity and sp

. >> diana olick covers house, you birr first back to michelle.ichelle, he said you could have the documents. our investigative team put the request in. will we have them yet? >> no, they will not provide us. they said there are privacy issues. they gave you will a polyer point same, reiterating a lot of the points in original suit, which is more about the processing of foreclosure payments, which is a slightly different issue, but i brought up these questions, because he spends a lot of time in the press release presumably talking about the family, but on air didn't seem to know a whole lot about them. >> the questions you were asking i thought were very concise, very logical, and you would think he would have known a bit more about it if he's going to come on national area waves and talk about the situation. >> it's a pretty big pr mistake, quite frankly. >> i totally agree. diana? >> well, sue, this isn't the first time an official has used a questionable example. last summer president obama went to reno to talk about responsible underwater bor

diana olick has the latest story. >> new york attorney general eric sneiderman said wells fargo and bank of america were in, quote, flagrant violation of the $25 billion mortgage servicing settlement. you'll remember this was the deal signed in early 2012. the result of so-called robo signing foreclosure paperwork abuses. now, the settlement signed by the nation's five largest banks including b of a and wells directs them to modify loans, forgive mortgage principal and improve significantly the way they treat or service their customers. specifically the banks must respond to customer applications quickly. sneiderman says that last part is not happening. >> this enforcement action, which is the first taken under the settlement, is based on 339 individual complaints from new yorkers against these two banks in just the last six months. >> ag sneiderman will be a guest on squawk box tomorrow at 8:00 eastern. the lawsuit comes as agencies are starting to improve dramatically. new problem loan rates fell below -- total deling quincies continue to fall. the number of borrowers who owe more on t

diana olick now with that angle. over to you, diana. >> that's right, maria, the federal reserve saying today the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth. now, when you talk about strength in housing, you're talking about home prices, of course, which, as we saw yesterday, continue to rise. but we also got another report that showed the home ownership rate has fall ten to 65%. that's the lowest level since 1995. if housing is recovering, why is home ownership still falling? that's because it depends on who's buying. an investor who doesn't live in the house doesn't increase the home ownership rate, ands investors are fueling a lot of today's sales. we also know that the mortgage market is holding many potential buyers back. mortgage applications rose slightly last week, but all on the back of refinances. applications to buy a home fell, and they really haven't moved much over the past month. one third of the home-buying market is all cash and prchinur applications are

diana olick here to break down the new report. >> that's right, melissa. the stock market soars into record territory, real estate investment trusts are shooting past it. u.s. reit returns were more than three times those of the broader equity markets in april according to a new report the industry's association. take a look at the index. up nearly 6% in april while the all-equity read index over 6%. s&p 500 just below 2%. year-to-date, both reit indexes are up around 14% while the s&p was up 12%. it's all about bernanke that according to sandler o'neal. he says investors are scrambling for return and pushing up prices on other assets. reits offer earnings and dividend growth as well as inflation protection he says. reits have to distribute at least 90% of income to shareholders in the form of dividends. okay who's outshining the pack? health care was the industry's top performer with a nearly 24% total return lodging also up around 17% as is retail. yep, consumers are beginning to travel and spend at the malls again. and another beneficiary of the housing

>> diana olick with a gorgeous shot with the cherry blossoms. at intel. john? >> carl, just got off the phone a few minutes ago with intel chairman andy. talked to him a lot about the process that brought him to this point. really interesting tidbits here. first of all. he told me that brian teamed up with renee james, who is named president, on their bid for the c-sweep. actually threw the board for a loop a little bit. they wanted people to present individual provisions but behind the scenes they decided they were stronger together and developed their vision together. the board decided to let them do that and decided that was the strongest they heard. that's how they got their job. brian also told me external candidates were in the running for the ceo spot right until the end. says they have a strong group of candidates. he says among the key issues the board considered when figuring out who would get the job was mobile. who presented a vision for attacking the jobs where they have not done so well? had fresh ideas. also said they're looking f

diana olick taking a look at today's realty check.and home prices are improving, construction of single-family homes is still running well below historical norms. and construction is a major driver of the economy. home sales are not. >> when you look at this, buying and selling existing homes is very nice, we all feel good, the prices are going up, it doesn't add anything to gdp. >> still, price gains do give consumers more home equity and therefore, more potential spending power. home prices were up 10.3% and 10.9% from a year ago in march, in the top 10 and top 20 markets. prices were also up over 10% nationally in q1. when you talk about housing juicing the economy, you have to remember that it is the fed's intervention in a bad economy that juiced housing in the first place. >> without low mortgage rates, you know, the housing market would not have had near the recovery that it's had. so it's really been that combination, you know, in a sense, a real potent brew of very low mortgage rates, which has helped keep demand high. and th

diana olick joins us with a look at both sides of the debate. of those that say yes, it will, but some still say no? >> absolutely. it certainly feels like it should be as we are now officially in the double digits on the s&p kay schiller home price industrieses. prices up 10.3% and 10.9% a year ago in the top 10 and 20 mashes. we were up 10.1 nationally. given that we haven't seen these annual gains since 2007 which was during the housing boom, is this healthy? right now they're healthy. if we go far beyond this, so we're talking in six months or a year from now about 20% gain, then i think we get worried about bubbles again. >> we're already in the 20s. look at phoenix up 22.5% from a year ago followed by san francisco and las vegas each up also 20%. new york, cleveland and boston posted the weakest price gains as the backlog of foreclosures continue to plague those marks. only minneapolis and new york saw prices fall 28%, but back to the question, is this driving the economy? >> when you look at this, buying and selling existing homes is very

diana olick has more on what we know now aut housing. good morning, diana. >> good morning, simon. they are squeaking by. so important of supplies. short sales and foreclosures were making up 45% of home sales in 2009. now they're down to just 21% according to a new report from realty track. so we have far fewer distressed properties out there. banks may be holding onto some of their properties to gain pricing power. we've been hearing that. then in overall supplies they did move up a little bit in april. we're still at a five-month supply, which is down 14% from a year ago. so we need more listings on the market. the realtors are begging for them. then you have mortgage rates, which have moved closer to 4% mark, which could be emotional. but realtors are already seeing slowing sales due to higher mortgage rates which prices out the much-needed first time home buyers at lows not seen in years. we have rising home prices. some say they are outpacing prices in income and employment. if you see prices going up that fast, is there a price bubble in certain markets? and zillow reports 2

. >> we have more data coming in from diana olick in washington. >>> the foreclosure picture continues some of the best numbers we've seen in several years according to a new report from the mortgage bankers association. just 7% of all u.s. loans are now delinquent. that's up slightly from q4 but way down from a year ago. that slight increase is due to seasonality. actually things are getting back to a normal seasonal pattern. loans in the foreclosure process also fell to the lowest level since 2008 -- just 3% of u.s. loans in the foreclosure process. 2008 wasn't a great year but still it was a lot better than the last five years. put that in total, about 10% of all u.s. loans in some kind of trouble. the worst part of this picture was the fha. loans in the foreclosure process at fha just continue to rise but the overall brightening of this picture is really what helped fannie mae swing to an $8.1 billion profit in q1 of this year. now they also said that profits were so good at the company that they're able to release a $50 billion tax credit. as you know, fannie mae has to pay all of

. >>> i want to talk about big banks and mortgage settlements and diana olick has that. >> new york attorneyc schneiderman announcing he intends to sue bank of america and wells fargo over the $26 billion mortgage servicing settlement that was signed in the beginning of last year. he said in a release today, since october 2012 the attorney general's office has documented 339 violations of standards agreed to by wells fargo and bank of america in last year's settlement. victims of the institution's violationsel speak first hand about their experiences at a press conference today. you'll remember the national mortgaging settlement involved 50 attorneys general as well as the justice department involving so-called robo signing and that was problems having to do with foreclosure documentations. part of the settlement was to improve servicing standards and apparently the new york attorney general said that is not happening. we do know that the banks have done with billions of dollars, $6 billion so far of principal forgiveness and those servicing standards were the crux of this settlement and the

diana olick is with us. how good is this? >> this is great when we talk about prices.story. prices for newly built homes up nearly 15%. that is the highest price range on record since 1963 at least when they start keeping these records. we've been talking so much about pricing power. we've seen in existing homes prices up nearly double digits. new homes we've heard from builders they're actually slowing production in order to gain pricing power. of course we are nowhere on existing home level back to where we were during the housing boom but you wouldn't want prices to move that fast. for newly built homes builders are facing higher prices for land, labor, materials so they've been forced to raise prices. but when you see these prices in the actual sales it shows that people are coming out and putting up the cash and paying these higher prices. that's a huge price jump. on the sales, again, good news beat consensus expectations. our supply, 4.1 month supply is still very low. supply has been the issue for existing and new homes so to see supplies still low is going to