diana olick takes a look at whether that's the case this year. >> reporter: all real estate is local, but the national housing market is facing a common dilemma. >> our biggest problem, we don't have enough apartments to sell. >> reporter: from manhattan co-op to california cottages coast to coast, there are just not enough home sellers to meet potential buyer demand. >> a lot of homeowners don't believe that they're going to be able to qualify for a loan for their next house right now. and so they more or less voted themselves off the island. >> reporter: while mortgage rates are low and there are more lowdown payment loan options for buyers credit conditions have not changed. >> credit is still about twice as difficult to get as it has been historically. >> rep on top of that there are 7 million to 10 million borrowers who still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and millions more who don't have enough equity to manage a move up. a lot of folks may want to sell but they can't. there is one glaring exception to all of this. miami. which has the opposite problem. t

diana olick now on what's behind the surge in remodelling. >> reporter: rising home give more confidence to invest in their properties. >> as soon as we see the housing market recover, people get confident. not only they tackle the renovations they want to but address the maintenance it needs as well. >> reporter: project large and small small. w more projects more proposals out than ever before. >> reporter: matt is seeing a steady business ahead but smaller growth in less expensive homes. >> i think the reason why we're seeing the increase in the lower end is because people are feeling more confident in the economy, more confident in their spending ability, more confident in making investments in their homes. >> reporter: while full recovery and residential construction is many years away the home improvement industry could post record level spending in 2015 according to harvard's joint center for housing. remodelling building permits rose 6% in january month to month according to build facts. why? people who didn't move because of the housing bust are now improving their current homes

diana olick reports. >> reporter: wicked weather may be battering much of the nation today, but there is a more perfect storm going on in the mortgage market. falling interest rates and a big drop in the cost of government-backed loans. that could mean big savings for borrowers. unfortunately, one-third of u.s. borrowers don't even know their mortgage rate. >> what is your mortgage rate? >> it's 2.7% i think. it's a 15-year. >> reporter: 2.7%? you're sure? >> it's in the high 2s. >> reporter: what is your mortgage rate? >> 4%. >> reporter: are you sure? >> something like that. >> reporter: are you sure of the exact rate? >> no i'm not sure of the exact rate. >> reporter: lenders say the process of buying a home is so stressful the borrowers focus on the monthly payment and not the rate that gets them to that payment. >> it's really kind of a traumatic experience to sign all those papers then you go home you probably just toss that pile somewhere, it ends up in a file folder somewhere maybe. and then yeah you don't know where it is. >> reporter: but given the dynamic changes going on i

for "nightly business report," i'm diana olick in washington. >>> still ahead, two companies in the news this week are two stocks monitors suggest you buy. we'll talk about why up next. >>> former aig ceo ben moeshay died today, undergoing treatment for lung cancer. he was the ceo from august of 2009 until last september. hoping to steer the company back to profitability after the financial crisis. he was 70 years old. >>> a lawsuit filed against apple and that's where we begin tonight's market focus. ericson is alleging apple infringed on its pa tens and asked the international trade commission to block apple products in the u.s. apple filed a complaint against ericson last month. ericson up a month to $12.93 and apple, 1.5% to $128.46, the downside there. purchased 4 million of shares of the stock. the ceo paid about $25 million for the shares. purchased at average price of $4.92. shares sprinted to $5.12. >> monster beverage after reacting to the energy drink's strong earnings to continuing international sales growth. monster also said that it and coca-cola have expanded some aspects

diana olick has more. >> reporter: david hopkins sold his houston-area home last fall for top dollar. he says he timed the market just right. >> i feel really glad. i'm like that guy that sold his oil company last year. he's feeling pretty good too. i feel the same way. >> reporter: both home sales and prices hit record levels in houston last year fueled by a booming energy sector. with oil prices now cut in half houston is already losing jobs. the primary driver for housing. >> now that oil prices are down things haven't completely changed but let's just say that things have come to more a stall. >> reporter: it will take significant time for the drop in oil prices to trickle down to houston's housing market. in previous oil downturns, it's taken eight months to two years for job losses to factor into home prices but all eyes are on houston now with the oil industry accounting for about 5.6% of its jobs. this especially because it was the nation's hottest housing market barely a year ago and is still growing. single family houston home sales jumped 6% in january from a year ago and p

for "nightly business report," i'm diana olick in washington. >> one city that has a red hot residential real estate market is san francisco. as our josh lipton reports, the commercial real estate market in the city is also booming big time. >> reporter: the red hot residential real estate market in silicon valley might attract all the headlines, but the commercial real estate market in san francisco also is booming. just take a look at the city's skyline, which is now dotted with cranes. between 2009 and 2011 the city issued just 13 permits. between 2012 and today, the count's back to 87. those cranes are used to develop office buildings where asking rents now average $63 per square foot. more than double the national average according to jones langlafoun a real estate company. prices skyrocketed nearly 90%. when prices surge that quickly, some might worry that a bubble is developing in this market but real estate developers in san francisco strongly disagree. >> we believe in this market having long long-term legs. we don't believe silicon valley is going away or san francisco is going

we begin with diana olick in miami. >> reporter: soaring past the tallest towers on the miami skyline, sky rise which exists so far in virtual reality, is the talk of the town. and not just this town. investors as far away as dubai are eager to get in on the $400 million project hoping to buy u.s. citizenship through a federal jobs program known as eb 5. >> it becomes a very shortcut approach for the potential immigration investor to get the green card. all they have to do is get source vetted by family. >> reporter: requires each individual to invest $500,000 in a project that creates at least four full-time jobs. sky rise has been given eb 5 status. >> this investment is not going to give a huge return for the investor in terms of any sort of gains or margins, anything like that. the greatest return for these investors is their ability to get a green card. >> reporter: shea's a main and malik are venture cap lists investing in eb 5. >> i think the biggest risk is this tower, the structure they're making is dependent on tourism. >> reporter: birk wits said he expects the nightclub, r

diana olick is down in miami with the details.ce there diana. >> it is so nice here, tyler. rising out of this parking lot on public land at an estimated cost of $430 million, this 1,000-foot tower that's taller than those condos over there, is being compared to the statue of liberty because it will both welcome tourists to the city of miami and also offer u.s. citizenship to foreigners, that is foreigners who have $500,000 to spend. skyrise miami is the brain child of developer jeff berkowitz. it is stunning at least in virtual form with a sky drop ride where you can fall at 95 miles per hour along with about 11 of your best friends. it has a bungee jump-like base jump and a viewing platform that dangles you over the city. miami-dade has put $9 million into it. berkowitz has put in 30 million of his own. the rest is from investors using the ecb-5 program to get a green card to buy into this tower. a minimum of $500,000 is required. critics say this tower will never generate enough tourist dollars to pay investors back and it coul

diana olick will tell us whether the late comedienne's fame will help or hurt a sale. startup-ny.ng for new york state. already 55 companies are investing over $98 million dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. from long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. they are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. and with over 300 locations, and 3.7 million square feet available, there's a place that's right for your business. see if startup-ny can work for you. go to startup.ny.gov. . >>> in her stand up act joan rivers would ask, can we talk? her condo is now up for sale for a cool 28 million dollar. diana olick has been going room to room and will tell us what she saw in new york city. >> reporter: we all know that joan rivers was the ultimate entertainer, not just in public but here in her grand penthouse. the guests could include martha stewart, nancy reagan regis philbin philbin. today, these grand rooms go on sale for $28 million. that's four bedrooms four and a half bathrooms, two tarerraces and five working fireplaces. t

diana olick this afternoon or that incredible project.usy week for earnings and the momentum pushes into tomorrow. we'll hear from twitter, go pro and linked in. the panel with what they are expecting and what they're watching tomorrow when we come back. closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review. >>> welcome back. an earnings update for you, 21th century fox is trending lower after posting their results. >> on the earnings call the company announced it is lowering its guidance for 2015 to the lower end of the mid single digit range before the guidance was to grow in the high single digit percentages. chase carry saying there are two issues foreign currency and broadcast advertising, a short fall that was too big to offse

diana olick. at joan rivers' house. >> yes. joan rivers.ins. >> it's very confusing. >> let's send it to john ford and find out what's coming up in six minutes time. >> we're going to talk grammys. the intersection of social and broadcast. lots of interesting fodder there. can you believe it's been ten years for google maps? it seemed crazy at the time but it's turned out to be a really astute investment. and finally fast company's most innovative company of the year. we'll let you in for a closer look coming up on "squawk alley." about, say organic food stocks schwab can help. with a trading specialist just a tap away. what's on your mind lisa? i'd like to talk about a trade idea. let's hear it. [ male announcer ] see how schwab can help light a way forward. so you can make your move wherever you are. and start working on your next big idea. ♪ ♪ why do we do it? why do we spend every waking moment, thinking about people? why are we so committed to keeping you connected? why combine performance with a conscience? why innovate for a future w

. >>> to diana olick in d.c.rl home builder sentiment down 2 points to 55 on the national association of home builders monthly sentiment index. 50 the line between positive and negative. the positive still but builders blaming all of this rough winter weather on the february drop. we are better than february of last year, when sentiment stood at 46. the builders saying quote, downturn attributeable to the unusually high snow levels across the nation. the different index's components sales conditions down, traffic, down 5 points to 39. sales expectations flat staying in the positive territory at 60. we had a crew out in maryland saturday, five hours, one potential buyer came through that open house. that's your buyer traffic going on in much of the nation due to the harsh weather. remember, last year, though at start of the spring season presidents' day weekend, officially the start of the spring housing season we blamed it on cold weather but it turned out that slowdown went right through to the summer. it was be

to see what the read is on pending home sales from our expert diana olick. >> well rick thanks.up 1.7% in january, month to month, up 8.4% year-over-year, ard coming to the realtors. the fifth straight month of gains and highest level of pending home sales since august. street looking for up 2%. pending home sales are signed contracts in january that are future indicator of closed sales that we'll see in february and march. now the realtors are saying this is increasing even due to very tight inventory but express concern about rising home prices. the chief economist says if we start to see double digit price gains again, that's going to hurt the spring market. locally, northeast pending sales up 0.1% midwest west down 0.7%. south, up 3.2%. in the west up 2.2%. one good sign investors moving out, so there's not so much competition for first time buyers. also all cash sales are dropping. if you miss the numbers i put them on line for you. >> a beautiful day in d.c. thank you. diana olick with the housing data. >>> markets off lows, down 25 points on the dow but in the red in the

diana olick cnbc washington. >>> now nbc 10 first alert weather with chief meteorologist glenn "hurricane" schwartz. >> the important number in weather today and tonight is the temperature and the threat of some icing as a result of some of these temperatures going below freezing. so we have a first alert weather day today and into tonight for untreated surfaces getting icy. more freezing rain and sleet coming later today and tonight and some icing threats tonight as well. now, a lot of roads are dry right now. the precipitation is not widespread. it's not heavy. but that temperature is now moving 31 degrees, northeast 16 miles an hour. the windchill is 20. we have that northeast wind brought some of that cold air from new england down. so that's why we are watching this very closely. can you see chester springs, kennett square trenton, all 28 decreases, well below freezing mark. untreated surfaces especially sidewalks, driveways, side roads will be icy. 29 in washington township and 27 in quakertown 26 in doylestown. right at the freezing mark in central and northern delaware. some of th

diana olick, what happened. sho term blip or what is going on?ere's bigger issues at play than a blip and i'm talking about inventory. we're not seeing enough new listings coming on the market. granted, today's report showing an unexpectedly steep 4.9% drop in sales month to month. it's a big backward looking based on contracts signed in december. real tors are warning about supply after 16 months of inventory gains. we have two straight mons months of losses. sales were worst in the west where there's no cold issues. that's where the supplies are falling. california las vegas, denver all with fewer homes for sale this january. even moving east in texas and chicago, not much for buyers to choose from. miami is a little bit of the outlier. we have talked about overbuilding especially in the condo market there. new york is better boston not so much. so why are people not listing their homes? it could be that they just can't afford to move up. home prices have started to increase in larger gains again up 6.2% in january from a year ago. and that's a

reality check.cnbc.com. >> thank you diana olick.brad freelander, co-founder of angel capital. this will be interesting. welcome. we want to talk to you about the dynamics, in yes drum roll please, subprime. talk to us. subprime is making a comeback? what is that doing to the housing market or not doing as today's data suggests? >> thanks kelly. subprime as many knew it or with the negative connotations associated with it is not back necessarily. what is back is a gradual expansion of credit to deserving borrowers. you're beginning to see that happen once again. the pendulum had once overswung and now it's beginning to normalize. i think that warrants attention. the only thing i would say is we speak and you hear about income inequality in the united states. barriers to the american dream. and here you're beginning to have now a capital market's response, a free market response, and a solution to that. so i think that's good to see, an expansion of credit. very gradual and in the very very early beginning stages now, but it's a good

diana olick in washington. diana. >> this is a great number.ound like a big move but to be where we were when we had the big jump in december, even with revisions, it's a great number. the good news is that month's supply hasn't gone down too much. we've seen a very, very tight market in inventory on existing and new homes. these are signed contracts in january. so unlike existing homes which are backward looking to contracts in november, december these are shoppers out in january putting their name on the dotted line to buy a newly built home. one issue, though price. the median price of a new by lilt built home up 9.1% that's a big price premium for existing homes and that's a sticking issue in the market today, price have started accelerating after a year of shrinking price gains. that hits affordability, first time home buyers. you want to see that chain moving up. that is people selling existing homes to move up into more expensive homes, possibly newly built homes. we saw toll brothers do well on the high end. on the low end we need more

our own diana olick is escaping the cold live down there.morning, carl. it may be warm but it's pouring rain outside which is why we're coming from the sales center of polatz dell sol. the new construction on fisher island in seven years. one tower started, another topped off and the penthouse in that one, under crack for $35 million. now while fisher island has always been the most elite land in the miami area an island unto itself in every sense, it is facing a city skyline suddenly challenged by a changing world economy. miami wept from boom to bust to a relatively fast recovery all thanks to mighty foreign cash. now that cash isn't as valuable as it once was. >> unfortunately, what we're finding in the last year is all our key buying powers whether from argentina, venezuela, colombia brazil russia all the currencies are falling against the dollar. the foreign buyer who saved us last go around still present, but not as prevalent as they had been. >> still, the condos are going up. 325 south florida towers are planned according, over 41,00

we have diana olick here with that story for us. >> bill believe it or not, realtors actually considereekend to be the real kickoff to the spring market so we're in it but so far not so good. take a look. mortgage interest rates rose to their highest level last week since early january. the 30-year fixed at 3.93%. still under 4%, but even at that historically low levels, applications to purchase a home dropped 7%. they're barely 1% higher than a year ago. rates move higher yesterday, so what does that mean in real cash money? a borrower taking out a $200,000 day would have to pay just $42 more a month than they would have if they bought on january 1st. now, that might not seem like a lot, but it gets higher the bigger the loan and homes are still getting ever pricier. why? because there is just so little supply of homes for sale nationwide and the builders are not helping. single family housing starts fell 6.7% in january month to month. they're running at about half the level of 2000. that's prehousing boom and that's not even adjusting for population growth. so the big hope is that a

second was diana olick's piece based on a bank rate survey of 1,000 homeowners and a third of them don't know what their mortgage rate is which is kind of disturbing. the theory there is more people focus on their monthly payment and they sort of forget what the mortgage rate is. folks, that's what determines the monthly payment. it's kind of a crucial number. >> you hope their bank at some point would call them and tell them and say, look you can refinance. it generates income for them as well. >> exactly. anyway, it's the state of things. finally katy little and her staff has been following the mcdonald's beat. got a memo from one of the franchisees telling the counter people saying do you want fries with that but don't say do you want salad with that. apparently they don't want to push the salad. >> can i ask one question? on the obama budget with the tacks on the foreign earnings what's the split? is it 50/50, 60/40? >> actually our audience tends to skew a little bit more on the republican side, so a lot of the commenters are pointing up same old tired arguments, same sort of, you k

diana olick joins us with the details. >> home prices are rising faster again, and that's a road blocks. but for homeowners rising prices make them more confident about the value of their homes and in turn more willing to invest in them again. especially if they can't afford to move. while full recovery in residential construction is many years ago, the home improvement industry could post record level spending in 2015 according to harvard's joint center for housing. there you go. home depot and lowe's. remodeling building permits are up 6% in january month to month. that from whether facts. why? first, people who didn't move because of the housing bust are now improving their current homes, maybe even preparing them to sell. we're also seeing people do maintenance now that they deferred during the penny pinching recession. then there are also new federal and state simtimulus programs for energy efficient upgrades and finally the surge in rental demand has investors reinvesting in their assets to attract new and better tenants. discretionary products that make your house prettier and m

diana olick is there with a special look. >> joan rivers famously said, this is what marie antoinettemere $28 million, this home, unique to say the least, can be yours. it goes on the market today, ballroom and all. now, the penthouse is as candid and colorful as the comedienne herself. four bedrooms, four and a half baths. it's had a lot of work done. once a gilded age limestone mansion, it was converted to condos in the 1930s, but just an exclusive nine units. it spans three floors 5,000 square feet two kitchens staff quarters, and five fireplaces. but the real glamour, of course is in the entertainment spaces. i mean how could it not be? incredible parties thrown here. she had a salon, a grand ballroom. it's kind of like if these walls could talk. now, of course celebrity status always affects the property values for better or for worse, depending on the circumstances. and while joan rivers' tragic death does hang heavy in these walls, the family would like potential buyers to think of this as a place of humor and celebration. becky? >> all right diana, i couldn't have said it bett