Real Estate News – May 9, 2011

The housing market in the Twin Cities continues to decline with nearly half of all mortgage holders underwater on their home loan. Home prices continued to plummet in the first quarter, faring significantly worse than the national average (via StarTribune.com): http://bit.ly/lxFCo8

A real estate agent in New Zealand who claimed his sellers were “ecstatic” with his services when they really weren’t now faces some backlash (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/m16T5a

Minnesota law gives back cities’ power on variances (via TwinCities.com): http://bit.ly/jxHNDc NOTE:  for more information on the Minnesota Supreme Court decision which necessitated this law change, click here.

Orange County ‘Housewife’ Sues to Stop Foreclosure (via blogs.WSJ.com): http://on.wsj.com/iibEpo

Twin Cities home values fell 15 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to a median of $159,000. That’s according to a Zillow report released today predicting that the housing market will bottom out next year at the earliest (via TwinCities.com): http://bit.ly/kfKyBw

A group of mortgage bond investors is reaching out for help in a novel bid to force H&R Block Inc’s defunct subprime lending unit to buy back billions of dollars in soured mortgages (via Reuters.com): http://reut.rs/kESkOa