Mecklenburg Times: News for Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties Real Estate, Development, Construction, and Community News in the Charlotte area and throughout Mecklenburg, Union and Iredell counties

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence in September rose to the highest level in nine years, a hopeful sign that economic growth will accelerate in coming months. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 104.1, ...

Tagged with: consumer confidence

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Myrtle Beach area leaders want the federal government to move forward with beach rebuilding projects on the Grand Strand next year instead of waiting until 2018. The beaches are the heart of South Carolina’s $19 ...

Tagged with: Myrtle Beach

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes retreated in August, one month after surging to the highest level in nearly nine years. Activity fell in all regions of the country except the West. New home sales dropped 7.6 percent last ...

Tagged with: new home sales

WASHINGTON (AP) — From the outside, the housing market looks solid: Sales are climbing. So are prices. Mortgage rates are near historic lows. But the picture gets more complicated the deeper you dig into the data. U.S. home ownership rates ...

Tagged with: mortgage

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans retreated from home-buying in August, as a worsening inventory shortage appears to be hurting sales and pushing prices higher. However, the Charlotte region bucked that trend, according to data released recently by the Charlotte Regional Realtor ...

Tagged with: US Home Sales

WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged lower this week. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac says the average for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined to 3.48 percent from 3.50 percent last week. The benchmark rate is down from 3.86 percent ...

Tagged with: 30-year home mortgage rate

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi city has agreed to stop trying to zone 2,400 apartments out of existence after federal officials alleged the move was discrimination because it would uproot African American and Hispanic tenants. The city of Ridgeland’s ...

Tagged with: Apartments

WASHINGTON (AP) — Janet Yellen’s Federal Reserve has demonstrated one of the core tenets of central banking: On the Fed panel that sets interest rates, some votes are more equal than others. The panel — the Federal Open Market Committee ...

Tagged with: Federal Reserve

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is keeping its key interest rate unchanged but signaling that it will likely raise rates before year’s end. The Fed said in a statement ending its latest policy meeting Wednesday that the U.S. job ...

Tagged with: Federal Reserve

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Hilton Head Island leaders plan to annex a nearby island where an international developer plans a luxury resort. The Island Packet of Hilton Head reports that the town council agreed Tuesday to begin the ...

Tagged with: Hilton Head