Karl Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index, discusses the U.S. housing market. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values increased 4.6 percent in May from the same month a year ago, marking the biggest year-over-year gain since August 2006, the group said today in New York. Case talks with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt on Bloomberg Radio’s ‘Bloomberg Surveillance’ (This report is an excerpt of the full interview. Source: Bloomberg)

About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade.

The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, rose from 18.6 million in the year-earlier quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The ownership rate, meaning households that own their own residence, was 66.9 percent, the lowest since 1999.

Lenders are accelerating foreclosures as borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments after the worst housing crash since the Great Depression. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Foreclosures probably will top 1 million this year, the Irvine, California- based data company said in a July […]