California

Sonoma County supervisors have signed off on a wide-ranging suite of policy changes intended to encourage construction of more new homes seven months after nearly 5,300 residences were lost here in last year's devastating wildfires.

Wells Fargo must pay $97 million to home mortgage consultants and private mortgage bankers in California who didn't get the breaks they were entitled to under the state's stringent labor laws.

California is set to become the first state to require solar panels on all newly built single-family houses.

California lost lower-income residents to other states over a recent 11-year period, while gaining wealthier households from elsewhere in the U.S. The disparity reflects the state's sky-high rents and home prices.

The same story is playing out, over and over: People are flocking to the Bay Area for high-skilled, highly paid jobs, while cashiers and teachers are, increasingly, saying goodbye to a place they no longer can afford.

Los Angeles County and Inland Empire home prices grew at the fastest pace in three years in March, yet another sign that the local housing market is maintaining its punch for a seventh consecutive year.

There is a minimal risk of another housing bubble developing in Southern California, even as there is just a slim chance area home prices will fall in the next two years.

The lower end of Santa Cruz's downtown, a major gateway to the city's commercial core, is beginning to see some of the attention its busier north end has enjoyed to date.

Homes worth $1 million or more this year continue to generate the biggest growth in residential sales for Sonoma County, Calif., even as the number of purchases keep falling in the less expensive portion of the market.

For decades, the single-family house surrounded by a white picket fence has symbolized the American dream of home ownership.

Fierce competition for a limited number of homes pushed house prices higher in March, with Southern California homebuyers paying the highest median prices in more than a decade.

A sweeping bill that would have given the state unprecedented power over local development failed in its first committee hearing, crushing the hopes of those who saw it as the key to making housing in the state more affordable.

As the state's costliest housing markets and high rents threaten to force all but the highest-paid workers into ever-longer commutes, California lawmakers have introduced a bill to help more teachers, firefighters and other middle-income workers live close to their jobs.

New residents to the Bay Area are earning far more than the people they're chasing out, a new report says, pushing up home prices and highlighting the gap between owners and renters in Silicon Valley.

Louise Juracek, a broker associate at Coldwell Banker Preferred Realtors in Bakersfield, Calif., sells 130 to 150 houses a year.

The new federal budget approved this month boosted tax credits for corporations that help finance low-cost housing but the move is unlikely to help a long-stalled 63-unit affordable housing project with a $5 million funding gap.

The median price of a Marin home rose to $885,750 in February, an 8.7% increase over the $815,000 median a year earlier.

Heads of a large real estate investment company with offices in Alaska and California have agreed to pay $3 million in fines for what a federal agency says was a scheme to "bilk" hundreds of investors out of millions of dollars.

San Diego County home prices jumped 8.6% in February compared to a year ago, while sales remained tight as the region struggles with a shortage of homes for sale.

Southern California home prices continued galloping upward at double-digit rates in February amid a lopsided mismatch between the number of buyers and sellers.