Bank of America Corp. announced that it restarted nearly 16,000 foreclosure cases last week, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The bank’s foreclosure attorneys prepared 7,800 new affidavits for cases in states the require court approval for foreclosures, and lifted holds on 8,000 cases in states that do not need court approval. The bank froze 102,000 foreclosure sales earlier this year.

The residential market’s “shadow inventory” is up more than 10 percent from a year ago, according to real-estate research firm CoreLogic. That puts overall inventory at more than 6.3 million unsold homes on the market, nearly a third of which are so-called shadow inventory or “pending supply” — those homes that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure, or being held off the market by banks or other investors.

Housing affordability remained near its highest level nationwide for the seventh consecutive quarter

For full-service remodelers it’s rare that a single marketing tool generates leads by itself. Over time an accumulation of good impressions — from referrals to classy promotion pieces to a good website and a healthy crop of job signs — makes the point that your company is reliable and does good work.

Some remodelers have been known to take an adversarial, lowest-price-is-best mentality when it comes to dealing with their trade partners. They still view trade contractors as subcontractors. The good news is that most of these ultimately fail in business before too long.

There are huge successes as the remodeling market rebounds. Craig Durosko share some of what he is seeing.

IHS Global, a firm specializing in economic and financial information, predicts that construction spending in 2011 will be flat, according to its Fourth Quarter U.S. Construction Briefing. Although overall spending fell 8.3 percent in 2010, the report predicts that gains in the residential and commercial sectors will help it level.

NAHB Research Center is helping remodelers and builders find ways to incorporate smart practices

Beyond the next few years, there are several reasons to be optimistic about the long-term outlook for the remodeling market, with demographics and an…

While challenges persist, remodelers are more optimistic about the 2011 remodeling market than they’ve been since the housing boom.