The Federal Reserve released a new interim rule on home appraisals that helps to clarify the home appraisal process. Under the guidelines, home builders may ask appraisers to consider additional information about the property being appraised, including information about comparable properties.

After three years of decline in the market, remodeling is poised for a comeback in 2011, according to the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies

Former White House housing finance issue adviser Peter Swire proposed that senior bank officials personally vouch for the quality of their banks’ mortgage documentation process. Swire, now a law professor at Ohio State University, based his proposal on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which required certain disclosures to restore faith in financial statements after the Enron and WorldCom scandals.

A new look at housing starts based on data from the Census Bureau finds that single-family homes in the U.S. continued to get smaller last year, and the downward trend is likely to last significantly beyond the end of the recession. From a peak of 2,268 square feet in 2006, the median size of new single-family homes dropped consistently through last year, when the size was down to an even 2,100, according to NAHB.

SolarCity, the largest residential solar power provider in California, is now the first such company to offer home energy efficiency improvements as well, according to a report by Fast Company. Under company’s Home TuneUp program, solar lease customers will get a home efficiency evaluation and a package of energy-related home improvements. During the program’s two-month roll out period, simple repairs, such as duct leaks, programmable thermostats and energy-efficient lights will be free, and can be installed on the same day as solar installation (SolarCity still will charge for parts). Larger improvements, such as new HVAC systems, also will be a part of the program, but will take place separately from solar installations.

A settlement was reached last week for some of the homeowners who filed suit against a Chinese manufacturers over faulty drywall. A New Orleans federal judge signed off on the settlement, in which Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Company agreed to pay repair and relocation costs for 300 homeowners in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) is planning to observe National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week to raise awareness on the dangers of lead, according to a press release on the NARI website. The event will take place Oct. 24 to 30, and this year’s theme is “Lead-Free Kids for a Healthy Future.”

A coalition of state attorneys general this week announced that they will be launching an investigation into the mortgage servicing industry, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal. The decision was made due to the recent allegations of fraudulent documents and “robo-signers,” workers who allegedly signed foreclosure documents without reading them.

Our exclusive annual report on the industry’s leaders shows even the largest companies are feeling the crunch

The mix-and-match approach to home siding is still popular, and manufacturers are
offering new ways to meet consumer demand