Bloomberg Consumer confidence hit a fresh high this year as the number of Canadians expecting a decline in real-estate prices dropped, telephone polling shows. The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index rose to 57.9 from 57.8 a week earlier, reaching the highest level since November. The gain was driven by increased housing optimism: the difference between the share of those ...

  Bloomberg Foreigners buying homes in Sydney will face a new property tax from next week when New South Wales becomes the second state in Australia to impose such a duty as soaring demand from China helps drive record prices. Australia’s most populous state plans to introduce a 4 percent stamp duty surcharge from June 21 and from next year ...

  TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ratcheted up the pressure on housing officials across the country to do what has rarely been done in Houston: build affordable homes in well-off neighbourhoods. That is proving to be easier said than done. The court warned that concentrating public housing in low-income, high-minority neighborhoods could violate the Fair ...