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With temperatures headed for the high 90s in Michigan this week, Consumers Energy is offering information to help businesses and households manage their energy use while still staying cool and safe.

President Obama is committed to ensuring that every American family can choose to go solar and to cut their energy bills – and that every American community has the tools they need to tackle local air pollution and global climate change.

Nationwide housing starts rose 4.8 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.19 million units, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Commerce Department. Overall permit issuance increased 1.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.15 million.

REALTORS® Land Institute member Bob King, ALC, Owner/Broker, United Country Land & Lifestyle Realty in Anderson, South Carolina, stated that “Timberland prices will be trending upward as an increase in new home construction drives up softwood sawtimber prices. Timberland prices will also be rising as more recreational land buyers come back into the market.”

Federal homelessness programs are vital, but not sufficient, to achieve the goal of ending homelessness for all Americans. We must enlist federal, state, and local "mainstream" programs that serve low-income people, like TANF, Medicaid, and Housing Choice Vouchers, in our efforts to end homelessness. The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has released a guide to better coordinate such resources.

33, of Santa Ana, Calif., was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport to 112 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for heading a mortgage loan modification scheme that defrauded more than 1,000 struggling homeowners across the United States.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) released an analysis of home purchase lending in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and the surrounding areas. The analysis reveals racial and income disparities in mortgage lending in all three cities.

Consumers Energy announced today it is expanding a program that provides free energy assessments and plans to reduce energy use for small businesses in Ingham, Jackson and Eaton counties. Already, the program has helped over 5,300 businesses in Kent County to use less energy and lower their costs.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $75 million to help families living in public housing and those participating in HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program connect with services to further their education, find good jobs, and to set them on a path to self-sufficiency. Read more about the local impact of the grants announced today.

Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes in July fell one point to 59 from a June reading of 60 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) released today

The VA National Center on Homelessness Among Veterans has released a report on the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (H-PACT) model. H-PACT is a multi-disciplinary, population-based medical home model organized around the unique challenges homeless veterans face accessing and engaging in care. The H-PACT model addresses the multiple medical and social needs of these veterans in one setting by incorporating five core elements that distinguish it from traditional primary care models

On July 13, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the First-Time Homebuyer Credit Act of 2016, S. 3175, which would provide a refundable tax credit for first-time home buyers, subject to the purchase price and income limits described below.

Over the past several months, national outrage around Flint, Michigan’s, water crisis has increased attention on the critical issue of childhood lead poisoning. Decades after ending the use of lead in paint and other sources, lead poisoning remains one of the nation’s most devastating health threats, affecting more than 535,000 children each year—particularly in low-income communities. Such exposure diminishes children’s reading and learning abilities and increases their likelihood of dropping out of school.

Statement from the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) released in response to the passage of “The Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act” in Congress

The U.S. Senate tonight passed H.R. 3700, the "Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act," by unanimous consent. This legislation includes reforms to current Federal Housing Administration restrictions on condominium financing, among other provisions, and is long supported by the National Association of Realtors

Granger MacDonald, first vice chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and tax credit developer from Kerrville, Texas, today issued the following statement regarding legislation introduced by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

The House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing July 13 to examine recent changes HUD made in its Distressed Asset Stabilization Program ("DASP"), which pools delinquent Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured single-family loans and sells them to investors, subject to requirements designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure while boosting HUD's Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund.

Many of America’s critical infrastructure assets have come to the end of their useful life and need major repairs or reconstruction. Additionally, over the next 50 years, the United States will add nearly 100 million people, requiring system expansion in order to meet growing demand for mobility, clean water, and flood control, to name only a few areas. Yet, for too long, Congress has failed to provide robust funding to meet our national needs. This has left state and local governments without a strong federal partner

With the falling cost of consumer renewable energy sources such as distributed solar, more and more Americans are generating their own electricity and selling it back to the grid—a process known as net energy metering. However, as net metering has increased the amount of distributed solar deployed, utilities, policymakers, and consumers have debated how to pay for services provided by these distributed energy resources and the grid