Terabitz.com, which launched last month, is a customizable real estate Web site where users can store and share property listings and neighborhood information, such as schools, crime and safety statistics, restaurants and hospitals.The site includes Multiple Listing Service, Craigslist and Google home listings. Homebuyers can also set up the site to include financial tools, such as mortgage calculators, and weather and demographic information about a community, among other features.

America’s homeownership rate fell for the third time in a row to 68.2 percent for the second quarter 2007, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.That’s the lowest it has been since the first quarter 2003 when homeownership stood at 68 percent. That rate has steadily declined since the third quarter 2006 when it was at 69 percent.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently released its annual "State of the Nation’s Housing" study. The report puts Phoenix on top of the list of major metropolitan markets that are likely to emerge first from their excess inventory troubles.Markets where employment growth remained robust and builders made quick and dramatic production cuts are likely to see a housing market turnaround first, despite staggering drops in housing starts and building permits.Phoenix experienced a 29 percent drop in housing permits last year, while job growth rose 6 percent, the study shows. It also sites Las Vegas as a place with similar conditions conducive to a quick recovery.Read the full report here.

A report released last week ranked Arizona No. 8 in the country for foreclosure filings. The state had more than 27,000 filings in the first half of 2007 — a 118 percent increase from the first six months of last year, according to research firm RealtyTrac. Check out the breakdown by county.

The national housing market showed some signs of life in June with contract signings for homes up 5 percent from the month before — the largest gain in more than three years, according to the National Association of Realtors.Pending home sales are still 8.6 percent below the pace seen in June 2006. But pending sales did jump in all four regions with the West seeing the biggest increase at 8.6 percent, a report released Wednesday by the association shows.The group’s senior economist, Lawrence Yun, said in a statement that the rise is encouraging, but "it is too early to say if home sales already passed bottom."Also in June, pending sales rose 3.1 percent in the Northeast, 4.7 percent in the South and 3.5 percent in the Midwest.