First-time buyers taking advantage of a special tax credit gave sales of existing homes their biggest surge in a decade, raising hopes for a turnaround in the housing market. While rising foreclosures and disappearing jobs still threaten the comeback, there are now bidding wars for houses in some cities, and home sales are nearly 36 percent above their low point in January.

The Obama administration’s mortgage-relief program has reached one in five eligible homeowners, a government report says, but most of those borrowers are on temporary trial plans that have yet to be made final. As of the end of October, more than 650,000 borrowers, or 20 percent of those eligible for the “Making Home Affordable” program, had signed up for trials lasting up to five months, the Treasury Department said yesterday. The modifications reduce monthly payments to more affordable levels.

Moseley Architects’ reserved parking spaces aren’t for mothers with young children. They’re for people who drive fuel-efficient cars. The Richmond firm is all about energy efficiency. It used green building techniques to renovate a contaminated garage as long as a football field into its headquarters. The soot was so thick in the barrel-vaulted structure that wood ceilings, 28 feet high at the apex, had to be blasted, but not with sand. Sand would have damaged the wood, so peanut and walnut shells were used.

The Richmond area is out of the top-100 cities with the highest foreclosure rates in the country in the third quarter, according to a report being released this morning. It was No. 101 on a list of 203 metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more studied by RealtyTrac, an online researcher. In all, 2,215 households, or one in every 230 households—0.44 percent of people with mortgages in the Richmond area—received a foreclosure filing from July through September.

U.S. total: 937,840 borrowers, one in every 136 households, up 22.5 percent
  Las Vegas, Paradise, Nev.: No. 1, 40,408 borrowers, one in every 20 households, up 53.62 percent
  Washington, Arlington, Alexandria: No. 46; 19,318 borrowers, one in every 110 households, up 9.25 percent
  Richmond: No. 101; 2,215 borrowers, one in every 230 households, up 89.97 percent

China is helping American officials investigate reports of contaminated Chinese drywall after thousands of American homeowners complained the building material made them sick or damaged their houses, a top U.S. safety official said yesterday. Consumer Products Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said that her Chinese counterparts have provided technical help and are working with the U.S. to determine the cause of the problem.

The housing market in Virginia, including the Richmond area, has steadily improved this year and prices are stabilizing in some areas—but not yet here, the Virginia Association of Realtors reported yesterday. Sales rose in 14 of 26 areas in Virginia in the third quarter from the same period a year ago, the report said. But prices fell in 17 regions, including the Richmond area, where prices dropped nearly 12 percent from a year ago.

Scott & Stringfellow will move from East Main Street, where the venerable brokerage has been for 105 years, to Riverfront Plaza, taking blocks of empty space once occupied by Wachovia Securities.

The annual Parade of Homes showcases new homes by builders in the Richmond and Tri-Cities area. The work of 36 builders will be open for viewing the next three weekends from noon to 5 p.m.

Prospect Homes of Richmond Inc., a large homebuilder that filed for bankruptcy protection last week, fell victim to the ailing housing industry and the liquidity crises facing the nation. The entire mortgage market froze last year, the president of the company said in papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. “After several years of growing revenues and record profits, the residential homebuilding industry took a severe downward turn in 2007, which continues through today,“ Joseph R. Audi said in a sworn statement.

Boat slips within view of the downtown skyline are available now for lease at the Village at Rocketts Landing. After Rocketts residents took the first 15 slots in the first two weeks, the marina’s other 25 boat slips on the James River are now available to anyone, said Jason Vickers-Smith, vice president for WVS, developer of the property.

Foreclosures in Virginia continue to rise from a year ago, but the rate here is better than it is nationally. One in every 567 Virginia households, or a total of 5,694, received a foreclosure filing in November, according to a RealtyTrac report released today. By comparison, one in every 488 U.S. households receiving a filing. Filings include notices of default, trustee sales and foreclosure sales, according to the online database.

Homes in the Richmond area continue to sell as the housing slump lingers nationwide. But the market here has slowed as well and prices are falling, although not as sharply as in other areas.