After hard winter, U.S. housing industry sees signs of pickup

But after the snowiest winter on record for the U.S. Midwestern city, prospective home buyers were champing at the bit: 45 people came to an open house late last month, according to mortgage executive Greg Block. "The realtor was dumbfounded," said Block, vice president of lending at Austin, Texas-based Open Mortgages, which has branches near Indianapolis. As much of the United States thaws out from a particularly frigid winter, signs are also pointing to a warmer national housing market. Anecdotal evidence from homebuilders, mortgage lenders and brokers suggest demand in the residential housing market is picking up, potentially paving the way for a broader acceleration in an economy that has been in a slow-growth mode since pulling out of the financial crisis.

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