Realtors and those associated with the real estate industry may claim the Jacksonville housing market has been on a bit of a slide. However, according to a report recently issued by the Duval County Property Appraiser, things are actually going very well the past 10 years.

And, there’s no indication the future isn’t bright.

“Jacksonville has a very resilient real estate market,” said Property Appraiser Jim Overton. “The activity may have slowed some, but the prices have not slowed down much. The median price of a home has fallen only slightly.”

Sales of new homes in the United States probably rebounded in February from a three-year low, a sign the worst of the real estate rout has passed.Purchases rose to an annual pace of 990,000, up 5.7 percent from January, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed ahead of a Commerce Department report today. The National Association of Realtors last week said sales of previously owned homes rose by the most in three years.

CHICAGO — If there were a Hall of Fame for real estate investors, Sam Zell would be a certain first-ballot inductee.

The Grave Dancer, as he long ago dubbed himself for his ability to revive moribund properties, has had a golden touch with real estate ever since he got his start managing apartment buildings as a college undergrad. The blockbuster sale of Equity Office Properties Trust last month, which netted Zell about $1 billion, only enhanced that legend.

But it shouldn’t surprise anyone if the 65-year-old magnate adds a giant newspaper and TV company like Tribune Co. to his holdings. The stable of companies he chairs or is the major shareholder in already do everything from run supermarkets in Brazil and sell and grow wine in Chile to create an oil company in Kuwait, convert waste to energy in the U.S. and sell electrical wiring systems worldwide.

Real estate may be his trademark, the billionaire investor noted recently, but it’s only “probably 25% of my world.”

“I’m a professional opportunist,” Zell said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I’m pretty sure that no matter what topic you pick, we’re involved in some way or another.”

HONOLULU - Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion this week, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income native Hawaiian families.

Tears spilled down Kahale’s cheeks as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto the key to a white, columned house with a circular driveway, a stone staircase and a deep porcelain bathtub. Her family will live there rent-free but must pay utility bills.

“I’m shocked. I’m overwhelmed,” Kahale said. “From the little box we had to what we have today.”

BRENTWOOD - Zaio is attempting to catalog and photograph 100,000 homes a day across the country, which would make it one of the largest Internet databases in the world for point-and-click valuations. In the Bay Area, most of the activity so far has centered on the East Bay. But work will begin by the end of next month to add San Jose-area homes to the company’s database, a company executive said.

On a recent afternoon in Brentwood, certified appraiser Ron Simmons teamed up with a photographer to collect information on 378 homes in the city’s center.