WASHINGTON -- Building on significant upward revisions to numbers for the previous two months, nationwide production of new single-family homes and apartments increased 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 700,000 units in January. Together with the upwardly revised numbers for December 2011, this is the best pace of single-family starts since April of 2010.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The city will take possession of about a dozen properties on Oak Hill Avenue on the South Side, under an agreement approved Thursday morning by its Board of Control.

The release and settlement agreement calls for the city to take over the properties, located between St. Patrick Church and Tri-County Beverage on Oak Hill, from businessman Hasper Leggett. In return, Leggett would receive five acres of a 21-acre former LTV Steel site at the Center Street Bridge heading toward Campbell.