Real Estate

During the heady days of the real estate bubble, many congregations took out 5-year loans to refurbish and enlarge their churches. Now, with balloon payments due, real estate values down, and refinancing not an option, church foreclosures have hit record highs.

Becoming a homeowner is a rite of passage in America, while renting gets no respect. But when you look at how we really live, it turns out that, even ignoring the recent crash, home ownership isn't the great deal for our finances that we've been led to believe.

Just when it looked like housing prices were bottoming out and now was the time to snap up the best bargains comes news that may make you want to wait. The latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show that real estate prices are continuing to descend.

The National Association of Realtors reported this week that sales of existing homes rose 4.3% in January, their third rise in four months. But there are other housing trends to consider that are much more telling than a modest uptick in sales.

U.S. states have reached a $25 billion deal with the nation's biggest mortgage lenders over foreclosure abuses that occurred after the housing bubble burst. Federal and state officials announced the deal Thursday. It is the biggest settlement involving a single industry since a 1998 multistate tobacco deal.

U.S. home prices fell for a third straight month in nearly all cities tracked by a major index. The declines show that most homeowners are not reaping the benefits from some signs of an improving housing market. Prices dropped in November from October in 19 of the 20 cities tracked, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index released Tuesday.

Fewer people bought new homes in December, making 2011 the worst sales year on record. The Commerce Department said Thursday new-home sales fell last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.