HousingPrices

It's been a week of dreadful financial news in the U.S. Many people's instincts will tell them not to make any moves until the trouble blows over. But the best opportunity to significantly improve your financial footing often comes during the worst of the turmoil. Here are four areas in which even small steps, taken now, will help.

With the Standard & Poor's downgrades, the declining stock market, the flat employment figures and Europe's fiscal woes, you might not expect much optimism in the housing market just now. But a few major metropolitan areas should see price increases in the next year, according to a new report.

Even before the latest stock-market plunge, U.S. consumer confidence was already sliding downward, according to a Fannie Mae survey released Monday. Some 70% of respondents say the economy is heading in the wrong direction.

Companies with strong balance sheets and high dividends will be among the few safe investment harbors if the economy continues to cool -- and given today's conditions, it's hard to imagine how the recent stock market rally could last much longer. Here are five dividend stocks that should keep paying strong returns.

There is one surefire way to reinvigorate the housing industry and it's such a simple solution that regulators should be embarrassed they have to be reading about it here: Re-institute the liar loan. In polite circles, these loans were called stated income loans or "no doc" -- short for "no...

The Federal Reserve recently warned that Oregon was facing a delayed reaction to the recession, with foreclosures tipping upward while housing values fell dramatically during the third quarter of 2009. The findings caused an Internet buzz about whether Oregon is becoming the next California....

On the cusp of Christmas, Santa's real estate bag offers goodies and some lumps of coal. First, the good news: First-time buyers taking advantage of the government's tax-credit incentive helped yank sales of previously owned homes up by 7.4% in November from October, according to the National...

Queasy-stomached home owners who can't bear to watch the equity in their homes continue to dwindle have an option: Equity protection policies. These policies, will, for a fee that generally ranges from 1% to 3% of your home's equity, guarantee against further losses when it comes time to sell....

Authorities in Hong Kong have moved in to dampen demand at the highest end of that city's real estate market. Coming on the heels of a developer there last week setting a world price record for the sale of an apartment -- $9,200 U.S. per square foot -- the Hong Kong Monetary Authority increased...