house prices

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.

U.S. home prices fell in most major cities for the second straight month, further evidence that the housing recovery will be bumpy and weigh on the broader economy in 2012. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed prices dropped in October from September in 19 of the 20 cities tracked.

Poverty has been rising even faster in the suburbs than it has in cities -- about five times faster, according to the Brookings Institute. To help understand this phenomenon, 24/7 Wall St. has analyzed the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest rates of poverty in their suburbs.

If you're trying to decide whether it's time to consider buying a house, the best clues can be found in the new and existing home inventory numbers. And despite all the other positive indicators, those figures are still much too high for comfort.

While home prices were falling last fall nearly nationwide, the pace of sales has picked up more recently. Overall, it seems clear that the worst of the housing debacle has passed. It's just that the U.S. remains on a slow, grinding track back to housing health.

Common sense suggests that as home prices decline, the property taxes based on their valuations ought to as well. But property taxes nationally are clicking higher. Why is this occurring? Several factors are at work -- and they bode ill for state budgets.

The government's program to prevent foreclosures is falling far short of its stated goals, a congressional watchdog reported. The Treasury's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is likely to fulfill less than a third of its goal of preventing 3 million foreclosures, the Congressional...

A recent Fed working paper happily points out that even as other sources of municipal tax revenue have plummeted, property taxes have held fairly steady, and the authors expect that to continue. Unfortunately, their optimistic prediction ignores the bigger picture.

A new study says that Americans between the ages of 32 and 64 are $6.6 trillion short of the amount they need to retire.

Timothy Geithner's Treasury Department hosts the first public forum today on reforming how mortgages are financed in the U.S. If the long, messy, politicized slogs over health care and financial regulations are any indication, get ready for more of the same, or worse.