Your Estate

The Amish are famous for barn raisings. Now, they're becoming known for building houses for the non-Amish, using ancient techniques. Yet working with Amish builders brings special challenges like communication and power tools.

Federal investigators are questioning whether home-buying incentives at the start of the downturn contributed to today's home-price crash.

What's most impressive about Charles Eames's House, officially known as Case Study House #8, is the modesty of everything, the easygoing relationship between structures and site.

Chances are better than even that government money will be used to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, economists in the latest Wall Street Journal survey said, and a sizeable minority said the institutions should be nationalized.

Energy tycoon Eugene Shvidler has paid $14.5 million for a house in Snowmass, Colo….In Aspen, a mansion has sold for $20.75 million… Former Mets catcher Mike Piazza has listed his Miami Beach condo for $4.9 million.

Insurance companies are imposing tougher fire-safety requirements on homeowners in Western states. Residents say insurers have dropped them or refused to write a policy, even though they haven't filed a claim.

Nearly one in four U.S. metropolitan areas saw home prices rise in the second quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors, while 77% of the areas studied saw price declines. The median existing single-family home price fell 7.6%.

Alan Greenspan faults the U.S.'s approach in fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying the credit crisis offered an "ideal opportunity" to dismantle the mortgage giants. The former Fed chairman predicted U.S. home prices would reach their bottom in the first half of 2009.

Freddie Mac said it won't purchase subprime mortgages secured by properties in New York state with note dates on or after Sept. 1.

Despite a brief rally in stocks since mid-July, credit markets are as unsettled as ever. And that will continue until the price of houses, the key asset underlying many credit products, starts to stabilize.

"Hope for Your Home," the newest addition to TLC's slate of property-related reality programming, is a direct response to the needs of financially-strained homeowners.

General Growth Properties' president sold half of his common shares this week to cover a margin call, prompted by a steep decline in the company's stock price.

Some lawmakers are arguing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should not be allowed to lobby the government because taxpayers could be on the hook if the Treasury has to bail out the companies.

Morgan Stanley added some of its well-heeled clients to the long list of customers whose lenders have frozen or reduced their home-equity loans.

Part of the housing-stimulus package recently signed into law could reduce the appeal of a tax-saving strategy used by wealthy home-hoppers. Many owners might not be eligible to claim the full exclusion on a vacation or rental home they convert to a primary residence.

June Fletcher finds three high-tech ways to make your home more compelling to prospective buyers.

A recent improvement in beleaguered home-equity loans has been a rare sign of encouragement for banks. But bullish investors need to remove their rose-colored glasses.

Freddie Mac will double the financial incentives it offers to mortgage servicers that help borrowers with Freddie-owned loans avoid foreclosure.

The number of homes on the market is finally falling in much of the U.S., but tight credit and a flood of foreclosures are still pushing home prices down. Economists also don't expect the recently-passed housing bill to provide a major boost.

Judges in several states have found flaws in documents filed by mortgage firms that borrowers facing foreclosure might be able to exploit. But the extent to which the judicial process can make a difference is limited and uneven.

Jobless claims soared last week by 34,000, to 406,000. Existing-home sales fell 2.6% last month from May.

A sprawling bill that reaches deep into the U.S. housing industry is close to becoming law. The bill, which began seven months ago as a modest attempt to help struggling homeowners, will now likely touch a vast array of borrowers, lenders and investors.

The credit crunch caught up with the top end of London's home market in the second quarter, when the price per square meter of residential space in the capital's prime locations fell more sharply than in the U.K. as a whole.

The chief of the mortgage industry's most powerful lobby group, Jonathan Kempner, resigned Tuesday, just as the industry is defending itself from a hostile Congress and a punishing housing slump.

The victims of the subprime debacle are often portrayed as poor and members of minority groups. A new report found that a large percentage of subprime borrowers in 2006 were middle- and upper-income homeowners and white.

Home prices declined 0.3% from April to May, Ofheo said, amid a 4.8% drop from the previous year. South Atlantic prices posted the largest fall, while the cost of a home rose in the Pacific region.

Bank examiners from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are looking at the books of mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac is considering raising capital by selling as much as $10 billion in new shares to investors. The move would have the potential to avoid a full-blown government rescue for Freddie and Fannie Mae. Friday, Freddie filed an SEC form to register its common stock, removing one obstacle that has kept the company from raising capital.

House Democrats negotiating a rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they wouldn't exempt the proposal from the annual debt limit, a move designed to quell lawmakers' concerns that the Treasury's financial aid could be unlimited.

Housing starts increased 9.1% in June from the previous month because a change to New York City building codes that took effect July 1 caused a deadline rush, but excluding the adjustment, housing starts tumbled 4%.