Unemployment, salary freezes and other income woes are clearly among the effects of the recession that are having the most profound impact on American families.

With less money available, many households have to choose between paying the mortgage, the bills or credit card debt.

In a report presented to Congress earlier this week, the Federal Housing Finance Agency revealed that 34 percent of borrowers who defaulted on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac home loan said a drop in income was partly to blame.

* Full story available on The Credit

A piece of Key West tranquility has found its way to the Indian River in Cocoa.

Metal roof, Hardiplank siding and water views lend island style to the home at 3449 N. Indian River Drive. It’s listed for sale at $1.175 million through Sandy Nickless of Paradise Properties of Brevard Inc.

The house was built with low maintenance and hurricane safety in mind.

“I see floods all the time from storm damage,” said owner Mike Denning, whose business is water damage restoration and mold removal.

* Full story available on The Florida Today

The West, including New Mexico, was the only part of the country to see sales of existing homes increase in March from the same month of 2008, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.

Home sales in the West rose 18.9 percent to 1.13 million last month from 950,000 in March 2008, according to seasonally adjusted NAR data.

Adjusted existing home sales in the western U.S. were down 4.2 percent last month from February.

* Full story available on The Biz Journals

As the national foreclosure crisis continues to grow, the federal government and several states are taking corrective measures to diminish the fallout from predatory lenders and fraudulent subprime mortgage bankers. Several of these measures aim to make it easier for owners to retain their homes while they renegotiate their mortgages. One such legislation passed by Congress was the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007, which eliminates taxes on mortgage indebtedness. Congress hopes the measure will encourage restructuring between lenders and homeowners and discourage impending foreclosures.

States are also taking proactive steps to forestall the rising foreclosure rates. Because foreclosure laws vary from state to state, rehabilitative measures also differ.

Overview of California’s Foreclosure Laws

In California, owners may face two types of foreclosure proceedings. The first is a judicial foreclosure, which is somewhat rare and requires the lender to sue the owner in a court proceeding. In this type of foreclosure, the owner can redeem the property through a buy-back from the successful auction bidder one year after the auction. The lender can also pursue a deficiency judgment against the borrower to recover the difference between the amount owed (including fees and penalties) and the amount received from the home auction.

* Full story available on The 24-7 Press Release

Mortgage brokers and small lenders say they’ve been left out of a big part of the Obama administration’s plan to help borrowers refinance their home loans and take advantage of near-record-low interest rates.

The new guidelines released earlier this month are different for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled companies that own or guarantee almost 31 million mortgages — more than half of all U.S home loans. Most strikingly, mortgage loans held by Freddie Mac can only be refinanced by the company that currently collects payments on the loan, known as the mortgage servicer.

* Full story available on The Seattle Times

When you sign up for Facebook or Twitter, you expect to get random messages from the people that make up your virtual social network — but pitches on homes for sale?

Real-estate agents and others are trolling for clients on these and other popular online social-networking sites, mixing home huckstering with their online networking. But is this a good way to sell a home or are agents’ pitches getting lost in the post?

Those who use the sites to market properties say they hope to generate referrals, just as you might tip off a friend about a new “For Sale” sign.

“Tweeting is the same way,” says Duane Hopper, an owner and broker at Century 21 Real Estate Center in the Seattle area, referring to the term for posting messages on the microblogging Web site Twitter.com.

* Full story available on The Seattle Times

Texans would have more time to fix their troubled finances before losing their homes under a bill passed Friday by the Senate.

Current law allows just 20 days for homeowners receiving a foreclosure notice to resolve their mortgage default, one of the quickest processes in the nation. The Mortgage Foreclosure Deferment Act would extend this notice period to 45 days.

It also would provide at least 14 days for an owner and 60 days for a renter to vacate a foreclosed property.

* Full story available in The Chron

While the economy is still on very shaky ground, financial experts are saying if you have a secure job and money in the bank, now is an excellent time to buy a home.

Jimmy Mabry and his girlfriend Lindsey Lovvorn are first time home buyers.

Mabry is an Army Ranger stationed in Savannah. Lovvorn is studying to be a pharmacist. They both have job security and have decided now is the time to purchase a house.

* Full story available on The WTOC TV

It’s the American dream, a house with a white picket fence.

New incentives from the Kentucky Housing Corporation could make that dream easier for some buyers in the Commonwealth.

“Housing is very affordable now, interest rates are attractive,” said State Representative Tommy Thompson.  “The obstacle has been the uncertainty where they could get a down payment.”

* Full story available on The 14wfie

Boston’s luxury real estate market is finally feeling the pain of the housing downturn.

Until recently, sales of luxury condominiums were holding steady – boosted in part by sales at high-end properties like the new Mandarin Oriental – while the city’s general housing market lagged behind. But now the luxury market is faring worse than the rest of the Boston condo market.

* Full story available on The Boston