There’s been plenty for economists to chew on this year — bank bailouts, the levels of interest rates, whether the dollar deserves to be the world’s most important currency. The two kitchen-table issues, though, have been jobs and housing. We’ve probably seen the worst in both, but the healing will go on for a long time, well after we’ve said goodbye to the Decade of Not.

From a quick read of the headlines of each month’s reports on housing sales and prices, you might think that conditions in one of the U.S. economic engine’s cylinders have gotten better and better. But even a string of improvements still leaves housing in a very weak state.

Full story is available on CBS Money Watch

I’ve made no secret about my opinion that there should not be a tax credit for purchasing homes – or cars or any other cherry-picked segment of the American economy. But … I called and emailed my Congressman and Senators and they voted for the credit. What I think no longer matters. What matters is how buyers in the Charlottesville area can takes advantage of the homebuyer tax credit.

Tax Credit: Who qualifies for the homebuyer tax credit?

First time homebuyers – those who have not owned a home for the previous three years.

Full story is available on Real Central VA

Resale prices for Canadian homes rose for a sixth consecutive month in October — and were up on an annual basis for the first time in nearly a year — as the country’s real estate market continued to recover from recessionary lows, according to a report released Wednesday.

The Teranet-National Bank resale house price index of major markets increased 1.27% during the month from September. Year-over-year, prices were up 0.57% — marking the first rise in 10 months.

Full story is available on  The Financial Post.

Quarterly, the Federal Reserve releases a Flow of Funds report that rolls up household, business, financial institution, and government money movement. This is a glimpse at whether our debt levels increased or decreased in the previous quarter. It has been a harrowing year for the Flow of Funds.

Here’s a sum-up from Calculated Risk when the last report came out on Dec. 10.

According to the Fed, household net worth is now off $11.9 Trillion from the peak in 2007, but up $4.9 trillion from the trough earlier this year.

Full story is available on HousingCrisis.com

With the recession affecting the housing market a lot of sellers are creating ways to sell their house.  Many times homes are taking months to sell.  Because of this you see many home prices dropping in value.But there is a way in helping owners sell their homes faster.Home staging is what we call it.

Home staging is when you decorate or remodel your house.Most of the time people remodel it like a true model house so that it would be more enticing to buyers.  That is what we do for all the homes we stage in my home staging San Diego service.Setting up a home to look like a model home would greatly raise the value of a home.  It allows the prospective buyer a chance to see what the home looks like fixed up.This would greatly help in selling a house.

Full story is available on Zero Down Mortgage Info

The housing market has taken a dive meaning that numerous people who had been trying to sell their property have had to need them off the marketplace. This is because they can’t get the monetary value that they want or need to buy a new dwelling. With the housing market the way it is, there has never been a better time to begin looking at profitable ways to increase your properties value.

There are a number of easy ways that you can better the value of your house. By looking at the assorted characteristics of your home you can work out different factors that might put off potential property purchasers. You should now look to fix these issues and while some of these needed improvements may not be low-cost, you should view them as an investment. A few grand spent here and there could potentially contribute tens of thousands to your holdings value.

Full story is available on Real Property Investings

Investors appeared to take a report on flat U.S. home prices in stride Tuesday, but still-rising mortgage delinquencies signal more foreclosures, damping hopes that the housing market is recovering.

“Delinquencies are a precursor to foreclosures,” said Cameron Findlay, chief economist at LendingTree.com, in an interview Tuesday. “We’re not seeing any decreases in delinquencies, which is very concerning.”

Full story is available on Wall Street Journal

A program that offers $20,000 to prospective Brewster home buyers to reduce the cost of their purchase has not caught on after two years.

Funded with Community Preservation Act money, the program requires that applicants make no more than 80 percent of the local median income, which is about $43,500 for a single person and $62,100 for a family of four. Successful applicants must agree to a permanent deed restriction that limits the resale of the home to those who can qualify at 80-percent of median income.

Full story is available on Cape Code Times

San Francisco and Tampa, Fla., sit at opposite corners of the country and at opposite ends of the housing recovery.

As home prices are picking up nationally, the San Francisco Bay Area has shown improvement for seven consecutive months and posted the strongest gains in home prices in October out of 20 metropolitan regions, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, a closely watched national measure of home prices, which was released Tuesday.

Full story is available on Los Angeles Times

Homes are now cheap.

No, not everywhere in the country (more about that later). And, even after the latest Case-Shiller data, it’s anyone’s guess when they might actually turn around and start rising steadily again. It could be years.

But if you’ve been thinking of buying a home to live in, the current meltdown is a big opportunity.

Full story is available on Wall Street Journal