Richard Kent Green, a professor of real estate, finance and economics at George Washington University, looked at renting vs. buying when he decided where to live. Green said the active rental market in the Washington area can help you find a rental property to compare with a potential purchase. The key is that the properties are comparable in size, neighborhood, age and all other factors.

For Green, the magic number is six at current interest rates.

Here’s what that means: Find a rental property that’s comparable to the property you’re thinking of buying. Figure out how much it costs to rent annually; if the rent is $2,500 a month, you’re spending $30,000 a year, or 6 percent of $500,000.  So by Green’s math, if the house costs $500,000 or less, it’s a decent bet.

* Full Story: Available on Washington Post

Although the worldwide real estate market is softening as credit reservoirs dry, some spots are poised for growth.

To find them, we looked at economic expansion, inflation rates, strength of individual property rights and access to lending in emerging markets, to examine housing conditions in capital cities and business centers. These markets are not expected to explode in value in the next six to 12 months, but in the next five years, they will likely have proved to be worthy investments.

* Full Story: Available on Forbes

Almost everyone has a notion of their dream home, their personal showplace. Unfortunately, reality dictates that most of us will buy and sell a number of homes before getting there. And both the buying and selling of homes can be sheer torture. Play your cards wrong and even living in a house can be torture, as the roof starts to leak and the basement starts to flood and your lousy neighbors never mow their lawn.

To make the buying, selling, and living easy (or easier), Gerri Willis has written the new book Home Rich, which gives you all you need to know to be happy and not sad when it comes to your home choices and transactions.

* Full Story: Available on Zen Personal Finance

There’s roulette and there’s skydiving. Then there’s investing in Detroit and Cleveland real estate. That’s especially risky because those markets are in freefall. Lenders have fled, foreclosures are on the rise, homes aren’t selling and local economies have stalled.

Given the state of the country’s housing market, it wasn’t hard to find others like them. To do so, Forbes.com looked at the country’s 40 largest metros and combined data on foreclosures, from RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.

* Full Story: Available on Forbes

Valley realtors and homeowners trying to sell a house may now be looking to a new high-tech way to sell a home for free! An Arizona realtor has come up with a clever way of selling a home. He’s created a video of the property for sale and posted it on the popular web site YouTube.

This way a customer can easily take a look at the house without actually having to waste time seeing the house in person.

* Full Story: Available on KGBT 4

Everyone likes a bargain. So it’s no surprise that as home prices fall in many markets, those who have been priced out of owning a home are beginning to take notice.

And some in the real-estate industry are saying that factors are aligning to make this a good time for first-time buyers to be in the market because they don’t have to face the challenge of selling a home to buy another.

* Full Story: Available on  Columbia Tribune

Frustrated as her house languished on the market for three straight summers, J.J. Rodgers is trying a new sales tactic: giving the two-story home away in an essay contest.

Already, she’s received more than 500 entries — each essay requires a $100 entry fee — for her four-bedroom home in Red Feather Lakes, Colo. She’s hoping for a minimum of 2,000 entries, or $200,000 in fees, by the May 25 deadline to pay off the mortgage, cover closing costs and have a little left over. Rodgers last listed the property at $169,000 after cutting the price three times.

* Full Story: Available on Business Week

Home Auction Live is a quick and easy way to sell homes. Basically, buyers see a property they like and bid on it. Some prices started as low as $25,000.

Realtors say with foreclosures rates at an all time high, home auctions are a good way to sell homes in a market undergoing changes.

* Full Story: Available on Austin News

With headlines reading “Home prices to post another decline in ‘08,” residential home sellers are between a rock and a hard place. In order to set their home apart from the 235 houses on the market in their price range in the Boca Raton, Florida area, Tara and Daniel Biller devised a “green home” incentive plan for potential buyers. They are offering buyers a slew of environmentally friendly upgrades and products including a solar water heater system.

* Full Story: Available on eMediaWire

Some research suggests that sales tanked by 26 percent in 2007 — the worst sales year on record.

And existing home sales are struggling too.

Those numbers plummeted 13 percent last year the biggest drop in 25 years.

All of this comes as analysts predict even more trouble in 2008.

Full Story: Available on NBC17