It's another sign of the times. Most real estate buyers and sellers know about short sales - where houses are worth less than their mortgages. But these days, there are real estate agents who specialize in short sales. ...more

February 5, 2009

We all know Bay area home prices have tumbled, but this hurts: The Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area lost $35.6 billion in home value in 2008, according to a report released Tuesday morning by Seattle-based Zillow.com. ...more

February 5, 2009

We all know Bay area home prices have tumbled, but this hurts: The Tampa-St. Petersburg area lost $35.6 billion in home value in 2008, according a report released this morning from Seattle-based Zillow.com. ...more

February 3, 2009

Is the glass half empty? Is the glass half full? Is the glass about to fall on our big toe? We ask these questions in the wake of a report from the Florida Association of Realtors that housing sales along the Suncoast rose 16 percent in December, compared to a 3 percent decrease in November. Times being what they are, some people are choosing to see a gloomy lining to this silver cloud of housing news. ...more

January 28, 2009

The default rate for mortgages recently insured by the Federal Housing Administration has been climbing, an alarming trend for an agency that is playing a vastly expanded role in the mortgage market and backing roughly a quarter of all the loans made last year. ...more

January 26, 2009

As you know many condo associations are dealing with some residents' inability to pay assessments as owners face foreclosure. As a result of the rules governing foreclosures, for the first time our association expects to incur bad debt expenses this year. ...more

January 25, 2009

Kimberly Matlock was about to lose her Illinois home to foreclosure when a shiny flyer from Clearwater arrived in her mailbox. ...more

January 25, 2009

After all these years, discovering the secret to happiness in life came as something of a surprise. ...more

January 23, 2009

This is in response Ron Geouque's letter in the Sunday paper. This letter is wrong on so many points; I don't know where to start. ...more

January 22, 2009

The federal rescue of the nation's financial industry has perplexed the average taxpayer, who cannot find out how the money has been spent or see how it's helping anyone in the neighborhood. ...more

January 20, 2009