msnbc.com: Real estate

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to a record low for the third straight week and borrowers took advantage of the drop, sending new applications soaring.

Mortgage applications were at their highest level in more than five years last week, as borrowers took advantage of attractive rates and rushed to refinance their home loans.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index released Tuesday fell by a record 18 percent from October last year, the largest drop since its inception in 2000.

Homebuilders slapped on solar panels and added other eco-friendly enhancements as energy prices soared earlier this year, hoping greener homes would lure reluctant buyers.

Architect Andy Feola keeps running into Southern California colleagues in some of the world's most exotic locations — from the Egyptian desert to China to Azerbaijan.

One bank is playing Santa for 500 lucky homeowners in this season of foreclosures and sinking home values — a gesture paid in part by employees forgoing their office party.

Amid the mortgage meltdown, Jacksonville, Fla., legal aid attorney April Charney has become a top expert in foreclosure defense. Mostly, she says, lenders have hung themselves.

Walking away from a mortgage has always been a homeowner's last resort, but more may choose to do it as home prices continue to fall.

Vickie Lewis of Jacksonville, Fla., has been living in foreclosure limbo for more than four years. But she does not fit any stereotypes of today's troubled borrowers. Msnbc.com's Mike Stuckey reports.

Courtney Scott's effort to save her modest Georgia home is a small example of the problem facing anyone who wants to craft a broad solution to the problem of rising foreclsures.

A new surge in defaults and foreclosures is likely in 2009 and 2010 as as risky "pay option" mortgages reset to sharply higher monthly payments.

Fannie, Freddie executives ignored warnings they were taking on too many risky loans long before the housing market plunged, according to documents released at a House hearing.

Pending U.S. home sales fell slightly in October, amid a spate of bad economic news and turmoil in the stock markets, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.

From a hefty lobbying budget to the use of free baseball tickets, Freddie Mac fended off any meaningful regulation in the years before the housing mortgage giant crashed, records obtained by The Associated Press show.

The full scope of the housing meltdown isn’t clear and already there are ominous signs of a new crisis — one that could turn out the lights on malls, hotels and storefronts nationwide.

Earlier this month, unemployment hit a 20-year high, rising to 6.5 percent over the month before.

Sales of new homes fell in October to the lowest point in nearly 18 years while the median price of a new home dropped to the lowest level since 2004.