AP - Sales of existing homes posted a tiny increase in October but the median home price fell by a record amount. Analysts forecast more price declines in coming months as the once-booming housing market undergoes a painful correction. Read more…

The price of existing homes sold in October fell for the third straight month and posted the biggest drop on record, an industry group said Tuesday, adding it expects weakness in pricing to drag on into next year. Read more…

Reuters - New orders for U.S.-made durable goods registered their sharpest fall in six years last month and consumer confidence fell in November, reports showed on Tuesday, lending support to views the Federal Reserve will trim interest rates next year. Read more…

Reuters - General Motors Corp. is prepared to nearly halve the number of Buick models it offers in the United States as it tries to reestablish the luxury brand in its home market, GM's chief executive said on Tuesday. Read more…

Reuters - Applications for U.S. home mortgages fell last week with the number of business days truncated by the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, an industry group said on Wednesday. Read more…

AP - Sales of new homes fell in October by the largest amount in three months, a fresh sign of the cooling taking place in the once-sizzling housing sector. Read more…

Reuters - Sales of new U.S. homes dipped in October and inventories rose, but builders boosted prices by over $30,000 per unit after a sharp decline in home prices a month earlier, a government report showed Wednesday. Read more…

Mortgage applications continued its downward fall despite a drop in mortgage rates to their lowest level since January, an industry trade group's data showed Wednesday. Read more…

The pace of new home sales fell more than expected in October, although prices showed strength after a couple months of weakness, according to a government report. Read more…

FT.com - One expects an estate agent to overprice a property so there is room to be beaten down. But it is depressing to see European governments do the same with their carbon emission quotas. The European Commission is therefore right to accept no nonsense, and insist on lower targets, because the credibility of carbon trading is now at stake. Read more…

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The Motley Fool - Ever wonder what causes mortgage rates to rise and fall? Well, know that they fluctuate along with other interest rates. Read more…

Stocks, bonds or Steen? That's a question that 19-year-old Ron Steen of Anaheim Hills,Calif., hopes investors will wrestle with. Read more…

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Home prices rose in the third quarter but at a slower pace than in the second quarter, a government agency said Thursday, the latest sign that the housing market is still trying to find a bottom. Read more…

Reuters - H&R Block Inc. , the largest U.S. tax preparer, on Thursday said its quarterly loss nearly doubled, and was larger than analysts expected, as the struggles of its mortgage lending arm worsened. Read more…

Reuters - KeyCorp , a large Midwest U.S. bank, on Friday said it agreed to sell its Champion Mortgage subprime lending unit to Britain's HSBC Holdings Plc and investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC, so it can focus on consumer and business banking. Read more…

I drove a Lexus for the first time on the German autobahn at 150 miles an hour. The year was 1989, and Lexus was launching in front of U.S. journalists. Read more…

The region around Bardstown, Ky., with its Kentucky Bourbon Trail, is praised as one of the 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Paul and Rosanne Jantzen have loved living there for the past 20 years. Read more…

AP - Mack-Cali Realty Corp., a New York-area real-estate investment trust, has withdrawn from a group seeking to buy rival Reckson Associates Realty Corp., according to Reckson. Read more…

Reuters - New York real estate magnate Harry Macklowe backed away from a bid for Reckson Associates Realty Corp. , leaving former partner Carl Icahn alone to pursue an offer for the commercial real estate firm, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday. Read more…

BusinessWeek Online - So long oil patch, hello Paris. That sums up the strategy of Brazos Europe Inc., a little-known private-equity group made up of former associates of billionaire Robert M. Bass, the famous Texan investor. They've made their fortunes in everything from distressed real estate in Canada to oil and gas deals in Chile. Now the Washington (D.C.)-based Brazos expects to strike gold again, this time in the European luxury market. Read more…

Reuters - Pending sales of existing U.S. homes fell 1.7 percent in October but held above the low hit in July, suggesting the housing market is stabilizing, a real estate trade association said on Monday. Read more…

The Motley Fool - If you're like many Americans, you spend a lot of time thinking about your stock investments and real estate investments ... and just about any other investment that's not your savings account. After all, the stock market has historically returned some 10% per year, on average, over the past century, and real estate sometimes (thought not too often) jumps that much or more in a single year. So why bother focusing on your savings or checking account, when it just pays a relative pittance? Read more…

On a strip of South Beach behind the Delano Hotel, investment bank UBS plans to erect an air-conditioned tent to welcome 1,500 people to Art Basel Miami Beach on Dec. 5. Read more…