A cluster of just-released housing statistics all point the same depressing direction: down. Whether it's home sales, housing construction or resale prices, none of the news is good for the Northern San Joaquin Valley or the nation as a whole.

San Joaquin Valley lawmakers and homeowners still feel left out of the Obama administration's billion-dollar bids to ease the nation's foreclosure crisis.

Would-be home buyers retreated in the heat of July, which saw a sharp drop in the number of properties sold in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and statewide.

WASHINGTON — The call from business for less government has a notable exception: the mortgage market.

With mortgage rates at their lowest in decades, Central Valley mortgage lenders have seen a rush to refinance. For a homeowner, that refinancing could mean hundreds in savings each month and tens of thousands over the life of the loan.

WASHINGTON — Growing pessimism over the weak economic recovery pushed mortgage rates to the lowest level in decades for the seventh time in eight weeks.

SACRAMENTO — More than 42,000 laid-off California homeowners are about to get a break.

Upset Village I taxpayers scored a partial victory Wednesday night when a Modesto school agency decided to not raise their property taxes again this year and to devise an "exit strategy" that eventually would end the extra school taxes they pay.

A financing scheme that voters approved 23 years ago to raise $13 million for new schools in Empire could cost southeast Modesto property owners more than $123 million in extra taxes, millions of which will go to investors and consultants. "This is a sorry mess," a former Empire school board member tells J.N. Sbranti in this special Bee report.

When Francisco and Sandra Moreno moved out of their upscale, foreclosed home west of Jack Tone Golf Course in February, authorities said they took everything. And they meant everything.

In the real estate world, there was one word, repeated three times, that used to be the cardinal rule: location, location, location.

NEW YORK — If you bought a home in San Francisco in the past year, it might feel as if the housing slump is over. Bay Area home prices have shot up 18 percent in the past year.

LOS ANGELES -- Households across a majority of large U.S. cities received more foreclosure warnings in the first six months of this year than in the first half of 2009, new data shows.More than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, the firm said.

WASHINGTON — Government programs and studies intended to solve the foreclosure crisis may look good on paper or from "10,000 feet above reality in Washington," but they are doing absolutely nothing to help those in the Central Valley. That was the message Rep. Dennis Cardoza said he delivered to top officials from the Obama administration Wednesday.

Oakdale-based Century 21 M&M and Associates has acquired Turlock's Coldwell Banker Endsley & Associates and three Century 21 offices in Santa Clara County.

An award-winning Modesto real estate adviser was arrested Thursday on suspicion of grand theft and forgeries causing losses of $3.2 million to prominent developer Ron Malik.

WASHINGTON — Mortgage rates were unchanged this week at the lowest point in decades, but it hasn't been enough to jump-start the housing market.

More than 1 million U.S. households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans. That could be trouble for the Northern San Joaquin Valley's struggling economy.

Several Northern San Joaquin Valley real estate companies are listed among the largest brokerage firms in America in the recently released 2010 Real Trends 500.

Mortgage rates fell for the second straight week to the lowest point in five decades. But many people either don't qualify for new mortgages or have already taken advantage of the low rates this year.

Home buyers worried about closing their house purchases by the tax credit cutoff can relax now that the government has extended the deadline.

Two of every three Stanislaus County homes sold this year have been bank owned or "short sales" to avoid foreclosure, just-released statistics show.

WASHINGTON — Mortgages are cheaper today than they've been in a half-century. If only most people had the job security, the credit score and the cash to qualify.

Property taxes will be lowered for 87,656 Stanislaus County landowners this year, including taxes on more than 61 percent of homes. That's great for taxpayers, but not so good for tax spenders.

Since 1990, Ceres has insisted new development pay its own way. Fees climbed, a little or a lot, for 20 years — until Monday night, when they came tumbling down.