Question: I hear that there is some movement in the housing market. Who are the home buyers now? We used to hear about "flippers," along with those who were buying "up" or buying higher-priced homes. What motivates people now?

At the peak of the real-estate boom, upscale condominiums in the Venetian Bay development could have fetched more than $300,000 apiece, with their large master suites, granite countertops and balcony views of the village lake.

We all talk about what ifs.

Homeowners with mortgage concerns can meet face-to-face with their lenders, and get counseling and legal advice free Saturday during a nationally sponsored foreclosure prevention workshop in Modesto.

The Senate on Wednesday reached a compromise on extending the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a boost the housing industry believes will help it pull out of its two-year-old downturn.

Surprising some housing-industry analysts, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday that September's new-home sales fell 3.6 percent from August and 7.8 percent from September 2008.

It's a great time to be a renter and lousy time to be a landlord.

The notion of living next door to a sitting president is no longer priceless.

Gov. Schwarzenegger came to Merced — the heart of California's foreclosure meltdown — to sign eight laws that protect homeowners and consumers from mortgage fraud and abusive lending practices.

WASHINGTON — Applications for home-building permits, a key gauge of future construction, fell in September by the largest amount in five months, a discouraging sign for the housing industry. A rebound in housing is needed to support a broader economic recovery.

Home sales prices edged up during September throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley, providing a relatively strong finish to the traditional warm-weather selling season.

New homes in Stanislaus County cost less than half as much as those sold elsewhere in California. At least they did during August, but that was an unusual month.

Every dollar counts in this economy.

Sales of existing homes will fall slightly next year in California as people lose more jobs and cheap foreclosed homes become a smaller part of the market, California Association of Realtors economists predicted this week.

Consumer advocates say a growing number of older homeowners and a new crop of eager lenders could steer the reverse mortgage industry down the same financial course that toppled the subprime mortgage market and left taxpayers footing the bill.

The Obama administration said Thursday that its mortgage relief effort has helped 500,000 homeowners, and officials maintain the program is on track despite its disappointing launch.

Lenders are ramping up efforts to avoid home foreclosures, but a report by bank regulators says more than half of borrowers who get help fall behind again. More than 50 percent of homeowners with loans modified in the first half of last year had missed at least two months of payments a year later, the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision said Wednesday.

Homeowners at risk of foreclosure are encouraged to attend a free workshop from noon to 7:30 p.m. today in Stockton.

Looking at monthly home sales statistics for your ZIP code can provide the gist of what houses in your neighborhood are worth.

Home resales dipped unexpectedly last month, falling 2.7 percent from a month earlier, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday, reversing steady monthly gains since April. Most economists called the drop temporary and said they expected sales to strengthen later this fall.

Anti-discrimination advocate John Trasviña, a newly appointed fair housing administrator for the Obama administration, will speak tonight in Modesto.

Easy come, easy go.

As days tick off the calendar, the life span of the much-ballyhooed tax credit for first-time home buyers is drawing to an end — unless Congress decides to extend it.

WASHINGTON — Adding to evidence the recession has ended, housing construction rose in August and fewer laid-off workers sought jobless aid last week. Still, the reports suggested a slow and fragile economic recovery. The rise in housing starts was due solely to a jump in the volatile apartment-building category, and unemployment claims remain far above levels associated with a healthy economy.

WASHINGTON — Rates for 30-year home loans edged down for the third straight week and are close to record lows reached over the spring, providing an excellent opportunity for borrowers to save money by refinancing their home loans.