Hate the mess your home has deteriorated into but you don't have the time or means to do a comprehensive redecorating job? Or maybe it's time to sell your place, but you don't know how to show it off to best effect?

More than 170,000 troubled homeowners are breathing a lasting sigh of relief now that they've received permanent modifications under the Obama administration's foreclosure prevention program.

Living with an undersize, outdated kitchen? If so, a sledgehammer may feel like the only solution. But these days you're probably not up for spending the $50,000 or more -- maybe much more -- it would cost to demolish the space and build a new state-of-the-art room from scratch.

The national foreclosure rate fell 2% in February from a month earlier, according to an industry report released Thursday, the latest sign that the pace of foreclosures is slowing.

Lots of people, especially those trying to battle high utility bills, believe in energy-efficient homebuilding.

Erin and Robert Smith had no problem handling the $2,000 monthly payment on their home ... until they lost their jobs.

Great bargains abound, but you have to shop carefully.

Economists have long been predicting commercial real estate could be the next day of reckoning for the financial markets, with a wave of defaults looming as billions of dollars in troubled loans come due in the coming months.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is saying adios to the Big Apple and selling his Fifth Avenue penthouse, asking almost $14 million.

If you've been holding off on a real estate purchase, glimmers of a turnaround in the housing market may have you wondering if it's finally time to make your move.

Battered by the housing crisis, mortgage finance company Fannie Mae said Friday that it needs another $15.3 billion in bailout money from the federal government.

Sales of existing homes unexpectedly fell in January, according to an industry report published Friday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association proposed a forbearance program Wednesday aimed at helping the unemployed pay their mortgages for up to nine months.

Despite signs that the real estate market might be lurching forward, prices are expected to fall further this year.

Sales of new homes plunged in January to the lowest level on record, government figures showed Wednesday.

More bad news on the housing bust front: Nearly 25% of all mortgage borrowers were underwater, meaning they more on their loans than their homes are worth.

Home prices fell just 2.5% during the last three month of 2009 compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a closely watched gauge of home price movement. That was a big improvement over the past three years.

Lowe's reported a better-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter on Monday, and the nation's second-largest home-improvement retailer indicated that 2010 would be a better year for the housing market.

Under pressure to do more for troubled homeowners, President Obama is expected to announce on Friday a $1.5 billion program to help borrowers in the five states hit hardest by the housing crisis.

The recent spike in the number of delinquent Federal Housing Administration-insured loans has some people worried that taxpayers will eventually have to bail the agency out.