Housing

Even as the housing market continues its slide, depleted university budgets and an upward trend in student enrollment have built a profitable little investment pocket in some college towns.

Eleanor Beardsley checks in with a story about creative French realtors who have figured out a new way to lure Brits across the Channel.

Economics correspondent Chris Farrell says low long-term interest rates are propping up the housing market — for now. But when rates ratchet up, the market still has plenty of room to fall.

New-home construction plunged 14% last month. Residential building is at a 10-year low. And January housing starts are down 38% over last year. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports on the housing market's search for the bottom.

The House has voted in opposition to President Bush's Iraq war plans, ending three days of speeches. Left unsaid, but not forgotten, was how to pay for the extra troops the president wants to deploy. Eric Niiler reports.

A major lender has announced it's going to stop making risky loans that help financially-stretched homebuyers pull together a down payment. That's likely to further weaken demand in the slumping housing market.

Con artists have found a new way to prey on nervous homeowners in danger of losing their properties. It's called a foreclosure release scam, and there are some sure danger signs to look for.

British banking giant HSBC is facing bad-debt charges of more than $10 billion — worse than analysts expected. The company blames U.S. mortgage holders who aren't making payments. As Alisa Roth reports, HSBC's not the only one in trouble.

The slowdown in the U.S. housing market has rippled all the way across the Atlantic. A British banking group has warned that bad debts will be much greater than expected.

While the housing market continues its decline, commercial real estate is a red-hot investment opportunity thanks to rising rents and low interest rates.