U.S. existing home prices dropped a record 3.5 percent last month, compared with the same month a year earlier, while the total number of residences sold fell 11.5 percent compared with October 2005, according to an industry report released yesterday.

To understand why the housing slump hasn't dragged the economy into a recession, it helps to visit the Smoketown Plaza in Woodbridge, where the thumping of hammers signals the healthy pulse of a building boom that's still going strong.

Mortgage rates around the country fell this week, with rates on 30-year mortgages sinking to their lowest level in 10 months.

Observatory Circle in northwest Washington is filled with people who live by the clock.

Thanksgiving weekend can bring to mind the word "smorgasbord," one of those wonderful nouns that somehow sound like what they represent.

If the IRS wants to spot large numbers of people who are stiffing the tax collectors, it might want to consider auditing a fast-growing segment of the home-mortgage market.

Q: DEAR BOB: We own two houses and meet the 24-out-of-last-60-month ownership and occupancy requirement for the Internal Revenue Code 121 principal residence sale tax exemption on both. One house is now listed for sale.

U.S. home construction plunged in October to its lowest level in more than six years, according to government data, sending a chill through the slumping housing market.

The atmosphere in Walkersville's compact core seems much further removed from downtown Frederick than the six miles between the two would suggest.

Deep Throat may have helped bring down a president, but that's not enough to bring out home buyers.

The price was solid, but otherwise the offer that real estate agent Jane Fairweather's clients received for their house last month was far from a good one.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell sharply this week to the lowest level in eight months, reflecting easing inflation concerns.

When home builders behave badly, some of their customers may have an unexpected resource: The federal government's "RESPA police," who say they have become increasingly active in resolving consumer complaints through nonpublic interventions with builders.

Q: We recently went to settlement on our first home. The lawyer conducting the process handed us a large pile of papers and asked us to sign them. One of them was a form that would authorize our lender to get our personal financial information from the IRS.