*What the debt downgrade means for your mortgage

*About 70% of Americans interviewed for Fannie Mae's July consumer survey said they are growing more pessimistic about the direction of the economy and they expect home prices to fall even further.

*According to the latest analysis of home price trends in 384 markets based on the Fiserv/Case-Shiller Indexes, it will be well into the first quarter of 2013 before median home prices across the nation will even be on par with prices from the first quarter of this year. 
 
*Ten most searched homes on Realtor.com 

*Garden problem solver 

*Tight Credit Discourages First Time Buyers: Why aren’t low prices stimulating sales? NAR’s Lawrence Yun believes it’s the lenders. “With home prices in a broad trough and historically low mortgage interest rates, high housing affordability conditions and rising rents could stimulate a more rapid sales recovery if banks get back into the business of lending to more creditworthy borrowers,” Yun says.

NAR points to the rising market share of all-cash purchases, an indicator of investor activity, as a sign that investors are beating out first-time buyers for foreclosures. The share of all-cash purchases was 30 percent in the second quarter, up from 25 percent in the second quarter of 2010. Investors, who make up the bulk of cash purchasers, accounted for 19 percent of second quarter transactions, up from 14 percent a year. Read the rest here:

*According to a Pew Research Center study conducted in April, 81 percent of adults surveyed either somewhat agree or strongly agree that buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make. Of homeowners whose homes have lost value during the downturn, 82 percent still favor owning a home. And 81 percent of renters aspire to own a home in the future.

*The one incontrovertible fact about the foreclosure crisis is that voluntary loan modification efforts, whether they're conducted under the sponsorship of the government's Home Affordable Modification Program or the mortgage industry, haven't helped more than a handful of affected borrowers. Read the rest here:
 
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