Alec Foege

It seems implausible -- even impossible -- yet here we are again. For the 10th time in the last 11 weeks, conventional mortgage interest rates dropped to a new historic low. The average 30-year fixed rate hit 4.32 percent for the week finishing September 2, a drop from the previous week's 4.36 percent, according to Freddie Mac. Rates on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to an average of 3.83 percent, down from last week's 3.86 percent. Unbeatable rates may encourage trigger-shy buyers to take a shot at homeownership this fall after the late-summer slump.

After a gloomy month of frightening housing numbers, a ray of sunshine cut through the clouds. The Pending Home Sales Index for contracts signed in July rose 5.2 percent from June, according to the National Association of Realtors. While this is a 19.1 percent fall from last July's home sales numbers, economists had predicted a drop of 1 percent for this July. The new increase indicates that the housing decline following the end of the homebuyer tax credit incentives was nearing its end. It is hoped historically low mortgage interest rates and affordable housing prices will help the ailing housing market recover in the coming months.

In other good news, 17 major markets saw price increases in the latest monthly report. Find out how your market measures up.

In the final days before his split from his wife of six years, Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods clearly was on the prowl -- for some new luxury digs. On Sunday night at around 8 p.m., he was spotted in New York City's West Village neighborhood unloading boxes and golf clubs on his own from a double-parked BMW near his new apartment on Hudson Street, where he stopped to pet an attractive brunette's dog, according to the New York Daily News. Then it was reported that Woods had taken out a $54.5 million mortgage (that would be a jumbo mortgage, no doubt) for his new Florida estate, which is located on tony Jupiter Island and has a tennis court, oxygen therapy room, multiple pools and a fitness center. Despite his rocky divorce, public humiliation and peripatetic golf game, it's still apparently good to be Tiger.

Beware, real estate speculators: Your advantage is waning. The Obama administration announced today that major banks have agreed to allow local governments and nonprofit groups to purchase foreclosed properties before private investors. Congress granted $7 billion to enable local officials to acquire such properties with the intent of renovating or redeveloping them, and thus allow communities to stabilize themselves through reinvestment. The nonprofit National Community Stabilization Trust will compile data on available properties and advise communities about which ones best suit their needs. The largest mortgage lenders in the country, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo, have signed on to the agreement.

When Ron Spears of Cle Elum, Wash., received a personal property tax bill for $34 back in April, he ignored it. A struggling small business owner, Spears said he simply didn't have the money to spare. But by the time he received a third delinquent notice on Aug. 6, which threatened a kind of foreclosure known as "distraint," Spears was angry. His $34 bill had inflated to $330, due to accrued late fees. So on Aug. 24, he showed up at the local treasurer's office with $330 in cash -- all in pennies. Spears conveyed the 33,000 pennies in buckets propped on a hand truck. The Kittitas County treasurer refused the payment, saying she didn't have the staff to count all the pennies. Spears has promised to resubmit his payment in a different form by the deadline.

On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the winds of change are still blowing in the Big Easy. The affordability of housing in the New Orleans area is worse than ever, due to the enduring damage of Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to the high costs of rebuilding apartment buildings and insuring them -- in a place where most residents are still poor renters -- New Orleans' rents are unaffordable for many. The median rent for a two-bedroom apartment has risen from $661 pre-Katrina to $982 per month. Many former residents have moved to the relatively affordable suburbs

If you thought the existing-home sales figures for July were depressing, better pop a Zoloft or two before glancing at the new-homes sales numbers for the same month. Sales of new homes fell to a 37-year low in July, a 12.4 percent drop from June. The Commerce Department reported that a seasonally adjusted 276,000 new homes were sold during the month, the lowest level since the department started keeping records in 1963. After all, why buy a new home when there are plenty of nearly new homes on the market at steep discounts? Well, for one, they're getting cheaper by the month. The median price for a new home was $204,000, a 4.2 percent fall from June.

Does a shred of good news have an impact amid a forest of disastrous reports? The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that the number of loans in the foreclosure process declined in the second quarter of 2010 for the first time since 2006. The question remains whether this figure matters in light of the recent 27 percent decline in existing home sales. The answer is probably yes and no. The good news is that most of the subprime loans that contributed to the housing crash have worked their way through the system. The bad news is that many homeowners with conventional loans are now sliding toward foreclosure due to the persistently high unemployment rate. While nobody really knows whether home sales will recover in the coming months, it's nice to know that not every every market indicator is pointing toward the cellar.

If there is one financial firm that remains inseparable from the real estate calamity of the last two years, it's Lehman Brothers. Today's shocker? Lehman's back in business, as an aggressive player in the post-crisis commercial real estate market. Remember that Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, marking the largest bankruptcy -- with $600 billion in assets -- in U.S. history. The firm's failure precipitated a stock market free fall and the Great Recession. After a restructuring, Lehman fired its senior banks and relegated its portfolio to mid- and junior-level employees. Now, thanks to its deep institutional knowledge and unique bankruptcy status, the new Lehman manages $14.4 billion in real estate securities.

The Federal Reserve has banned mortgage fees you probably weren't even aware of, but that were inflating your home-loan interest rate. On Monday, the Fed announced it was banning yield spread premiums, or YSPs. YSPs are essentially bonuses that lenders paid to mortgage brokers who steered them high-interest loans. The YSP took on a shady reputation once brokers began directing some buyers toward higher-interest loans, claiming it was the best deal they could get. Subprime lenders were the most frequent users of YSP bonuses, which were rarely disclosed to borrowers.

The need for a government backstop for the U.S. mortgage market will remain, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the audience at Tuesday's future of home financing conference in Washington, D.C. While the Obama administration will not issue a complete proposal until January, Geithner made clear that it is committed to mitigating risk for the American homeowner, but also wants to make sure that any plan is "structured to minimize taxpayer exposure." The government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, and has already contributed $148 billion to ensure their survival.

Builders are building more new homes, but apparently not enough to constitute a recovery. While housing starts increased 1.7 percent in July, to 546,000, those numbers were substantially lower than the 560,000 anticipated, according to the Commerce Department. New building permits fell 3.1 percent to a 14-month low, indicating that future home construction plans were weak. While the increases hardly indicate a robust recovery, they do suggest that the likelihood of a double-dip recession is lower than previously believed, say some economists.

The head of the Philadelphia Housing Authority can relate better than most housing officials to the mortgage default problems facing many Americans. That's because Wells Fargo Bank has foreclosed on his $615,035 condominium in the upscale Naval Square development in Philadelphia. The amount in dispute is $386,685.22, according to Wells Fargo. As the PHA's executive director, Carl R. Greene is in charge of the country's fourth-largest public housing agency and is one of the city's highest-paid public officials. His salary is $306,370, and he received a $44,188 bonus last year. A spokesman for Greene said that he is involved in a dispute with his mortgage company. Greene, 53, has earned respect and praise for his efforts in reviving Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Like an Orthodox Jewish Bernie Madoff, Eliyahu Weinstein allegedly bilked members of the religious sect out of $200 million. Presenting himself as a real estate investor from New Jersey, Weinstein met with investors from New Jersey, New York, Florida and California, through the close-knit Orthodox community. He allegedly claimed that he owned or was able to purchase properties, and could resell them, for substantial profit, to other parties he had already lined. The "buyers," however, were other scammers associated with Weinstein. When investors tried to collect their earnings, Weinstein allegedly brushed them off or paid them much smaller amounts than promised. Weinstein and an associate have been charged with real estate fraud.

Homeowners aren't the only ones getting hit by the real estate recession. RE/MAX Partners, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla. franchise of real estate company RE/MAX L.L.C., is closing its doors after five years of deteriorating home sales. The largest RE/MAX brokerage in Florida, it experienced a 29 percent drop in business after the April expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credit. Also contributing to the decline were the aftereffects of Hurricane Wilma. Management is trying to help relocate the firm's more than 160 agents to other RE/MAX offices.