California Home Loan 360

Editor's note: This is one in an occasional series of stories about the local housing market and what's happening to residents as they grapple with rising interest rates, tightening credit, falling home prices and other economic issues.

CHICAGO - There's a lot of real estate amnesia out there. It's probably fair to say that a lot of home sellers can't remember much about the housing market before this decade's Big Boom.

CHICAGO - There's a lot of real estate amnesia out there. It's probably fair to say that a lot of home sellers can't remember much about the housing market before this decade's Big Boom.

WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes had a record decline in September nationwide while median home prices fell by the largest amount in nearly a year, reflecting deepening problems in the troubled housing market.

The blue-chip index comes back from a 206-point drop earlier in the trading session to close unchanged. Wall Street tumbled early Wednesday on fresh concerns about the housing market and financial companies, then recovered most of the losses on rumors of an emergency interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

The California housing market will continue to slow next year, with house prices falling 4 percent, and 9 percent fewer houses changing hands, said an economist for a real estate trade group in a forecast delivered Wednesday.

The California housing market will continue to slow next year, with house prices falling 4 percent, and 9 percent fewer houses changing hands, said an economist for a real estate trade group in a forecast delivered Wednesday.

Many firms' shares have fallen with the housing market. Some say the sector is ripe for bargain hunters; others say wait. Like other Southern Californians, John Bollinger has witnessed the brutal downturn in the housing market.

WASHINGTON - An economist who has long predicted that this decade's housing market bubble would deflate said the residential real estate downturn could spiral into "the most severe since the Great Depression" and could lead to a recession.

Consumers and borrowers received a shot in the arm Tuesday from the Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates a half-point in a quest to bolster the reeling housing market, ease the credit crunch and ward off a recession.