Real Estate Connect Speaker Profile: Celeste Starchild

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Commentary: Financial companies' downsizing stresses system

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Perspective: New media can curb spending in down market

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Real estate roundup

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Lawmakers asked to sign letter to Housing Secretary

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Over the past few years, real-estate entrepreneur Sam Nazarian has injected new buzz into the Hollywood club scene and now intends to resurrect Vegas with the same kind of cool. The odds, as they say, are against him.

Predictions that half-a-million overseas visitors would attend the Olympics accelerated a surge of hotel construction in China. But all that building may have produced a glut of rooms in one of the world's prized hotel markets.

For much of the 20th century, the proportion of whites shrank in most U.S. cities. In recent years the decline has slowed considerably -- and in some significant cases has reversed. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices and education are opening a new chapter in race relations.

Freddie Mac is considering raising capital by selling as much as $10 billion in new shares to investors. The move would have the potential to avoid a full-blown government rescue for Freddie and Fannie Mae. Friday, Freddie filed an SEC form to register its common stock, removing one obstacle that has kept the company from raising capital.

Sick of high energy bills, our columnist investigates solar options.

Over the past few years, real-estate entrepreneur Sam Nazarian has injected new buzz into the Hollywood club scene and now intends to resurrect Vegas with the same kind of cool. The odds, as they say, are against him.

Predictions that half-a-million overseas visitors would attend the Olympics accelerated a surge of hotel construction in China. But all that building may have produced a glut of rooms in one of the world's prized hotel markets.

For much of the 20th century, the proportion of whites shrank in most U.S. cities. In recent years the decline has slowed considerably -- and in some significant cases has reversed. As neighborhoods grow more multicultural, conflicts over home prices and education are opening a new chapter in race relations.

Freddie Mac is considering raising capital by selling as much as $10 billion in new shares to investors. The move would have the potential to avoid a full-blown government rescue for Freddie and Fannie Mae. Friday, Freddie filed an SEC form to register its common stock, removing one obstacle that has kept the company from raising capital.

Sick of high energy bills, our columnist investigates solar options.

Two Wall Street giants and their investors are betting that one of the Streets most baffling rules of thumb will prevail as the stock market prepared to open Friday after two days of a bullish market.

The rule, one that definitely does not apply to your family finances, is if bad news is not as bad as everyone expected, then it is actually good news.

Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Gary Stern (voter) said that the Federal Reserve can't wait for the end of the crisis to raise rates.

"I worry about the prospects for inflation, the headline inflation rate is clearly too high," said Stern.

Stern noted that the Fed is well positioned for a downside risk to growth. He commented that the current credit crisis was reminiscent of the early 1990s.

Due to a change in the housing code of New York City, U.S. housing starts came in above expectations at 1066k in June, a month- over-month rise of 9.1%, according to data released from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday morning. The consensus was looking for a decline to a level of 960k.

The previous month's 975k was revised to a level of 977k.

"New York City enacted a new set of construction codes effective for permits authorized as of...

Initial claims for unemployment benefits in the United States rose much less than expected to 366k in the week ending July 12, following a slightly revised 348k in the previous week. Continuing claims fell back 81k to 3.122 million for the week ending July 5, the Department of Labor reported Thursday.

The 18k rise in initial claims follows a drop of 56k in the previous week's survey.

International securities transactions and the Bank of Canada's monetary policy report highlight today's Canadian economic releases as U.S. markets receive jobless claims and housing starts, followed by the Philadelphia Fed's manufacturing report for July.