To add to the mortgage meltdown miseries, the credit panic, the plunging home sales and the rising foreclosures, here's a new worry: a proposed cutoff of mortgage-interest tax deductions for houses with more than 3,000 square feet.
The mortgage credit crunch is not only affecting interest rates that home buyers are quoted, but it is also triggering changes in less visible areas, such as minimum credit scores, location and type of properties, and even controls on who orders credit reports.
Although real estate sales and prices are flat or down in dozens of metropolitan areas, micro-markets within them are performing differently, with prices and sales up over last year and plenty of buyers still wanting to move in.
A major credit card company is ending a long-standing practice that critics have said raised many of its customers' borrowing costs when they applied for mortgages and home-equity loans.