OPEN HOMES: Housing New Zealand sold 52 houses by April 14 and has another 30 for sale. A Government scheme for first-home buyers has sold 52 former state homes - but critics question whether it is anything more than a fig leaf to distract from the increasingly out-of-reach housing market. The FirstHome policy, announced in October, saw surplus and empty state homes offered for sale to a waiting list of first-home Read more [...]

As of mid-April, only 32% of homes in San Francisco were still for sale two months after being listed. The only two major markets where a smaller percentage of homes were still for sale two months after being listed were San Jose, at 31%, and Oakland, at 29%. Real estate company Trulia examined the largest 100 metro areas to find out where houses were moving the fastest. San Francisco's rate was slightly faster than at the same time last year, when 36% of houses were still for sale two months Read more [...]

An old house can be like an old friend — a comforting presence, sometimes taken for granted. Old houses can, like old friends, orient us and help define us. We are lucky to live in a place where historic buildings dot our landscape, giving us a sense of history. One such building is Rose Hill in Guilderland. When it was built by John P. Veeder in 1842, when John Tyler was president and the United States stretched only as far west as Missouri. Horses and carriages rode a rutted Western Turnpike Read more [...]