To help show the two-wheeler appeal of a neighborhood, some real estate agents are giving bike tours to potential buyers , according to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer story.  Would a bike-friendly be a selling point for you when it comes to buying a house?

With gas prices high, bicycles flying out of stores and a buyer’s market for houses, several real estate agents around the country are touting the two-wheeled appeal of their listings.

Some even show houses exclusively by bike, wheeling through the neighborhood with potential buyers to show off bike lanes and bike-focused businesses and repair shops.

Clad in a purple helmet with plastic flowers dangling from her handlebars, Kirsten Kaufman, of Portland, is part of a new generation of agents eager to replace the stereotypes of hauling clients around in fancy sedans or sport utility vehicles.

A new state law intended to help people who are in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure could  mask what’s really going on with foreclosures, according to a Los Angeles Times blog post 

 Prepare for headlines along this line: “Huge drop in L.A. foreclosure filings in September.” Behind those upcoming headlines: a new state law requiring lenders to make better efforts to talk with homeowners before initiating the foreclosure process.

So much for entry-level condo construction. The Cathedral Building condos offer something entirely different by combining luxury and history in a landmark building, according to my story in today’s paper.  What do you think? Is city living in a high-end condo in a beautiful building appealing to you?

 A little bit of Manhattan’s Park Avenue has arrived here in the form of seven luxury, full-floor condominiums housed in a landmark flatiron design skyscraper built in 1914.

Or Brooklyn West as project developer Andrew Brog likes to think of Oakland’s up and coming Uptown District neighborhood. The area is undergoing a revival, with several new restaurants opening in the last year or two and the restoration of the nearby Fox Theater almost complete.

“When I get out of the (19th Street) BART station, it’s urban. I spent 40 years of my life in New York City. So to me it was comfortable. You walk down the street and it’s a little gritty. I understand it. The buildings are beautiful and there’s energy and the weather is great and it’s a good location. Everything reminded me of Brooklyn,” said Brog, who first thought about building luxury condos in San Francisco but changed his mind when he saw Oakland.

Is it any surprise? San Francisco, San Mateo and Palo Alto are among the most expensive cities in the nation when it comes to housing values, according to an Associated Press story.

Californians rave about year-round sunshine, temperate climate and easy access to surfing, snowboarding and everything in between. But when it comes to getting the most out of their homebuying dollar, they’ve got nothing on homeowners in the Midwest, a new study suggests.

Eight out of the top 10 most expensive housing markets in the U.S. are in California, while eight Midwestern cities are among the 10 most affordable markets, according to the Coldwell Banker Home Price Comparison Index released Tuesday.

The study compared the average value of 2,200-square-foot houses with four bedrooms, two and a half baths, a family room and a two-car garage across 315 U.S. markets.

The government’s bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is already lowering interest rates for some home loans, according to a Contra Costa Times story.  That could be good news for people who are thinking of refinancing an adjustable-rate mortgage set to go up soon into a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage. Trouble is the bailout won’t help people in foreclosure or who are behind on their mortgage payments or those who have jumbo loans (which are not backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Do you expect the bailout to help you?

Will the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac help out homeowners? The answer will depend largely on whether a homeowner is current with her or her monthly mortgage payments, according to an  Associated Press story.

 NEW YORK—The government’s historic bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sunday will be good news to homebuyers and some homeowners hoping to refinance if it leads to lower mortgage rates, as experts expect.

But for homeowners already behind on their mortgage payments, or who owe more than their homes are now worth, the plan unveiled Sunday by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offers little in the way of extra relief.

“The bailout will give the mortgage industry a stability that we haven’t had in a couple of years,” said Rich Cosner, president of Prudential California Realty. “But frankly no, it won’t help (struggling borrowers) to refinance.”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a critical and increasingly dominant role in the mortgage market. The companies buy mortgage loans from banks and package those loans into securities that they either hold or sell to U.S. and foreign investors. That allows traditional lenders like Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual to make more loans.

Yep, buyers are in calling the shot  in today’s slumping market. They’re asking for extras before they buy a house and they are getting them, according to a CNNMoney.com story.

  Rock-bottom price just isn’t enough for buyers these days - it’s a starting point. If the furnace is out of date, they’ll demand a new one. Cracked driveways have to be repaved, and dirty carpeting torn out and replaced. All at the seller’s expense.

Buyers are in the driver’s seat and they know it. They’re using that leverage to pry more concessions out of desperate sellers than they ever dreamed of during the bubble.

“‘Now it’s my turn,’ is the attitude,” said Mike Byrd, a real estate agent with SLO Home Store in San Luis Obispo, Calif. “Some buyers are really putting the screws on.”

In New England, buyers are demanding that sellers pay to fill up a home’s heating oil tank. In California, sellers are forking over closing costs. Nearly everywhere, buyers are insisting that sellers purchase a home service contract providing a one year warranty on all of a home’s appliances.

The two presidential candidates talk about the struggle of middle-class homeowners. But they are anything but middle-class homeownwers. A story in thewww.mainstreet.com Web site describes the residential properties owned by Barack Obama and John McCain.