A growing number of real estate agents and brokers are making blogging look easy these days.Whether home prices are moving up or down, the vast majority of Americans own a home — or dream of home ownership — and are eager to learn more about the process of buying and selling property.

Real estate professionals have found they can attract the attention of these potential clients and win their business by blogging.

But for others in the industry who are selling less well-understood products such as mortgage loans, closing services and title insurance, blogging has been a tougher nut to crack.

Delinquency rates on home loans made by federally chartered banks rose to a seasonally adjusted 1.91 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006, a level not seen since 2003, but still well below delinquency rates of the 1990s.

The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that the percentage of loans on which payments are at least 30 days late continued what has been a gradual rise since hitting a recent historic low of 1.38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Since then, the delinquency rate has climbed slightly every quarter, with the exception of the fourth quarter of 2006, when it fell to a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent, down from 1.62 percent the previous quarter.

The Idaho Association of Realtors has introduced legislation, similar to measures proposed and passed in other states that have drawn fire from federal agencies, to mandate a higher level of real estate service.

Legislation proposed by the Realtor association requires real estate brokerages to be available to receive and present all offers and counteroffers to their customers, whether or not their customers want those services. The bill is opposed by at least two real estate companies that offer low-cost, reduced-service options for consumers in Idaho.

If location is the golden rule of real estate, then many who invest in real estate mutual funds might at times feel as if they’ve stumbled upon a great deal in the fanciest building in town.

A big acquisition in the commercial real estate market has led some observers to speculate that demand will continue for companies that invest in real estate.

Known as real-estate investment trusts, or REITs, these companies have shown at times returns greater than 25 percent per year in recent years. REITs, which frequently invest in commercial real estate or larger residential projects such as apartment buildings, have dodged the financial wrecking ball that has left cracks in some parts of the housing market.