Question: I own two properties. If the bank forecloses on one, will it affect my other property or my principal residence?

Answer: If you lose any property by foreclosure, your credit will be ruined. Mortgage lenders don’t like to see a foreclosure on your credit reports. However, unless you have a blanket mortgage on all of your properties (which is very rare), loss of one property by foreclosure won’t affect your other properties.

Power lines thwart plans for poolQuestion: I want to install a swimming pool in my backyard, but there are electric power lines above the area and a power pole on my property. Can I sue the electric company because I cannot build my pool due to their encroachment?

A year and a half ago, Saverio Bellomo and his wife, Amy Robinson Bellomo, thought about selling their house. A real estate agent urged them to list it at $930,000. They decided to hold off for a while.

Big mistake.

Today, their two-story stucco house in American Canyon is on the market for $868,000. “Obviously, we’d love to sell high but we have to be realistic,” said Robinson Bellomo, who grew up in the East Bay and has lived in the house since it was built five years ago.

The term “mortgage meltdown” has become so commonplace - on TV, in headlines and even casual conversations - that you might assume that this is a tough time to get a mortgage.But the reality is starkly different: Mortgage money is plentiful, the majority of mortgage products remain relatively unaffected by troubles in the subprime segment and interest rates for 30-year fixed-rate loans remain in the low 6 percent range for people with reasonably good - not necessarily perfect - credit. Even interest rates on jumbo loans - those more than $417,000 - have fallen after spiking this summer.

Back in the 17th century in the Netherlands, there was a mass rage for, of all things, tulip bulbs. Prices got bid way up, and speculators jumped in to bid them up higher still. By the peak of the tulip fever, a single bulb was going for the equivalent of thousands of dollars. But eventually the market fizzled and prices plunged.

If I had been one of the people who invested in flowers during the frenzy, I would have felt bad to lose my money. But I like to imagine I would also have taken great comfort in seeing the triumph of rationality — to find that there was indeed a connection between the real usefulness of tulip bulbs and the price they would fetch.

Long View Drive in southern San Diego County is bad news for anyone sniffing around for signs that the housing market downturn is about over.

The two-story stucco house at 1308 is an eyesore among the other well-tended homes in this Chula Vista neighborhood. It’s vacant, and the small patch of lawn is overrun with weeds. The entryway is littered with junk mail and old fliers, and stuck to the door is the piece of paper that explains it all: Notice of Trustee Sale.
With more than a half-dozen “for sale” signs on the same block, others seem sure to follow.