Home loan colossus Countrywide Financial Corp. announced Friday that it would slash as many as 12,000 jobs, or nearly 20% of its workforce, saying the downturn in the housing market and the credit crunch related to sub-prime loans have created the worst conditions ever seen by the modern mortgage industry.

The announcement by Calabasas-based Countrywide came hours after a smaller rival in the mortgage business, Pasadena-based savings and loan IndyMac Bancorp Inc., warned that it probably would record its first loss since 1998 in the third quarter. IndyMac said it would cut 1,000 jobs, 10% of its total.

North Texas home sales continued a downward trend in August, with 10 percent fewer houses changing hands than a year earlier.

The drop was even steeper in the condominium market, where sales were off 17 percent.

Local real estate agents sold 8,480 pre-owned homes last month, the North Texas Real Estate Information System said Friday. Including August’s declines, home sales for the first eight months of 2007 are down about 6 percent in North Texas.

With the recent turmoil in national home mortgage markets, some analysts had expected a steeper decline. But the full impact of the credit crunch won’t be determined right away, real estate agents say.

How worried should homeowners or sellers be at the moment? Looking at two nationally quoted measures of home values, you might be perplexed.At the end of August, Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller national home price index reported that prices fell 3.2 percent from the second quarter of 2006 to the same period this year. Declines in property values in some metropolitan areas were much more severe - 11 percent in Detroit, 7.7 percent in Tampa, Fla., 7.3 percent in San Diego, 7 percent in Washington, 4 percent in San Francisco and 3.7 percent in Boston.

Title insurance: A couple thousand dollars.

Property taxes: A few thousand more.

Having your own garage in San Francisco: Priceless.

Well, maybe not priceless - and not easy either, considering the drawn-out, stressful design review and permit process - but a place to keep the car is worth plenty. Jennifer Kauffman of Zephyr Real Estate says a garage can tack $100,000 onto the price of a home.

Q: Recently I saw a newspaper article about work done on a house without a building permit. I have had much work done to my home without permits. When I sell the house, is this a case of buyer beware or could there be a problem with the building inspectors if the buyer wants to make a stink?

My house now has more square footage than shown on the official county records. Would I be taking a risk if I mention my home’s square footage?