Most of the metropolitian areas in the United States with the least expensive sales prices for single-family homes in the first quarter of 2011 are in the mid-west, according to a National Association of Realtors study covered by the Washington Post.

See the Post's photo gallery of the ten least expensive cities to buy a home.

About 30 Burlington residents gathered at Contois Auditorium last night in the first of a series of public engagement sessions to help plan the future of the city's downtown and waterfront areas.

In a paper delivered to Congress last week, Ben Bernanke and his staff describe the complex and interdependent issues hampering today’s housing market.

Policy makers are challenged to find measures that “adapt the existing housing stock to the prevailing tight mortgage lending conditions” such as encouraging the conversion of foreclosed properties to rental properties and a housing finance system that is both less restrictive than the current environment without becoming as lax as during the prior decade.

Updated facts about mobile home parks now available from the Vermont Department of Community Affairs include: 

• The number of individual lots in the state fell to 7,194 in 2011.
• The number of vacant lots is 310 (or 4.3%).  
• The number of VT's mobile home parks rose to 248 in 2011, with the addition of Ledgewood Estates in Bolton containing five individual lots currently for sale to the residents and 3 Depot Street Mobile Home Park in Fair Haven-a three lot park currently bank-owned and for sale.
• The median lot rent is $302.

Read more about Vermont's mobile home parks.