The Home Front

Although Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts is traditionally considered the site of the first Thanksgiving, some argue that the celebration actually took place earlier on a plantation near Jamestown, Va.

While historians may continue to grapple over that, Cyberhomes has released the following snapshot of Plymouth and Jamestown in an effort to determine which location would make a better destination for settlers today.

Here's what it found:

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The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced a new approach to stabilizing the housing market: driving down mortgage rates.

The effort is based on a two-pronged program that involves buying up to $100 billion in debt of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, while at the same time purchasing up to $500 billion of mortgage-backed securities backed by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie Mae.

The initiative is intended to lower Fannie and Freddie’s financing costs, which will enable the government-controlled, mortgage-finance giants to pass along those savings to consumers in the form of lower interest rates.

Here’s what you need to know:

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The National Association of Realtors existing home sales report for October—which was released Monday—is filled with ugly-looking numbers: sales fell 3 percent from September and nearly 2 percent from a year earlier. Total housing inventory increased to a 10.2-month supply. And the national median existing home price fell by 11 percent from a year ago—its biggest drop on record—to $183,000.

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What happens when your stock price plunges more than 60 percent in a single week? Well, if you’re too big to fail, like Citigroup, you get another government bailout. Under the terms of the deal with federal regulators, which was unveiled Sunday, Uncle Sam will pop an additional $20 billion of taxpayer money into the New York company and backstop most of the losses exceeding $29 billion in a $306 billion pool of toxic assets. The latest rescue package comes with a variety of strings attached, such as more limits on executive compensation, a cut in Citi’s dividend, and mandatory implementation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp’s mortgage modification program. The development comes five weeks after Citigroup received its initial $25 billion capital infusion from the government.

Here’s what you need to know:

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