By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com on Yahoo.com
National Association of Realtors reports that home prices dropped a record 12.4% in the final quarter of 2008 – the biggest year-over-year decline in 30 years.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home prices fell 12.4% during the fourth quarter of 2008, the largest year-over-year decline since the National Association of Realtors began [...]

By Elizabeth Stanton
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell, extending the market’s weekly retreat, after Wells Fargo & Co. said its fourth quarter loss was wider than first reported and a British bank increased provisions for bad loans.
Wells Fargo, the second-biggest U.S. home lender, fell as much as 7.4 percent after revising results because of [...]

By Matthew Benjamin
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) — The stimulus plan emerging from Congress may jolt the U.S. economy in successive waves: relief to cash-strapped consumers, businesses and states, then a job- creating lift from spending on roads, utilities and public transit.
While the package will take time to have an impact, and unemployment is likely to keep [...]

By Jim Carlton and Bobby White, Wall Street Journal
BIG SUR, Calif. — As Sacramento squabbles over the state’s $42 billion deficit, Californians are getting a bitter taste of what’s to come after the steep budget cuts that are inevitable when legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally hammer out a deal.
Some world-famous parks like Pfeiffer Big [...]

By David Ellis, CNNMoney.com staff writer
The heads of eight top banks faced the fury of Congress. But the execs noted that without TARP funds, credit would have become harder to obtain.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Top executives from eight of the nation’s largest financial institutions told Congress Wednesday that they are continuing to lend, even as [...]

By Laura Litvan and Brian Faler
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Democratic House and Senate leaders are near agreement on a $789.5 billion economic stimulus plan, a leadership aide said today.
The tentative dollar amount, reached after late-night talks, is smaller than the $838 billion bill approved by the Senate yesterday and the $819 billion package passed by [...]