Milan and Florence weighed in at over $1.6 million for a home, on average; Rome just under $1.3 million. And that's dollars, not lira (which, of course, don't even exist anymore).

Also out of reach for many Americans these days are the pink sands of Hamilton, Bermuda, Bucaresti, Romania and Shanghai, all averaging above $1.3 million, not to mention Vancouver and Dublin at $1.1 million -- and Dubai trailing not far behind.

The most expensive market is not in Italy, however. It's in Singapore, where homes average nearly $1.9 million. Coldwell Banker points out that is "10% lower than La Jolla" but fails to mention it is also 10 times the average home value in everyday places like Phoenix, Mobile, Ala, Lexington, KY, and Syracuse, NY.

Time was when the sage advice was to "go west young man" in search of fame, fortune and nifty real estate deals. But in 2009, heading east may be a better idea. At least if you are starting out in the U.S. And, when I say east, I mean like all the way to Poland! Now hold on to your Polish zlotys while I explain this one:

Seems Poland, Krakow in particular, is a darn good place to not only indulge in a sausage or two, but also to buy up chunks of real estate at prices that are down anywhere from 9% to 17%.

It appears Uncle Sam will keep propping up the still shaky real estate market for months to come. The Senate last night voted to extend the $8,000 first-time home buyers tax credit, and the House followed suit today. The president is expected to soon sign it into law.

But is the bill good for real estate? Not at all. What better way to fix a bubble caused by way too much home ownership than to encourage more home ownership?

Extending the home buyer tax credit is a bad idea because the real estate market doesn't need it. The panic phase of the housing crisis is essentially over. Americans know full well that house prices are no longer in free fall, but still have a ways to go before resembling anything close to a recovery.

"Well-funded marketing campaigns and perverse incentives to brokers are targeting seniors' home equity and using reverse mortgages as their tools," attorney Tara Twomey said in the NCLC news release.

Once upon a time, two or three years ago, when the housing market was robust and homes sold in a matter of days, people seemed to move a lot.

Or ,even if they didn't move, they thought they might. Everything seemed so temporary. We had "starter homes" and people were "trading up." Homes were financial investments rather than investments in something far less tangible -- our community.

If there's one side effect of the recession that warms my heart, it's the fact that people are less mobile, less likely to move so much.

Homes aren't selling, employers aren't recruiting and paying relocation costs at the same high rates, and people are settling into their homes with the knowledge it's going to be awhile before moving becomes an option.

Premature withdrawal could prove painful -- to your pocket.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is apparently set to stop the central bank's purchase of mortgage-backed securities in a few months, which could contribute to a full percentage point increase in the rates of 30-year mortgages.

Talk about shooting the alleged economic recovery in the foot before it has a chance to really get going.

Seems that Bernanke feels strongly, says a Bloomberg report, that by March it will be time for private investors to step in and start making the purchases in place of Uncle Sam -- or, in this case, Uncle Ben.

Goldman Sachs spent years buying hundreds of thousands of subprime mortgages during the real estate boom, packaging them into high-yield bonds. Now that the bottom has fallen out of the property market, the Wall Street behemoth finds itself in a different role: taking homes away from Americans defaulting on their loans.

That's according to a lengthy investigation by McClatchy Newspapers . The report says there are hundreds of cases in which subsidiaries of Goldman have sought to contain bondholder losses by foreclosing on properties and evicting delinquent borrowers.

A funny thing happens when checks stop rolling in. You don't have any money. That scenario is becoming reality for yet another Hollywood A-lister, Oscar winner, Nicolas Cage, whose movies have failed to produce box-office hits. Or a lot of royalty dough.

But Cage, who owes a reported $6.3 million to the IRS, isn't blaming his professional choices (or acting ability) for his cash crunch. Instead, he's suing his financial adviser, citing he's to blame for the actor's money woes.

On Oct. 16, Cage filed a lawsuit claiming his longtime business manager Samuel J. Levin "lined his [own} pockets with several million in business management fees while sending Cage down a path toward financial ruin." Cage claims he didn't realize he was in such a deep financial hole until earlier this year, when the sell-off began.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke recently talked about "green shoots" of economic recovery and declared the recession probably over, but some economists fear the worst is yet to come.

As bad as the residential real estate crisis was for banks, the impact of failed residential mortgages could be dwarfed by the problems now facing the banks regarding commercial real estate.

A loan for a commercial building like a shopping mall is very different from the mortgage you have on your home. Commercial mortgages have a much shorter term, usually only five to seven years. The bank doesn't expect the owner to pay the debt off in that amount of time, but when that time comes, they need to refinance the remaining balance into a new loan.

Section 8 tenants, not unlike the girl no one wants to ask to the dance, are enjoying a sudden surge in popularity.

They were unwanted when the market sizzled because the rent on their units is capped and landlords equate higher-income folks with being able to pay top dollar. But now, with greater vacancy rates and more people out of work, landlords are scrambling for tenants. And suddenly, Section 8 tenants are a hot-ticket item again.

The number of new landlords opting into the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Voucher Participation Program -- which offers housing assistance to very low-income people -- shot up 18% so far this year, according to a company that tracks the trend in certain U.S. cities. GoSection8.com president Richard Cupelli says that Phoenix, Dallas, Oakland and San Diego -- where builders overshot like drunken gamblers -- lead the pack in the Section-8 rental comeback.

In an attempt to stem the tide of fleeing residents in an economic downturn, landlords across the US are showering tenants with gifts that include everything from flat-screen TVs to cash in the hope of encouraging them to renew their leases, writes the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

In a jobless recovery, they're hoping to avoid the expense of filling empty units. In the third quarter, the national apartment-vacancy rate hit 7.8%, a 23-year high, according to Reis Inc., which tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 markets.

And rising unemployment is forcing some out-of-work tenants to seek ways to cut costs, including getting a roommate, moving home with Mom and Dad or trading down to a cheaper apartment. Owners are focusing on keeping existing tenants because when apartments become vacated they can sit empty for months and often require marketing, painting, brokerage commissions and other expenses to attract new tenants.

Denver-based UDR is offering renewing tenants a flat-screen TV, new carpet, kitchen upgrade or $300 in cash, according to the WSJ. In New York City, landlords are paying broker fees, too. Equity Residential in New York says it has paid about $1.5 million in such commissions so far this year.

"Many companies are doing whatever they can to keep units occupied, especially heading into the seasonally slower leasing period," Paula Poskon, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co., told the WSJ.

Will the American Dream of home ownership go the way of the myth that our streets were paved in gold?

Home ownership has long been a milestone rung on the ladder of success. Much as we use birthdays to measure our personal progress toward life goals, buying a home of your own has been the way we announce to the world that we have arrived.

Throwing in tax incentives like mortgage interest and property tax deductions just sweetened the pot. If you wanted to keep up with the Joneses, you added a bigger deck whether you needed one or not.

Not all mortgage rates are created equal. There is a time and a place to consider an adjustable rate mortgage vs. a fixed rate.

If you have short term plans to pay off your loan in full then an adjustable rate may save you money over the term of the mortgage. If you're planning on keeping your mortgage for a longer period of time then an adjustable rate may be too risky considering today's evolving stock market.

Check out this week's video and we'll explain a few more scenarios to help determine which option is right for you. Ryan Minick and Steve DeLon are The 2 Mortgage Guys. Subscribe to their newsletter or visit them at www.The2MortgageGuys.com.

Authorities in Hong Kong have moved in to dampen demand at the highest end of that city's real estate market.

Coming on the heels of a developer there last week setting a world price record for the sale of an apartment -- $9,200 U.S. per square foot -- the Hong Kong Monetary Authority increased the amount of the down payment required from 30% to 40% of the purchase price to buy property valued at U.S. $2.8 million or more.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority functions as a central bank.

The deadline for first-time home buyers to take advantage of the government's $8,000 tax credit appears in line for an extension. But the popular tax break has already been fueling a phenomenon that many struggling real estate markets haven't experienced in years: bidding wars.

Lower-priced homes on the market in many once-beleaguered areas have seen a flood of offers, say real estate brokers from Boston to Portland, Ore. Though the original tax credit is good on homes sales completed by Nov. 30, because home deals can take months to complete, new buyers are rushing to close escrows so they don't miss out on the credit.

"It's a welcome change from the way things have been around here," says Carrie Novotny, a realtor in Edina, Minn., outside Minneapolis. She says a recent open house for a two-bedroom, Craftsman-style home listed at $213,000 drew several dozen prospective buyers and more than five serious bidders. The home eventually went into contract for $217,000, Novotny says. "It's been a bit crazy," she says. "People really want to nail down a sale to cash in on the tax break."