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On the cusp of Christmas, Santa's real estate bag offers goodies and some lumps of coal.

First, the good news: First-time buyers taking advantage of the government's tax-credit incentive helped yank sales of previously owned homes up by 7.4% in November from October, according to the National Association of Realtors, a trade association. Sales are up 44.1% from a year ago, with about half of them generated by first-time buyers.

According to a recent poll from the Pew Research Center, 13% of parents with grown children have had at least one grown child move back in with them over the past year.

Ten percent of respondents between ages 18 and 24 had moved back in with their parents because of the recession.

According to an AFL-CIO report, one-third of young workers are living at home with parents.

The recent extension of the $6,500 federal home buyer tax credit to existing homeowners stands to help the economy, according to a new survey by Coldwell Banker.

Only 6% of those 1,000 surveyed said they would splurge -- on shopping or vacations. Though no one wants to appear frivolous in a survey, especially in this era of frugality, the fact that 83% said they would put the money toward more humdrum expenses implies maybe they really meant it.

In all 34% said they would pay off debts, 29% would make improvements to their home and 28% even said they would put the $6,500 into savings.

As part of a political compromise, the credit -- originally reserved for first-time home buyers -- was extended early last month to anyone buying a home before April 30, 2010.

The survey also found that 20% of homeowners were more motivated to buy a home than they were six months ago because of the credit.

Green may be the buzzword of the day in the construction industry, but buyers are increasingly skeptical when they find out green homes may cost more greenbacks.

A recent NAHB survey of its members showed this trend holding strong.

"Buyers have consistently said they want to be energy efficient, but stop when the better windows, insulation and appliances begin to cost too much – over $5,000 for an average new home," Stephen Melman, economics director for the National Association of Home Builders, told WalletPop.

Think rich people pay cash for 8-digit trophy homes? Think again.

According to the Malibu Real Estate Blog, there are 18 homes in the Malibu market where sellers have specifically noted in the MLS listing that they are willing to provide financing to the buyer: "Homes range from $1.1m for a mo-bi-yal home in Paradise Cove to a $10m hillside mansion with jetliner views. There is even a newly remodeled home on Point Dume with tennis court, pool, and beach rights whose owner will carry."

The increase in seller-financing on high-end homes is a direct result of the tightening in the jumbo mortgage market. Without alternative sources of financing, buyers can't buy and sellers can't sell, and that's driving an increasing in seller financing.

Not to be left out of the Black Friday hype, Beazer Homes is offering special Black Friday deals at five of its Orlando-area communities.

What's being given away is up to $2,000 in "free" appliances for contracts signed on Friday. But before you give up your place in the Wal-Mart line at 4 a.m., just know that in today's buyers-rule-and-developers-drool market, you can likely mosey on in any old day of the week and let the good folks at Beazer know which dishwasher you want them to throw in for free before you'll sign on the dotted line. Just saying ...

Beazer Homes USA, according to its Web site, "builds for the middle-class buyer who's ready to make the move into the white-picket-fence scene." They build homes with an average price of about $248,700 and courts the entry-level, move-up, and active adult markets.

As for Orlando-area buyers who want to be able to gloat about how they got their house in a Black Friday special, here's the skinny: The special one-day incentive is being offered at Heritage Commons in Winter Springs, The Legacy in Orlando, The Enclave at Moss Park, Sawgrass, also in southeast Orlando, and at Victoria Park Trails in DeLand.

The Federal Tax Credit for qualified new home buyers at $8,000 and $6,500 for existing home buyers is still available.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports that a record number of loans -- one in seven -- is delinquent, up from one in 10 a year ago.

Today's numbers also show that one in 22 families in the U.S. is in the process of losing their home, up from one in 34 a year ago. Based on these figures, we are now on track for 2.9 million foreclosure starts in this year alone.

The lenders' trade association is quick to blame this worsening trend on higher unemployment levels. But that ignores the fact that reckless lending precipitated the economic crisis and prolongs it each day with every new foreclosure, which forces down surrounding property values.

Who doesn't have an unmarried friend who lost the house, or at least their investment in the condo, when the relationship went sour?

The key question when buying property together, according to a new book -- "Living Together: A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples" -- seems pretty simple: Does your legal relationship match your private agreement?

But who wants to have that conversation when you are newly in love, or at least new to nesting?

No one, the book's author admitted to WalletPop.

A "cash for caulkers" program being studied by the Obama administration should look at much more than caulking windows and other simple ways to give households money to pay for weatherization projects.

Filling in air gaps where heat escapes from homes is a good start to cutting heating bills and thus cut America's energy use, but any stimulus project aimed at homes should look at how most American homes are heated and how to do it more efficiently.

New York Times columnist David Leonhardt recently wrote about the home weatherization version of the wildly successful cash for clunkers program. It would help put contractors and construction workers back to work insulating homes and caulking air leaks, while saving homeowners money in the long term by weatherizing their homes.

For women, it's about emotion. Men? Size, of course.

No, we're not talking about that. We're talking about home buying. And the male-female approach to that activity is about as similar as football and crocheting.

To be fair to the less-fair sex, size isn't the whole picture, although men do like big yards and ample square footage. When buying a house, they prefer to deal with facts, researchers say, and they tend to make decisions quickly. They like schematics and floor plans: Where's the garage and will it accommodate my jet ski?

Woah! Cost Plus World Market is having a huge online furniture sale. Get 25% off furniture with coupon code NOVFURNAF. If you click on the above link the coupon code should automagically appear when you put an item into your shopping cart.

You can also get free shipping on purchases over $50, which is not bad at all, though it does not include furniture. It's unclear when the free shipping deal expires.

The sale also includes up to 60% on bedroom furniture, up to 50% off on dinnerware and lamps, up to 40% off on dining furniture, and up to 30% off on leather furniture. I like this brown leather chair, pictured at right. All you need is a blanket and a book to curl up with.

Caveats: Online only. Not valid on food, wine, gift certificates or previous purchases. Cannot be combined with other offers or promotions.

More Black Friday ads have surfaced, this time for Kohl's and Staples, showing additional deals to be had on clothing and technology.

The Kohl's Black Friday ad weighs in at more than 60 pages of deals and Staples' doorbuster deals include some good computer deals and plenty of digital cameras.

Kohl's kicks off its Black Friday with a collection of bargains on toys and clothing to lure in shoppers when the stores open at 4 a.m. on Black Friday. Many of these deals will also be available online, possibly starting on Thanksgiving.

If you're having trouble making your mortgage payments, but want to stay in your home, you may get the option if your loan is held by Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae announced a new program recently that will allow you to stay in your home as a renter if you hand back the deed to the lender.

This new "Deed for Lease Program" will allow families to stay in their home rather than being displaced. It will also help to stem foreclosures and prevent further deterioration of neighborhoods filled with vacant foreclosures, according to an announcement from Frannie Mae.

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.

This year, you got paid for tossing out the clunker car. Next year, you'll be rewarded for getting rid of the energy-inefficient washer or fridge. Many states will be sponsoring a "Cash for Appliances" program, similar to "Cash for Clunkers" in that you'll be paid for doing a big spring cleaning of your old appliances and buying those labeled with the Energy Star seal.

This is part of the federal government's economic stimulus plan -- it set aside $300 million in rebates for buying energy-efficient products, and state governments had to send detailed plans to Washington by earlier this month to explain how they would give that money away. So unlike Cash for Clunkers, each state is in charge of its own Cash for Appliances program.

California, for example, will focus on rebates for just three standard appliances. It will give $100 for the purchase of an Energy Star-approved clothes washer, $75 for a refrigerator and $50 for a room air-conditioner. Those rebates are in addition to any additional rebates offered by the state utility company supplying your electricity and the appliance manufacturer you buy from. The program is supposed to start in early spring.