The local newspaper recently published a list of delinquent tax properties for our county, which painted a telling portrait of the local economy. The list, which takes up two thirds of a page and includes over 600 properties, wasn't just made up of individuals threatened with losing their homes; but instead filled with banks and multiple property owners.

Normally, the listing takes up less than half a page and reads like a phone book, with no name appearing more than once. This time, the listing had large clumps of the same name, with close to 30 property owners owing back taxes for more than four properties, and one couple owing taxes on 24 properties! Additionally the list included many banks, business and development groups, illustrating the sad reality facing our local economy. Had the list also included the manufactured homes that are also delinquent, it would have easily spilled onto a second page!

While there's no way to know exactly why these individuals own all of these properties, assuming that they are rentals or properties to be flipped isn't out of the question. As the local credit opportunities dried up and businesses began closing up their doors, property owners found their buyers disappearing, and apparently stopped paying their taxes. Owners of these properties have 28 days to pay up before the county forecloses on them, dumping an additional 600 foreclosures onto our already crowded real estate market.

Despite my desire to purchase a local house for peanuts; the number of foreclosures due to delinquent real estate tax deeply concerns me. If only half of these properties enter foreclosure the loss of tax revenue and additional empty homes will be a further drain our city and county revenues as well as their already stretched resources. Unfortunately, there seems to be no easy solution to the problem nor an end in sight.

During the Depression, it was so common for homeowners to share housing costs by renting rooms to strangers that a whole romantic milieu arose from the practice, with teenage (or, in Lolita's case, younger) girls falling for the remote, lonely, mysterious older men who shared a kitchen table with their family. Signs show that practice may be returning. It's green -- more people on your square footage means your ecological footprint lessens! It's friendly -- sharing your lives with others, even just at occasional mealtimes, is a way to break down the barriers that keep our communities stark and lonesome. Best of all, it's financially savvy -- spending to light and heat a 2,000 square-foot home when you really only need 1,200 or so is both expensive and hard to avoid, without the considerable and not easily reversible process of selling your home and buying a new one.

Rooms for rent has been in the news a lot lately, and I know a lot of families here in Portland who choose to offer one or two rooms to a singleton who's willing to help with the mortgage payment, the electric bill, and maybe the gardening or the bike repair. My littler sister has shared a room in a family friend's home for several years, and been through all the ups and downs.

I've discovered, in my experience with house share situations, that it's important to very clearly set expectations ahead of time; whether you will share the food expenses, who can use the kitchen, when; what the rules are about cleaning up after oneself in common areas; how comfortable you feel about leaving the bathroom door unlocked; what exactly is going to be charged for rent and utilities (a flat dollar amount? a percentage?); whether the phone/internet/leftovers are on- or off-limits. What about in your town? Have you rented a room, or are you thinking about it? Any tips to share?

The recession and collapse of the housing market may have one bright spot for animal lovers. As the owners of houses and apartments become more motivated to find renters, more are considering allowing pets.

I talked last week with Mike Torchia, president of Healthy Pet Nation, a Los Angeles-based fitness and training program that advocates people spending more time being active with their pets. Torchia, who is also a celebrity dog trainer, is big on dogs getting allowed into public places. He especially goes to bat for the service dogs of people with disabilities that others can't see, but he wants all well-behaved dogs allowed more places.

Torchia says that he's seen--and encouraged--buildings desperate for tenants switch to allowing pets. That goes for either those who rent apartments or condo or co-op boards, in which owners control the common rules of the building. One new Los Angeles luxury rental building wasn't able to rent all its apartments.

If you own real estate in New York, you have been no doubt telling yourself and anyone who would listen that prices here were not going to fall like they were in the rest of the country. Limited supply, increasing urbanization of the country, enduring appeal, tight co-op loan restrictions were probably among your reasons. And if you looked at rental or sale real estate ads for the city, where some studios rent for $4,000 a month or sell for $600,000, you would not worry about a downturn. But now some data suggests New York may not be totally immune.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Index out yesterday showed home prices in 20 major markets were down an average 15.3% from a year ago and 1.3% in the latest month of survey data, April. Yesterday the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise said that nationally home prices fell 0.8% in April and 4.8% over the last year. The Pacific region lost the most--down 2% in a month--and the east south central did best--up 0.9%.

Case-Shiller shows that New York peaked in June 2006 at 215.83 on their scale and has slid steadily ever since. The April number was 193.93 (up slightly from the month before.) But Case-Shiller looks at the whole metro area, all five boroughs, parts of Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester, Long Island and even a bit of Pennsylvania. When people think of New York prices, they think of Manhattan. Today The Real Estate Group of New York issued figures showing an uneven market that has been mostly stagnant all 2008. Across Manhattan non-doorman one-bedroom rental prices are down 4% to $2,859 for the last 12 months. (With a doorman it's up slightly. Two-bedrooms were down a little in both categories.) Of course, I'm a renter and prospective buyer, so I've been telling everyone prices will fall.

MSN Money has rounded up 5 things you should never rent, especially under a rent to own program! Many people recognize that rent to own stores don't offer the best prices for pretty much anything, but don't realize that some items the cost of renting to own is high enough to purchase the item three times over. The high cost of these rent to own items comes from the risk that the stores take on over the period of the rental, but most consumers can avoid these fees by going without for a few months and saving up or lowering their expectations!

Big screen televisions and computers top the list of items you shouldn't rent, these items can be purchased outright and even through a payment plan with a store such as Best Buy or Dell for a much reduced price. Every other week I get email offers for Dell computers priced below $500, for which a rent to own customer would spend at least $2,000 over the rental period. Another prominent item to avoid renting are rims to pimp out your 1995 ford escort; stick with the stock because no one likes a car that is all show and no go.

The article does recognize that there are some items where renting makes the most sense such as a tuxedo so long as you don't attend black tie affairs every weekend. I can also understand renting a big screen TV for a big sporting event but in this day in age it seems like at least one person in a group of friends has a big screen already, even if it is from Smitty's Rent-a-Center. Do yourself a favor and avoid renting to own. You can save buckets of money by exercising patience.

Whether 'tis nobler in the minds of your parents and friends to rent; than to suffer the slings and arrows of home ownership, I have a few calculators that will help you make the decision based on your unique situation. Owning a home is an idea which is drilled into us from the moment we become financially aware of the cost to live someplace. Many people consider renting to be throwing away money which you could be using to build equity. In reality the true cost benefit of owning a home relies on many factors including home price, rental increase, home value appreciation and length of ownership.