To get the full experience of this page, please upgrade your Tuesday’s housing data show that things remain tough for both the new and existing markets as they continue limping towards recovery. Still, the downtrodden home builders received glimmers of hope: Inventory is down and prices are up. Early Tuesday, the closely-watched , which measures resales in major metro areas, showed that May’s home prices edged up about 1% when compared to a month earlier. It would be easy to get excited. But, , when adjusted for seasonal factors, the 10-city figure edged up just 0.1%, while the 20-city index came in flat. And when compared with a year earlier, prices fell 3.6% and 4.5%, respectively. That means that price stabilization – essential for the market to begin healing itself – remains elusive. Associated Press A home under construction in Portland, Ore. New-home sales, meanwhile, slipped to 312,000 June from 315,000 in May, disappointing economists who were looking for a 328,000 annual rate. The miss weighed on home builder stocks with none trading in positive territory Tuesday afternoon: Beazer Homes USA fell 2%, while Meritage Homes Corp. was down 1.3%. Still, the seasonally adjusted estimate of new homes for sale at the end of June came in at 164,000. According to J.P. Morgan, new-home inventory is 71% below its July 2006 peak, showing builders have done a good job of selling excess inventory – even if they had to slash prices – and curbing overbuilding. Median prices meanwhile, climbed 7.2% from a year earlier to $235,000. To be sure, that could just be a “function of who is buying rather than any tightness or improvement in market conditions,” Nomura writes in a research note. Here’s what industry watchers think about both reports: Ellen Zentner and Aichi Amemiya, economists, Nomura : “Tighter lending standards and widespread expectations of further declines in home values have been depressing home sales on a larger scale than we had expected. In addition, the larger...

Genworth Financial Inc. has made available the results of an independent study conducted by Promontory Financial Group which found that, among loans originated prior to the collapse of the housing bubble, low downpayment mortgages with mortgage insurance (MI) were significantly less likely to default during and after the housing crisis than uninsured low downpayment loans with a “piggyback” second mortgage.

Lowering the current loan limits (a maximum of $729,750 in the most expensive markets) would really affect just 5 percent of the housing market, although that percentage is far higher in certain local markets. David Stevens says that's enough to hurt the overall market right now, and that we still need another year of recovery before we take such a risk.

Gretchen Morgenson, the Fair Game columnist for Sunday Business, will discuss her new book on the mortgage crisis, "Reckless Endangerment," on Quora.com.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States edged closer on Tuesday to a devastating default as Republicans and Democrats were deadlocked over competing plans to raise the debt ceiling, one week before a deadline to act.

Adrian Wilson Touch-screen check ins and a luggage “Yobot” give a futuristic feel to the new Yotel in New York City. A newly opened Aloft Hotel in Brooklyn, N.Y. features pod chairs, a floating circular front desk and a lively bar. But the most appealing feature might be the price tag: starting at $169 a night. It’s one of four cheap but design-conscious hotels targeted at travelers in their twenties and thirties that have popped up in Brooklyn and Manhattan in recent months, the . (The West Coast got these hip but affordable hotels earlier.) Taking a cue from trendy discount chains, such as IKEA and Target, designers use clean lines and bright colors to create a hip feel even though they use cheaper materials. “We’re not talking about high design, but we’re not doing a four- to five-star hotel,” says Glen Coben, the architect who designed the interiors of the city’s first Tryp by Wyndham, which is set to open this fall. Nearly every detail of the Tryp Times Square South was custom designed to cut costs, from the light fixtures to a breakfast buffet with shutters that conceal liquor bottles for the bar at night. (.) Unlike the cookie-cutter design of a Courtyard by Marriot or Holiday Inn, each hotel has a distinctive vibe. Nowhere is the more evident than the futuristic Yotel at 42nd Street and Tenth Avenue in Manhattan, which plays off the aesthetic of an airport. The hotel features touch screens for checking in, a “Yobot” for lifting luggage and beds that fold into couches. Still, these edgy designs win mixed reviews, especially from older travelers. “They’re trying to be the W, but realize the Ws have a certain price point. You can tell in their furnishings, that it is cheaper,” says Max Chao, a California lawyer in his early 40s, who stayed at the Aloft in Harlem. The bar, he says, can also get “raucous.” “I’m probably at the point where I’m a little too old for it,” he says. Of course, hotels outside of New York are also looking for new ways to pull in today’s travelers...