House museums are struggling in the face of dwindling interest, diminished staff and lack of endowment dollars.

The basic question of whether it?s better to rent or buy your second home is one whose answer can always prove elusive, even in a healthy market. And that?s because it?s never solely a financial decision, but an emotional one, too.

While property tax assessments across the city rose by more than 9 percent, the assessors reviewed 720 Park. The tax burden on it was cut by 12 percent.

If asked to name America's most important contribution to residential architecture, most people would probably suggest Abraham Lincoln's log cabin, a Southern plantation mansion like Scarlett O'Hara's Tara (even though it was only a movie set) or George Washington's Mount Vernon.

Q: DEAR BOB: I sold my principal residence in January with a capital gain of about $400,000. The same day, I bought another house using the profit as a down payment. I was single until April. Mine was the only name on the title to the house that was sold.

Major insurance companies are throwing cold water on America's new passion for living near the ocean and by the bay.

Enalee Bounds has filled 20 guest books with the names of national and international visitors to the antique and gift shop she has owned for 44 years in Ellicott City's historic district, defying predictions by local banks and area business owners that her country store would never last.

At the end of each year, some people look back, while others look to the future. There's nothing we can do to change 2006, so let's look forward.

This just in, from the New York Department of State: expanded definition of who must be loyal to whom in various real estate deals.

The courts have held that a satellite dish that protrudes into the airspace outside the window is not within the premises covered by the proprietary lease.

Whether an apartment is rent-stabilized is a matter of law, not one of agreement, between the parties.

?A home, whether you own or rent, is still a home.?

At a lottery in Southold on Long Island recently, 22 residents won the right to buy yet-to-be-built homes at prices they can actually afford.

As the New Year is just around the corner, it's time to make your New Year's resolution. This year, why not resolve to pay off your holiday credit card bills and gain the advantages that come from paying off your debt?

On East 63rd Street between Fifth and Madison, two old plain-Jane buildings are getting dressed up in limestone and classical-style fronts.