"Who owns my mortgage?"

The city of Pontiac, Mich., showed off some of its former foreclosed homes this week, polished with federal dollars and featuring new kitchens, bathrooms, windows, flooring and roofs.

QUESTION: I have been relocated, and my property is underwater. My credit is not important to me, so I am thinking about just walking away from my house as opposed to taking the trouble of doing a short sale. Is there any reason I should not just walk away?

Foreclosure commonly represents the end of a struggle. A borrower can't pay a mortgage, loses a home and moves on.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

Home prices in the nation's biggest cities fell for the third consecutive month in November, a sign the housing market ended 2011 in a weakened state.

A New York hedge fund manager's plan to demolish an eye-catching steel-and-glass home in Malibu and build a two-story California Mission-style residence has neighbors in a lather over the potential loss of ocean views and what some decry as the waste of a perfectly good house.

Struggling homeowners are set to get more help from the federal government as the Obama administration extends its key foreclosure prevention plan for a year.

Buying a condominium is getting trickier for anyone who wants to put down only 3.5 percent and have the government insure their mortgage.