Celebrity sellers have little effect on home prices
A famous name can boost buyer interest in a home, but it doesn't necessarily pump up the price.

Their internationally recognized names sell music and movie tickets. They promote perfumes and presidents. But when it comes to selling their own houses, celebrities often find that their cachet doesn't pull in the cash.

Ellen Degeneres downsizes into 8,500-square-foot Beverly Hills home
The daytime show host has sold her 3-acre Beverly Hills compound, which includes four structures, to Ryan Seacrest.

Cyberspace was a-twitter this week with the news that Ryan Seacrest is buying Ellen DeGeneres' Beverly Hills compound for $37 million, and that she and spouse Portia de Rossi are moving no farther than a Hal Levitt-designed midcentury — also in Beverly Hills.

Home of the Week: Italian Renaissance-style in La Jolla
Six-bedroom, five-courtyard home with Venetian accents offers ocean and coastline views.

Taking its cues from Teatro La Fenice, an opera house in Venice, this Italian Renaissance-style estate was recently doubled in size. Five courtyards bring the living space outdoors to take advantage of the ocean and coastline views.

FHA may loosen limits on condo mortgages
The revisions could remove at least some of the obstacles that have dissuaded condo homeowner association boards from seeking approval or recertification of their buildings for FHA loans.

WASHINGTON — Thousands of condominium owners and buyers around the country could soon be in line for some welcome news on mortgage financing: Though officials are mum on specifics, the Federal Housing Administration is readying changes to its controversial condominium rules that have rendered large numbers of units ineligible for the agency's low-down-payment insured mortgages.

Abstention deadlocks five-member homeowners association board
Question: There are five directors on our homeowners association board. If the vote on an item is two yes, two no and one abstention, what is the outcome: yes or no?