Hot Mortgage Deals

In the past decade, Nantucket Island has served as a barometer for the fortunes of Wall Street. The glass cracked after years of unsustainable pressures. But almost by magic, the barometer is rising once more even as something new and unexpected has come to the summer paradise: foreclosures, short sales, failed auctions, and a skinnier municipal budget. And while financiers can cut and run, it's the locals who are being hardest hit.

The booming Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area added more residents during the past decade than any other city in the United States.

The drama is nearly over. After a decade of extremes -- the ebullient highs of the real estate boom, then the devastating lows of the bust -- calmer forces are beginning to prevail in the housing market.