REAL ESTATE MAILBAG (Washington Post)

REAL ESTATE MAILBAG (Washington Post)
Q DEAR BOB: We recently signed a purchase contract to buy a house, using $25,000 as the required deposit. A week later, after working our mortgage payment numbers, we found we could not afford to buy it. After many sleepless nights, we told our real estate agent we had to back out of the contract....

Principal Real Estate Investors, U.S. Bank team up (The Des Moines Register)
Principal Real Estate Investors and U.S. Bank have formed a business to invest in the commercial mortgage backed securities market.

Travel, real estate, lodging giant Cendant to divide into four companies (Lincoln Journal Star)
Cendant Corp., the $20 billion-a-year company that owns the Orbitz travel Web site and several hotel and real-estate brands, will split itself into four separate public companies, the conglomerate said Monday.