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New York City, the plushest state in the US, has once again made the headlines; and this one's no different than the previous ones.

Homes were 28% more expensive than the earlier reports and the results? Sales plummeted to about 22%. Unbelievably, the typical price of houses in Manhattan sky rockets to $1.6 million and obviously, the average Joe can't afford it. More so with co-ops and condominiums as they rose to about 96% with the average cost being $2.1 million.

New Yorkers both have mixed emotions about it. They wouldn't know if they should feel happy that the market value of their houses are increasing per annum, or quite worried as to how will it be in the future.

For the 28th month in a row, filings for foreclosure increased and mortgage issues are well expected to carry on into the next year. But experts from MSN say that if it plummets this fast, then recovery will be faster than expected. More than half a million homes were either in the process of foreclosure or were foreclosed. Now, talk about a million families who spent the first quarter homeless.

MSN placed in their website a Home Affordability Calculator wherein you could input your personal finances on the blank spaces and MSN could calculate the house that your budget can permit. Might as well check it out as it might help you.

Naturally, when you buy something in the market (no, I'm not referring to the grocery store near you, but the bigger market), it's called an investment. When you're investing on something, it actually calls for luck since it only has two to ways to go: up or down. Just like the stocks, real estate can be unpredictable. The prices and market values five years ago may not be the same as what is today.

Nevertheless, however stumping the economy of the country is, real estate will never fall rock-bottom. Why? Well, there's what we call government intervention. The government does its best to revive the economy, proposing different kinds of Bills and switching targets, for things to get better.

Alison Rogers, a real estate broker, implied in her published letter that, of all the types of people she hates, the fence-sitters are included in her top 10. Fence-sitters are those who wait for the market value of something to plummet 50% (or below) than its original. Sadly, these people do not know what that entails and I am pretty sure they won't get their houses anyway since this will never happen.

Ironically, the state that focuses on gambling as its main tourist attraction is the state that currently has the largest number of foreclosed properties in the past month all over the United States. RealtyTrac said that in every 139 houses, 1 house is either listed as foreclosed or is in the process of being foreclosed. Looking under the lenses of macro statistics, it shows that the foreclosure rate of houses in the United States was up by 5% from February to March. But apart from Nevada, states like Georgia, Ohio, Massachusetts, Michigan and Maryland seem to follow the same trend.