Great Whale Cay, 30 minutes by boat from Nassau, is for sale for $80 million (£50 million) with Savills and has the potential to become an exclusive retreat similar to Richard Branson’s Necker Island, or the millionaires’ paradise Mustique.

The 850-acre L-shaped island belonged to "Joe" Carstairs, heiress of the Standard Oil fortune, and was visited by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in the Forties. There are historic buildings (Great house, lighthouse, and church), rare flora and fauna and watersports and diving. But what makes it such a rare and valuable opportunity, according to Giles Gale of estate agency Savills, is the private paved airstrip. "It is unlikely that permission would be granted for the creation of a new airstrip these days," he says.

For $2.75 million, you can have a piece of New York history, although, who knows if your furniture will fit. This 9 1/2 feet wide Dutch-style townhome, built in 1873, is located in Manhattan's West Village at 75 Bedford St, New York, NY 10014.

According to the New York Post, this home is the skinniest house in New York City. To put the width of this home into perspective, it is just about 2.5 feet narrower than the length of a standard Mini Cooper (12 feet, 1.6 inches).

Home price declines will have their biggest impact on prime "conforming" loans that meet underwriting and size guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bank said in a report. Prime conforming loans make up two-thirds of mortgages, and are typically less risky because of stringent requirements.

"We project the next phase of the housing decline will have a far greater impact on prime borrowers," Deutsche analysts Karen Weaver and Ying Shen said in the report.

Of prime conforming loans, 41 percent will be "underwater" by the first quarter of 2011, up from 16 percent at the end of the first quarter 2009, it said. Forty-six percent of prime jumbo loans will be larger than their properties' value, up from 29 percent, it said.

"The impact of this is significant given that these markets have the largest share of the total mortgage market outstanding," the analysts said. Prime jumbo loans make up 13 percent of the total market.

Seven markets in states with the fastest appreciation during the five-year housing boom -- including Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; Merced and Modesto, California; and Las Vegas -- may find 90 percent of borrowers underwater, according to the report.

The increase was the fourth in six months, as buyers take advantage of falling prices. It appears new-home sales reached a bottom in January, at a level of 329,000, and that the market is beginning to recover slowly. The level of 384,000 in June was the highest since 390,000 last November.

Home construction unexpectedly rose in June, the government said July 17. Housing starts increased 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted 582,000 annual rate compared to the prior month. The starts data also showed building permits surged, and single-family starts made their biggest climb in four years.

May new-home sales rose 2.4% to an annual rate to 346,000, Monday's data showed. Originally, the government said May sales fell, sliding 0.6% to 342,000. April sales climbed 1.8%.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications to purchase a home or refinance a loan dropped 19 percent to 444.8 in the week ended June 26 from 548.2 the prior week. The group's refinancing gauge declined 30 percent to the lowest in seven months, while the index of purchases fell 4.5 percent.

Unemployment, which touched a 26-year high in May, and rising borrowing costs discouraged homeowners from refinancing, while a growing number of foreclosures sidelined potential buyers waiting for house prices to stop tumbling. Pending home sales showing contracts signed in May rose 0.1 percent, compared with a gain of 6.7 percent in April, the National Realtors Association said today.

"The run-up in mortgage rates is exacting a toll in terms of depressing mortgage applications," Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, said in an interview. "The economy is in a phase of attempting to find a bottom. Anything that comes in the way of that, like higher rates, is going to mean it takes longer."

The 6,000-square-foot Los Angeles estate is being sold by the Ennis House Foundation, which recently completed the initial phase of a stabilization and restoration project following years of decay and damage from earthquakes and torrential rains. In March 2005, it was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's most-endangered list.

"Our goal has always been to be a good steward of the house," said the foundation's president, James DeMeo.

"We've made a lot of progress, but at this point a private owner with the right vision and sufficient resources can better preserve the house than we can as a small nonprofit," he said, explaining the decision to place the historic home on the market.

Perched atop a hill in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles just south of Griffith Park, the Mayan-inspired estate built in 1924 from some 27,000 16-inch concrete blocks is one of only four of the legendary American architect's "textile block" homes.

The company said it plans to step up efforts to improve its distribution network by introducing more "rapid deployment centers" and more marketing campaigns targeting Hispanic communities. Home Depot said its supply chain was not the best and had more room for improvement.

"We are playing a bit of catch-up," a company executive told the analyst meeting.

From appointing more bilingual staff to making items easier to locate in aisles, Home Depot plans a renewed focus on customer service at its stores.

Home Depot said its strategic initiatives and a revival of the home improvement market will allow it to achieve an operating margin of about 10 percent and a return on invested capital of about 15 percent.

U.S. home values posted a year-over-year decline of 14.2 percent to a Zillow Home Value Index of $182,378, resulting in a total 21.8 percent drop since the market peaked in 2006, according to Zillow's first-quarter Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value changes in all homes, not just homes that have recently sold.

U.S. homes lost $704 billion in value during the first quarter and have depreciated $3.8 trillion in the past 12 months, according to analysis of the reports.

Declining home values left 21.9 percent of all American homeowners with negative equity by the end of the first quarter, Zillow said.

By comparison, 17.6 percent of all homeowners owed more on their mortgage than their property was worth in the fourth quarter of 2008, and 14.3 percent were underwater in the third quarter of last year, the reports showed.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales to slip to a 4.70 million-unit pace from a revised 4.71 million for February, which was initially reported as 4.72 million.

The inventory of existing homes for sale fell to 3.74 million from the 3.80 million overstock reported for February. The median national home price rose 4.2 percent to $175,200 from February, boosted by seasonal factors. However, prices fell 12.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

The Tampa Tribune, owned by Media General Inc., and 100 newspapers published by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. are scheduled to add the Zillow search engine and other site content to their Web sites' real estate sections beginning Wednesday, Zillow said.

Once visitors enter a city, address or similar search term into the Zillow search box, their Web browser will connect them to a version of the Zillow site - co-branded with the newspaper - where they can comb through their search results, find local market data and other real estate content.

In all, 180 newspapers, including the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Winston-Salem Journal, plan to update their Web sites over the next few months to include the real estate search features, Zillow said.