Readers suggested a topic on retirement. "Weekend topic can anyone afford to retire these days? Or is it work until you can’t anymore?"

A reply, "Retire? Those that set up income streams will be doing better than the rest. Think Capital Gains, not 1099’s or W-2’s for income in your later years."

The Press Democrat. "Still hovering in the shadow of the recession, 2012 is expected to produce business growth, but at a rate that in earlier recoveries would have been considered sluggish. The county's unemployment rate, a key measure of economic health, averaged about 9.9 percent for 2011, down from 10.5 percent in 2010. A key reason unemployment remains so high is due to the collapse of the real estate and construction sectors."

"For existing homes, the median single-family home price was $325,000 for the first 11 months of the year, down 3 percent from the same period in 2009 — previously the worst year since prices plunged. The annual median price is now the lowest in more than a decade. It peaked in 2005 at $595,000."

"For the coming year, economic threats remain, especially due to potential debt crises in Europe and elsewhere around the globe. But even if the threats disappear, county residents likely will see relatively high unemployment and rather tepid economic activity. 'We have just have to get used to the idea that the next few years are going to be stable,' said Sonoma State University economist Robert Eyler, 'but it's just going to be at a lower growth rate.'"

The Seattle Times. "Buyers aren't purchasing homes as short-term investment vehicles anymore, says principal Jeff Bell of Cobalt Mortgage in Kirkland, and that's a huge shift. 'The whole system is different now,' he says. 'We're going back to the way real estate was 20 or 30 years ago.'"

"Seattle economist Matthew Gardner, who analyzes the market for Windermere Real Estate, concurs. Before the bust, he says, 'it wasn't, 'This is my home.' It was, 'This is going to make me money.' Among buyers today, Gardner says, that expectation is all but gone."

The Financial Post. "Canadians owed more than a trillion dollars on their mortgages as of March of 2011, according to a report released Thursday by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp., which says the record level of household debt in this country is a 'serious issue.'"

"The CMHC reported that housing-related spending of about $330 billion a year in 2010 has risen by 67 per cent since 2001 and now comprises 20.3 per cent of Canada's gross domestic product in 2010 — which underlines the importance of that debt load, and what might happen to the economy if for any reason Canadians crack under its burden."

"'Concerns expressed about household indebtedness have been largely driven by the total household debt-to-disposable income ratio,' the report says, noting that the ratio hit a record high of 1.506 in the second quarter of 2011. 'The major risk in the mortgage market is impairment in a household's ability to pay, often due to job loss. Recession or other adverse economic scenarios, such as rising interest rates, could certainly pose a challenge for some Canadian households.'"

"Meanwhile, low interest rates, and a relatively small inventory of homes for sale, helped push existing home prices 5.8 per cent higher in 2010, to an average $339,042, and the new housing price index rose 2.2 per cent last year."

From Presseurop. "Victims of unemployment, the housing bubble and bank loans too easily offered, thousands of families have been forced to abandon their homes. They have lost their jobs, their house, their furniture, their illusions, their hope. Instead, they live with a debt clinging to their ankles, one that will drag along after them for the rest of their lives."

"Paradoxical as it may seem, the worst is not to be without a home, but what comes after the foreclosure. 'I’m condemned for life to have no property in my name. I cannot collect a salary, or have a telephone contract, or buy a car, or pay rent if I don’t want them to come after me for the debt,' laments Elena Parrondo, sitting next to her husband in their flat in the Madrid suburb of Meco that they’re about to lose."

"'It’s not something to be relished – being put out into the street with two young children. If we don’t pay the mortgage it’s not because we don’t feel like it, but because we can’t. The banks should be more aware of families’ situations. They’re being left with thousands of homes that remain unoccupied after the foreclosure,' Elena insists."

"Lino Samuel Moreno has suffered deeply from the auction of his home. His property went up in smoke, along with his dream of living in Spain. Coming here from Ecuador, he never thought that his dream would become a living nightmare. He arrived around 2002, and in 2006, with all his papers in order, he decided to take the plunge and buy a flat in the Madrid suburb of Valdemoro."

"Everything went smoothly until he lost his job in 2008. Since then he hasn’t managed to find work for more than four months at a time. The first monthly payment that year went unpaid, then the second, then the third... He tried to renegotiate the payment, but in vain. On October 7 of last year, the dreaded court order to vacate the flat arrived. 'At 10 a.m., the police showed up to tell us to leave. I embraced my wife. At that moment we got a call from the court telling us we had been granted an extension of three months – but we no longer had any furniture,' Lino adds, his voice quivering. He now lives in a rented house in Valdemoro, thanks to the City Council, and pays 450 euros a month for it."