A report from the Mail Tribune in Oregon. "In many respects, 2016 was just the kind of year Jackson County real estate agents like. During the fourth quarter of 2016, median prices jumped 9.7 percent to $247,375 from $225,440 for the corresponding period in 2015. During the past five years, northwest Medford ($197,500) and west Medford ($161,250) have seen more than 80 percent appreciation in their median prices. 'Every market favors buyers or sellers,' said Colin Mullane, spokesman for the Rogue Valley Association of Realtors. 'What we call a good market almost always benefits sellers, and we fear the buyers' market. I'm always happy when our median prices stay close to inflation. We're really close to getting back to where we were, and I think we'll get there in 2017 or 2018. I think inventory combined with interest rates will keep the median growth to 2 or 3 percent versus what we've seen over the past three or four years.'"

"'Looking at the statistics, there's a stark contrast to what people really think is happening,' said Mullane. 'We're not seeing rapid and soaring prices, and the market won't tolerate it if prices pushed beyond what we saw.'"

The White Mountain Independent in Arizona. "The White Mountains housing market is different from the Valley market, but it surely is showing signs of rebounding. Cliff Pettingill, Century 21 Sunshine Realty broker, said a majority of the homes in the White Mountains belong to second-home buyers. The main reason most are second homes, he said, is because young people do not tend stay in the area after high school. 'The majority of our young people leave town,' Pettingill said, 'partly because there are few well-paying entry-level jobs. Because of that, there are few affordable first-time buyer homes for sale in the area.'"

"Pat Sarcoz, of White Mountain Realty in Show Low, added that there has been a slight increase in foreclosures the last couple of years and that more buyers are using USDA and veteran entitlement loans that require zero down payment. 'But, opportunities for veterans and people who qualify for USDA loans to get a low mortgage payment and a low interest rate could be diminishing, depending on what the feds do with interest rates,' she said."

"Pettingill said people who purchased a site-built home in the White Mountains in 2006 for $300,000 found out the next year it was only worth a little more than half. Pettingill said a home purchased in 2006 for $300,000 is now worth about $240,000, meaning the local housing market has recovered about 80 percent since the 2006 collapse. He said the Phoenix market is booming again, adding that, 'We can’t expect the same level of housing recovery until we get the same kind of economic recovery as the valley is enjoying due to a growing employment base.'"

"In other words, Pettingill said the White Mountains need more better-paying jobs before it can have the same kind of recovery."

The Washington Post. "During his final news conference of 2016, in mid-December, President Obama criticized Democratic efforts during the election. 'Where Democrats are characterized as coastal, liberal, latte-sipping, you know, politically correct, out-of-touch folks,' Obama said, 'we have to be in those communities.' In fact, he went on, being in those communities — 'going to fish-fries and sitting in VFW halls and talking to farmers' — is how, by his account, he became president."

"But Obama can’t place the blame for Clinton’s poor performance purely on her campaign. On the contrary, the past eight years of policymaking have damaged Democrats at all levels. Two key elements characterized the kind of domestic political economy the administration pursued: The first was the foreclosure crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts."

"Obama didn’t cause the financial panic, and he is only partially responsible for the bailouts, as most of them were passed before he was elected. But financial collapses, while bad for the country, are opportunities for elected leaders to reorganize our culture. In January 2009, Obama had overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress, $350 billion of no-strings-attached bailout money and enormous legal latitude. What did he do to reshape a country on its back?"

"In this case, big banks and homeowners both experienced losses, and it was up to the Obama administration to decide who should bear those burdens. Obama prioritized creditor rights, placing most of the burden on borrowers. This kept big banks functional and ensured that financiers would maintain their positions in the recovery. At a 2010 hearing, Damon Silvers, vice chairman of the independent Congressional Oversight Panel, which was created to monitor the bailouts, told Obama’s Treasury Department: 'We can either have a rational resolution to the foreclosure crisis, or we can preserve the capital structure of the banks. We can’t do both.'"

"Second, Obama’s administration let big-bank executives off the hook for their roles in the crisis. Sen. Carl Levin referred criminal cases to the Justice Department and was ignored. Whistleblowers from the government and from large banks noted a lack of appetite among prosecutors. In 2012, then-Attorney General Eric Holder ordered prosecutors not to go after mega-bank HSBC for money laundering. Using prosecutorial discretion to not take bank executives to task, while legal, was neither moral nor politically wise; in a 2013 poll, more than half of Americans still said they wanted the bankers behind the crisis punished."

"Third, Obama enabled and encouraged roughly 9 million foreclosures. This was Treasury Department Tim Geithner's explicit policy at Treasury. The Obama administration put together a foreclosure program that it marketed as a way to help homeowners, but when Elizabeth Warren, then chairman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, grilled Geithner on why the program wasn’t stopping foreclosures, he said that really wasn’t the point."

"The program, in his view, was working. 'We estimate that they can handle 10 million foreclosures, over time,' Geithner said — referring to the banks. 'This program will help foam the runway for them.' For Geithner, the most productive economic policy was to get banks back to business as usual."

"Many Democrats ascribe problems with Obama’s policies to Republican opposition. The president himself does not. 'Our policies are so awesome,' he once told staffers. 'Why can’t you guys do a better job selling them?'"