Troubled housing market looks to Washington

 As foreclosures rise and sales of existing homes fall, lawmakers and regulators alike are feeling intensified pressure to do something fast to help homeowners and contain the subprime-mortgage crisis. About 17% of U.S. household pay too much or live in dilapidated structures The proportion of households in the United States with “critical” housing needs is growing, accounting for about 17% of households in 2005, according to a report released Thursday.

How to donate your unwanted time-share to charity I have owned a time-share in Southern California since the early 1980s. The maintenance fees have risen beyond reason and it is next to impossible to find a decent exchange for it. I would like to donate the time-share and take a charitable tax write-off. There are charities that accept time-shares, some of whom use Donate for A Cause.

How can I verify who is legitimate and acceptable to the IRS? Also, how do I calculate the amount of the write off? See Realty Q A. Should buyers pay cash or get a mortgage and invest? My wife and I recently sold our home and netted $384,000. We are both 57, retired early and have a company pension of $37,000 per year along with $400,000 in 401K savings. We are downsizing and are building a smaller, maintenance-free home for $345,000.

Our dilemma is that we are debating whether we should pay cash for our new home and live comfortably with our annual pension and the 401K, which we can tap into in two years, or put 20% down on the new home and take out a 15-year mortgage at around 6%. The federal tax benefit of mortgaging the home compared to paying cash seems to be about the same. Informed friends tell me that you should always mortgage a home and put the proceeds of the home sale into other, more liquid investments.