Rate rise fails to stop the house price boom - 2004-04-01
The boom in house prices is likely to continue despite concerns of a crash comparable to that of the early 1990s.

Statistics from the Nationwide, the UK’s second biggest lender, showed that March house prices saw a 16.7 per cent rise year-on-year. The figures came as the Bank of England suggested that mortgage lending had grown by its fastest rate ever in the year to February 2004.
Read the full story at FT Adviser

Free seminar to offer advice to renters on ways to buy a home - 2004-04-01
California has one of the lowest home-ownership rates in the nation, and Silicon Valley home prices routinely create serious sticker shock.

Not so, say the organizers of a housing information fair Saturday in San Jose, where real estate and mortgage professionals will seek to teach renters how to use loans and programs tailored to first-time buyers to turn their monthly rent checks into mortgage payments.
Read the full story at San Jose Mercury News