Are you on the fence about whether to buy a home with the extended and expanded homebuyer tax credit? Well, home prices might not be able to help you decide this one.

For the second quarter in a row, a nationwide measure of home prices showed a 3.1% improvement in prices over the previous quarter. But that's sort of where the good news stops.

• Bing: How are home prices affecting the economy?

OK, not entirely. On a monthly basis, Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indexes also showed five straight months of price gains as of September. But this latest gain is nothing to jump with joy about: The measure of 20 metropolitan areas showed only a 0.3% increase in home prices from August.

If you've been eying your neighborhood foreclosure as a primo spot for some all-night festivities, the local teens on the block have probably been thinking the same thing.

And according to an article in USA Today, some youths are doing more than just thinking about throwing bashes at foreclosed properties.

Of course, most of the reports of such instances are in communities with plenty of foreclosures to spare, including San Diego; Tempe, Ariz.; and Fort Myers, Fla., where one party was held by a youth who had lived in the home.

• Skateboarders fix up foreclosures to take advantage of empty pools

In Tempe, police have started carrying lists of foreclosures after a number of late-night soirees were busted, but the scene was much more evolved in San Diego. From USA Today:

The first-time homebuyer tax credit continued to work its magic on the real-estate market in October, helping to boost sales of existing homes to the highest level since February 2007.

Sales in October rose 10.1% to a 6.1 million annual rate from 5.54 million in September, a rate that also is 23.5% above the 4.94 million-unit level in October 2008, according to the National Association of Realtors.

"Many buyers have been rushing to beat the deadline for the first-time buyer tax credit that was scheduled to expire at the end of this month, and similarly robust sales may be occurring in November," said Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist.

• Find homebuyer help locally

But that may be the end of the surge. Although homebuyers have put a big dent in the housing inventory, bringing it closer than it's been in 2 1/2 years to the six-month supply considered healthy, the onset of winter could be the end of the tax credit magic -- at least temporarily.

Although I wholeheartedly applaud efforts behind the Cash for Caulkers program to encourage homeowners to weatherize their homes and save energy, my mind usually drifts to other projects when the weather starts to cool.

Namely, creating a mudroom. I've always thought of a mudroom as a sort of middle ground, not only as a buffer to keep the cold, outside air from getting in, but also in terms of cleanliness. It's called a mudroom. It's OK if there's a little mud on the floor!

• Add a room without adding on

But after viewing a slide show from MyHomeIdeas.com that offers 20 Ways to Master Your Mudroom, my dream mudroom now has a few extra amenities that I never would have thought of.

It's not about the subprime market anymore. Now it's all about unemployment.

The number of homeowners behind on their loan payments reached a new high in the third quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, with about 1 in 7 borrowers now delinquent or in foreclosure. A year ago, 1 in 10 borrowers was delinquent.

"Despite the recession ending in midsummer, the decline in mortgage performance continues," said Jay Brinkmann, chief economist for the MBA. "Job losses continue to increase and drive up delinquencies and foreclosures because mortgages are paid with paychecks, not percentage-point increases in GDP."

• Long-term unemployed face dwindling options

And these unemployed, delinquent homeowners likely aren't getting any help from the government's loan-modification program, which requires that participants document their income. And no, unemployment checks do not count.

Rep. Barney Frank to the rescue.

The Massachusetts Democrat said he's pushing a proposal to offer low-interest loans to unemployed homeowners who can prove they have good chances of paying the money back in the future. The emergency loans would be good for up to 12 months and could be extended for another year if necessary.

After reading some of the comments from my post about a $100 raffle for a $600,000 home, it's no wonder some of these fundraisers for nonprofits are having such mixed success.

Sounds like a lot of people simply refuse to believe that an offer this good can exist, while others worry about more realistic concerns, such as paying the taxes and the upkeep on a $600,000 home.

And even the winners would agree with that. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, most of them opt for the cash prize, simply because it's easier:

For cash prizes over $5,000, nonprofits must withhold 25 percent for federal income taxes. If the prize is a house, the winner must give the nonprofit 25 percent of its value for federal withholding before title can be transferred. The winner also pays closing costs, property taxes and other homeownership expenses.

There may be more than the environment and energy costs to consider if you're thinking about embarking on a greener way of life.

A post in BusinessWeek's Hot Property blog says that commercial buildings that have been certified as environmentally friendly tend to have higher productivity and fewer sick days among workers, in addition to fewer vacancies and higher rents.

From a business perspective, it sounds like investing in green building will be paying off in more ways than just the monthly utility bills -- not to mention the tax incentives and positive vibes that you're feeling from doing your part for the environment.

• How to get tax incentives for upgrading your home

But from a human perspective, I'm kind of stuck on the higher productivity and fewer sick days part.