Patrick Boris, a banquet chef in Las Vegas, is inching closer to his own “fiscal cliff,” 2,100 miles away from the political brinksmanship under way on Capitol Hill. If Congress and the White House allow the country to go over the cliff later this month, Boris figures he could owe federal income taxes on more than $100,000 in forgiven mortgage debt following the short sale of his two-bedroom townhome next year – a personal financial “disaster,” in his words. more

Urban chicken-keeping in Rhode Island appeared to cross from the fringe into the mainstream two years ago when Providence legalized small, backyard flocks, followed by Warren and exclusive Barrington last year. more

You’ve probably seen the reverse-mortgage pitchmen at work on your TV screen – former Sen. Fred Thompson and actors Robert Wagner and Henry “Fonzie” Winkler prominent among them – urging seniors to pull cash out of their homes through a loan program guaranteed by the federal government. more

The end of 2012 was hectic for David Godden, director of “distinctive home” sales at Randall Realtors in Westerly, and traffic at the shopping malls wasn’t the issue. more

There are, by varying estimations, some 400 to 700 chronically homeless people in Rhode Island who cost the state and its taxpayers an average of more than $30,000 each per year in service program, incarceration and medical costs. more

With all the depressing reports about the “fiscal cliff” and potential rollbacks in tax benefits for homeowners, you might have missed some of the positive trends under way for real estate. more

Although it wasn’t a total win for homeowners and sellers, the patchwork legislation that emerged from the “fiscal cliff” fracas on Capitol Hill came pretty close. In fact, it even reached back and resuscitated two key tax benefits for housing that had expired more than a year ago. Now homeowners will be able to take deductions on their upcoming 2012 tax returns that they assumed were no longer available. more

BOSTON – The Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston announced last month that it has awarded $30.3 million to support 48 affordable housing initiatives in the six New England states. more

Rhode Island’s weak economy and sluggish housing market are not keeping Westerly-based Washington Trust Bancorp Inc. from continuing its momentum of increased earnings, as the parent of The Washington Trust Co. reaped the benefits of its strategic expansion into healthier markets in Massachusetts and Connecticut. more

Could we be looking at an early spring this year – not in meteorological terms but real estate? Could the chilly December to February months, which traditionally see fewer buyers out shopping for houses compared with the warmer months that follow, be more active than usual? And if so, what does this mean to you as a potential home seller or buyer? more