Conde Nast: Remember Zack Preble, who tried to sell equity in his new condominium online by the square inch unit? Now he would like you to buy the property the old-fashioned way. Well, sort of.

Bloomberg: Spending on U.S. construction projects in April fell for the sixth time in seven months, hurt by weakening homebuilding.

Bloomberg: Home prices fell in 23 U.S. metropolitan areas in March, led by Sacramento and San Diego, as rising foreclosures prolonged the housing recession.

The New York Times:  A few years ago, when multiple bidders would show up at a real estate open house, the truly desperate resorted to writing love letters to the sellers – Today’s real estate market, however, calls for a different kind of letter, less a fuzzy valentine and more like a cold splash of water.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: A self-described “evangelist for renting” just wrote about his decision to buy a house.

Conde Nast Portfolio: David Leonhardt Buys a House.

iStockAnalyst: Despite evidence to the contrary, some people still believe that ongoing troubles in the residential real estate market only hurt those who made silly mistakes or who were greedy.

Motley Fool:  While the sellers of today must be made of sterner stuff than in years past, there’s no reason to panic. People are still buying, just not with the same wild-eyed intensity of yesteryear. Follow these tips to optimize your position all the way to the closing table.

Reuters:  Prices of single-family homes plunged a record 14.4 percent in March from a year earlier, while U.S. consumer confidence slumped to its lowest in 16 years in May as gasoline prices surged.

Wall Street Journal:  The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, a closely watched gauge of U.S. home prices, saw prices fall further in the first quarter amid the continued deterioration of home prices as the subprime-loan meltdown weighs on the sector.

Bloomberg:  Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most in at least seven years, pointing to weakness in the housing market that will constrain economic growth.

International Herald Tribune:  America’s home-buying season, when for-sale signs sprout like dandelions on lawns across the country, is shaping up to be even worse than expected this year, with prices falling, sales slowing and few signs of a turnaround emerging.

Forbes: Home prices continued to plunge in March, as three key measures of home prices fell at the fastest annual pace since the influential survey was started more than two decades ago.

CNBC: Sales of new homes rose in April for the first time in six months although the unexpected increase still left activity near the lowest level in 17 years.

CNBC: End of US Housing Slump Likely to Be Long, Painful

The Street: New-home sales rose unexpectedly in April but remained near their lowest level since 1991, according to new government data released Tuesday.

Businessweek: The big news in the April existing home price report released today by the National Association of Realtors wasn’t the 8% drop in median home prices or the better-than-expected 1% decline in sales.