Where cheaper homes are best sellers and why 'beige' matters

You like beige? The color beige. I guess I don't consider beige a real color. I mean, not like, say, red or blue or bright yellow. Those are colors. Beige is, well, beige! For reasons known only to a select few in Washington -- let's call them for the sake of discussion, "the beige crowd" -- the Federal Reserve Board's periodic summary of economic conditions around the nation is referred to as "The Beige Book." You can probably see why the government will probably never produce a best seller.

Before you turn blue with exasperation about my reflections upon the Fed's "Beige Book," let me tell you why I am even bringing this whole matter to your attention: The newest Beige Book tells us that "home sales and construction activity improved across much of the nation," but it also reports to us that "prices were generally said to be flat or still declining somewhat." Now, " declining somewhat" doesn't exactly have the ring of precision that I would like, but it does paint in a broad stroke the state of the real estate market in these United States.