Increasingly the structures in which we dwell are no longer just the places we inhabit in order to find comfort, warmth and shelter. They've become canvases upon which to express our creativity, investments, banks, ATMs, sources of income, pensions, scholarships, a source of opportunity to use new technology tools to transform industries, and even a dating service!

The real estate boom and changes in capital gains tax laws have led to a boom in flipping for a living. In her aptly named for San Francisco column, Surreal Estate, Carol Lloyd profiles a couple who have found that

flipping homes like cheap burgers was a much better bet than regular work, which might have thrown them into a 30- or 40-percent tax bracket. In a word, they were professionals -- professional homeowners.

Meg chronicles her adventures in investment property while Trisha#1 points out some of the pluses and minuses of being a female investor

I wish I felt secure about being at House 14 by myself. ... Unfortunately, the risks are too great for me to go alone. It's not the best area in town....

Sometimes I just think it would be more convenient to be a man. Of course, I do delight in the fact that I'm not easily forgotten by lenders or anyone else I come across in this field.

At RealEstateJournal.com, June Fletcher wonders if there is still profit to be made in buying fixer-upper homes. She concludes that while

I understand: No one who makes a living in real estate really wants to see the end of this immensely profitable boom. For that matter, neither do most homeowners, who have been treating their homes like ATM machines and relying on price boosts to fund everything from retirement to vacations in Aruba.

But please don't shoot the messenger. My job is to report facts and expert opinions, even if the news is unwelcome. And every forecast I've heard from economists and other experts has projected a cooling of the U.S. housing market this year (though how quickly and by how much remain matters of debate), fueled by such factors as rising interest rates and lack of affordability.

Carol Lloyd, however, concludes that despite these economic indicators, house as way of funding vacations, private education, cubicle escape and retirement might be here to stay no matter how risky and scary.

Beyond house as trendy new personal economic craze, the 21st century brings us new technologies that are transforming the real estate industry and which are empowering consumers in making the biggest financial transaction of their lives. BlogHer and Forrester Analyst, Charlene Li uses her recent house hunting adventures to illustrate.

If social computing tools are empowering home buyers, home buying is empowering single women. According to Inman News, 56% of single women own their homes versus just 11% of single men. CBS News investigated this phenomenon and found that, according to Vera Gibbons, special correspondent for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine,

For a single woman, in particular, it provides us with this huge sense of accomplishment, personal security, financial security, it's a big thing. But it's a good thing.

However, in the East Bay Express, Justin Berton found that couples today are increasingly putting mortgage before marriage and hold the house in the name of the better credit having female half of the couple thus creating a somewhat skewed perception of single women on a buying binge.

For single women who put mortgage not only before marriage but before finding a husband, sometimes buying the house is the way to find the man like it was for Michelle Huneven who, along with her co-author Bernadette Murphy, wrote "The Tao Gal's Guide to Real Estate: Six Modern Women Discover the Ancient Art of Finding, Owning and Making a Home."

Jane Ganahl who writes the column Single Minded for the San Francisco Chronicle, relates to the story of

a group of six women who gathered twice a month in Southern California for six years to read the Tao Te Ching -- a text of spiritual verses written thousands of years ago in China by Lao-Tzu. During their meetings, one subject continued to pop up irrepressibly: real estate, and each woman's relationship with it. In their discussions, it became abundantly clear that other issues were at work -- feelings of self-worth, wondering about one's place in the world -- that complicated the struggle further.

Ganahl also learns that the book's surprise ending arrives when

Huneven's neighbor, an environmental lawyer who toured her home looking for inspiration for his own decorating purposes. The two became friends -- and are now married.

For Murphy, though, her hoped-for goal of finding a way to afford a house has yet to be realized. This is the case for too many Americans, especially in places like California, Florida, Nevada and Hawaii - the four states in which house prices have doubled in the past five years. At Consumerism Commentary, Flexo finds that homeownership is tough for the working class. Worst of all, for 3.5 million people in America, living in any home is not an option. Who are these people?

· 35% of the homeless population are families with children, which is the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.
· 25% are U.S. military veterans.
· 25% are children under the age of 18 years.
· 30% have experienced domestic violence.
· 20-25% suffer from mental illness.
· In urban communities, people experience homelessness for an average of eight months.

What can you do to change this? See if you can help create affordable housing with real estate blogging. If you are in Chicago (or selected other cities, or start your own) participate in to the streets on March 31. From sojo.net (Sojourners)

To the streets

On March 31 roughly 800,000 people across the country will go to bed without a home. Where will you be sleeping? On that same night in cities, towns, and college campuses across the country, people will choose to spend the night outside in solidarity with those who don't have a choice.

Last year, students from across the Midwest got a small taste of the reality of homelessness. By spending a night on the streets of Chicago in mid-February, their lives were changed as they raised awareness and collected signatures for a rental housing support bill that they later helped make a reality. As a result, thousands of people across the state of Illinois were able to find or stay in housing. This year you can get involved in one of several ways. You can join other groups who are planning similar sleep outs in your own area or plan one by yourself or with others. You can help rally support for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund on a national level and target specific issues within your community. Be it through educating yourself and others, recruiting volunteers, rallying resources, or working for political change, there are so many ways that you can make a difference on the March 31. Though it takes more than one night to change a nation, one night is where it can start.

Whether you will be sleeping out alone, with friends, a congregation, or your school, send your information to tothestreets@gmail.com so that it can be posted at www.tothestreets.org.