Aly Van Dyke of The Topeka Capital Journal has found, using computer-assisted reporting, a startling connection between property values and the city of Topeka's, as well as any city's, health.

Using the data she collected, Van Dyke has included a slide-show of the 50 highest-valued homes in Topeka's county and a database to search residential properties with a map of the highest property values in the Topeka and surrounding areas.

"Tucson's housing market has fallen so hard so fast that more than one in three homes sold last year went for less than $100,000.

Nearly 6,400 homes in Pima County, Arizona were sold for five figures in 2011 - that's more than 35 percent of the 18,000 homes sold last year, an Arizona Daily Star analysis shows."

Included in the report is an interactive map showing the areas of town with the most sales under $100,000 and under $25,000.

"Housing experts now estimate more than 100,000 homes in the Las Vegas valley have been foreclosed since 2007. Bad enough, but they also predict another 100,000 could face foreclosure before the housing crisis ends."

KLAS, in Las Vegas, has been reporting on the mortgage crisis since 2007, but their latest series of investigations may be the hardest hitting. Lawmakers are now working with homeowners and have created the Nevada Foreclosure Mediation Program.

In an investigation by Jim Hoffer, WABC-TV, it was discovered that New York is squandering away billions of dollars on unused real estate.

In Manhattan alone, the state owns buildings that are worth about a total of one billion dollars, but 25% of the real estate goes unused. What's more shocking is that some state departments are leasing office space, even when state owned buildings across the street sit empty.

"Atlanta's Fox 5 I-team has learned that a government watchdog group is also worried about the perception of cronyism with the city's massive food and beverage contracts at the airport.

The director of Common Cause says part of the problem is campaign contributions to Mayor Kasim Reed from companies trying to win lucrative airport contracts.

FOX 5 counted up more than $80,000 contributed to Reed from nearly three dozen airport concession companies. However, the mayor did return some of the money."

"The number of vacant homes and rentals has exploded 52 percent in Pima County in the past 10 years, thwarting a housing market recovery and driving even some middle- and upper-income neighborhoods into decline.

An Arizona Daily Star analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows the spike in unoccupied homes and apartments has pushed Pima County's vacancy rate from 9.4 percent of housing units in 2000 to almost 12 percent in 2010. That means about one in eight homes or apartments in Tucson is vacant."

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In 2002, farmers in two Colorado counties experienced a devastating drought but because of shares held in a “century-old irrigation company,” were told they would be able to “keep their coveted their irrigation water.” However, nine years later, the farmers are still facing dry land and looming financial ruin. In this investigation by theDenver Post, reporters Karen E. Crummy and Eric Gorski reveal that the lawyer for the Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Co., also represented the “United Water and Sanitation District,” which was the public water district “attempting to build a Front Range water-delivery system.” The lawyer, John P ...

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"The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa. showed how the leadership of Lehigh Valley International Airport followed a risky strategy of buying land around the airport in the mid-1990s. That strategy led to an inverse condemnation and court fight pitting the airport against a group of investors who had hoped to build on the land. Despite using experts that cost the airport as much as $710 an hour, LVIA lost at nearly every turn in court, and now a land deal that could have cost the airport about $8 million is approaching $34 million in total costs." Despite the fact that ... Read more ...

The Press of Atlantic City reports that the former governor of New Jersey pressured the CRDA to make a $4 million loan to another state agency. Corzine's administration pressed the agency responsible for reinvesting casino dollars to make the loan, former Executive Director Tom Carver said. The loan helped a Democratic Party contributor and Corzine adviser to buy an affordable housing complex in Elizabeth, Union County. After the Department of Community Affairs couldn't repay the loan, the CRDA forgave nearly all of the debt.