Sara Murawski, pictured on the patio of her new condo in Portland, Ore., has been dreaming of homeownership for two decades. This year, she became a first-time homebuyer — seeing first hand how Portland's red-hot housing market is starting to cool and become a little friendlier to buyers. Courtesy of Justin Dias hide caption
Roman Borisovich is a Russian banker-turned-anti-corruption activist and founder of ClampK, the Campaign for Legislation Against Money-laundering in Property by Kleptocrats. Here Borisovich stands in front of a multi-million dollar London house owned by Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian billionaire indicted in the U.S. for money-laundering. Lauren Frayer for NPR hide caption
University of Michigan professor Peter Allen lectures to students during his real estate investing course. Jason Margolis/NPR hide caption
A realty sign in front of a home in The Lakes neighborhood in Las Vegas. Nevada, which was hit hard by the housing bust five years ago, remains the state with the highest number of homes with negative equity. Isaac Brekken/AP hide caption
A sign of the times at a new housing development in Danville, Calif., last year. David Paul Morris/Getty Images hide caption