Rock-bottom home prices have finally begun to lure vulture real estate investors into the fray.

Hope Now, the mortgage industry alliance of lenders, servicers and housing counselors, reported Wednesday that it helped roughly 170,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure in the month of May.

Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages fell for the first time in three weeks after the Federal Reserve said last week that it expects inflation to level off, according to mortgage backer Freddie Mac.

The effects of the foreclosure crisis are rippling throughout the country - and even the rich and famous are not immune.

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Single-family home prices dropped 7.7% in the first quarter in the largest year-over-year decline since the National Association of Realtors began reporting prices in 1982.

The housing implosion is nowhere near over. In 75 of the 100 top U.S. cities, prices are expected to fall in the next 12 months according to Fiserv Lending Solutions.

Even the lofty Manhattan real estate market is beginning to soften, according to reports released Wednesday by four of the city's top real estate agencies.

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An omnibus housing rescue package, some elements of which have been debated in Congress for years, had been on track Wednesday to finally move toward enactment but hit a speed bump that puts in question when lawmakers will vote.