TRYING TO COPE Melissa Shaver, a speech therapist, fell behind on her mortgage payments and has been working with a counselor and her lender to keep her studio. “It’s my own little space,” she said.

HALLS OF LEARNING The structure at 20 West 44th Street was built as the Berkeley School for boys, left in 1892, but was acquired by the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen in 1899. It extended the building to seven stories in 1905, which is how it appears today, right.

GRASMERE IDYLL Brady’s Pond is open for swimming and sunbathing to members of the private Cameron Club. The pond offers a sand beach, lifeguards, rowboats and swans.

THEIR ROCK Connie and David D’Atri spent six years building their Guilford home, which stands on a rock ledge overlooking a lagoon.

A studio on Leroy Street was in a nice neighborhood in the West Village; An apartment at 45 Wall Street had little sunlight and lots of beer bottles; A rental building at 20 Exchange Place offered an attractive deal; Adam Cunningham moved into his 515-square-foot studio this summer.

ON THE WAY The Futterman family sold their four-bedroom three-bath Harlem penthouse last month for $1.7 million.

BUYING MADE EASIER With no house to sell before they could buy, Constantine Rose and Maria Gizas snapped up a one-bedroom in a converted school building in Hoboken. Unlike some other first-time buyers, they were able to secure a mortgage.

ADDED INCENTIVE Sherri and Lou Federico with Donna Avedon, left, an interior designer hired by the selling agent to consult with the Federicos after they hesitated in buying their house in Glen Head.

ON HOLD A second development on Bank Street in White Plains, near the Metro-North train station, would have featured a mixed-use complex of 536 rental apartments, retail space and a hotel.

CERTAIN DIFFERENCES St. John the Divine and its new neighbor, Avalon Morningside Park.

THE GOOD LIFE Jay and Shelley Albrecht, in their yard next to a row of grapevines at Kiepersol Estates in Texas.

A TOWN IN FLUX Main Street in Hill City, an old mining town, is now lined with restaurants, shops and galleries.

Chris Buffum, 59, a consultant and business owner, and his wife, Becky, 57, both of Leander, Tex.

Costa Blanca, above, and The Gateway Grand Residences, below.

Jonathan Scott Robinson, an American painter, converted a French mill into a small inn.

Properties on the market in Oregon, Vermont and Illinois.

This one-bedroom penthouse apartment in Montreal has industrial details and panoramic views of the city.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have said they would not buy subprime loans from New York because a new law exposes them to too much risk and cost.