Here’s a sliver of good news: RealtyTrac is reporting that foreclosures actually declined 7 percent in November from the previous month.

Immobilienscout24.de, Germany’s leading real estate portal, will increase its listing prices for real estate brokers by between 14 and 26 percent effective from January 14 next year.

The Tribune Co.’s troubles started when Sam Zell tried to apply the same strategy he used in the shipping container business to the newspaper industry, then got hit by the downturn in advertising in general and real estate in particular. A new initiative by The Los Angeles Times to offer foreclosure properties for sale from a separate joint venture may help turn around at least part of the mess.

Trulia is now targeting advertisements to users based on their location through a new deal with 1020 Placecast.

Bucking the tight-money trend, San Francisco-based real-estate search engine Roost Inc. secured $8 million in new funding on top of the $5.5 million previous raised. 

In a case reminiscent of the trouble Craigslist almost got into, a federal district judge has ruled that the Web site Roommates.com can be held liable for violations of the Fair Housing Act because it requires users to disclose their gender, sexual orientation and family status, and allows them to use the same information about others to facilitate roommate matches. Roommates.com says it will appeal the decision.

TradeMe.co.nz, Realestate.co.nz, and Nz.open2view.com have all added Google’s Street View functionality. 

RealEstate.com has acquired Tampa, Fl.-based New Homes Realty, an online real estate company operating in 11 metro areas across the U.S. with a network of 200 agents and brokers.

Reply.com has launched Click Marketplace that gives small businesses the same ad functionality provided by geo-targeting but without the cost.

Mascus, an online classified portal focused on used heavy machines and trucks, has signed deals to expand its presence in Europe and Africa.

South African free classified Web site MyToko has expanded to five new sites. And Private Property now offers home auctions.

The California Association of Realtors reports that October home sales increased 117 percent but prices were down 40.

Illinois-based ShopNTown has filed a federal lawsuit claiming Landmark Media Enterprises is unlawfully infringing on its patent in how it operates an apartment rental Web site.

U.K. property site PropertyAdd will be sending a direct feed of its properties to fellow U.K. real estate search engine Globrix.com.

AgencyLogic, a North American real estate vendor that specializes in creating Web sites for a single property, has bought competitor Smart Streets.

U.K. property search engine Nestoria.co.uk has gone live with a partnership with another major news site – The Daily Telegraph.

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In addition to its existing “pay to list” model, U.K.-based Fish4 has now adopted a “pay per application” model for its Fish4Jobs.co.uk recruitment Web site.

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Newspaper advertising revenues totaled $8.9 billion in the third quarter of 2008, down 18.1 percent from the same quarter last year, according to figures released Wednesday by the Newspaper Association of America.

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Online advertising growth is slowing and will dip into single-digit annual growth for the first time in 2009, according to eMarketer. Online classifieds have the poorest outlook: advertising revenue is projected to fall 5 percent over the next five years.

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Visitors to Realtor.com are spending more time on the site and reading more pages according to an October report from ComScore Media Metrix.