Prices

Let the price war on video game consoles begin. Weeks after Sony Corp. trimmed the price of its PlayStation 3 console and Microsoft Corp. issued a $50 rebate for its Xbox 360 Elite system, Nintendo Co. said Wednesday night that it would slash the price of its Wii console 20% to $200, starting Sunday. To fuel sales, Nintendo plans to reach out to millions of prospective Wii users by holding sampling events where shoppers can try out games on the console. The Japanese game company also said it would release the New Super Mario Bros.

Two years ago, Larry Igarashi bet he could build a sprawling house in Orange County's foothills that would sell for at least $10 million. These days, you can easily guess how that turned out. On Saturday he put the eight-bedroom house in the gated Coto de Caza community on the auction block and got a high bid of $6.6 million -- less than he was willing to accept. Igarashi had gone all-out when he built the "Santa Barbara ranch" house: the master bedroom suite alone is 3,200 square feet, a bit smaller than the 10-car, climate-controlled garage, which measures 4,000 square feet.

MGM Mirage will slash prices of its high-end CityCenter condos by 30%, the company said Monday, a move intended to mollify buyers who were unsure they could close on units purchased during the Las Vegas real estate boom. The price cuts underscore the reversal of fortunes on the Las Vegas Strip. Just a few years ago, condominiums were being touted as the next stage in its seemingly unstoppable growth. Although the reductions mark a significant reversal by the gaming giant, which took deposits on about half of its 2,400 residential units, it was unclear whether the cuts were deep enough to satisfy some buyers.

NEW YORK -- Stocks rebounded today, moving higher in morning trading after a new report showed home prices rose for the third consecutive month in August. The gains came a day after investors uneasy about the strength of an economic recovery pummeled stocks for the second straight day and for the fourth time in the last five days. Overseas, Asia markets fell overnight following declines Monday in the U.S. In Europe, markets have steadily advanced throughout the day. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, which measures housing prices in 20 major metropolitan markets, rose 1 percent in August from July, marking the third straight monthly improvement.

An unprecedented round of online price cutting for DVDs started Thursday that could provide a much needed boost for the beleaguered home entertainment industry. Walmart on Thursday slashed the price of its 10 most popular DVDs that will be released soon, including "Star Trek," "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" to $10, less than it has charged for highly anticipated new movies in recent years. Target immediately announced that it would match Walmart's price.

With another tough holiday season looming, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is ratcheting up a price war that could be good for shoppers but has competitors fearing the worst. The world's largest retailer has for years snatched sales from department stores, discounters, supermarkets, electronics sellers and mom-and-pop shops. Its intensive markdowns helped drive chains such as Circuit City and Mervyns out of business over the last year. Now Wal-Mart is using its enormous clout to wrest the advantage during what is expected to be another weak Christmas season.

Prices of existing homes fell in 80% of the nation's metropolitan markets in the third quarter as distressed sales -- foreclosures and short sales -- accounted for nearly a third of all deals, a national group said Tuesday. The U.S. median sale price for an existing single-family home was $177,900, an 11.2% drop from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Assn. of Realtors in Washington. Distressed sales continued to weigh on prices despite a popular tax credit fueling the volume of deals.

Russia's state gas monopoly said it would cut off all natural gas supplies to Ukraine today after the two sides failed to agree on how much Ukraine would pay in 2009. The cutoff announced by Gazprom's chief executive, Alexei Miller, threatened a replay of a January 2006 faceoff, when a halt in Russian gas shipments to Ukraine resulted in a brief reduction of supplies to Europe. As Ukraine made a late-hour appeal for a return to negotiations, Miller said Gazprom would continue full shipments to the European Union, which gets about a quarter of its gas from the Russian company, most of it through pipelines that cross Ukraine.

Regarding the story, "Dreary outlook on home prices," Dec. 27: UCLA economist Edward Leamer tells us, in regard to our real estate market: "When you're sick, you need medicine for the disease, not the symptoms." Given his past predictions -- as recently as December 2007 that there would be no recession in 2008 -- one needs to question his diagnostic acumen and thus his proposed remedy. He believes the disease to be rapidly falling housing prices and their attendant ill effects of foreclosures and "fire sale" prices.