In the December 2010 tax deal, Congress upped it to a 100% write-off for property acquired and put to use after Sept. 8th, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2011.

FORBES: BigTax Break For Business Owners Buying Equipment, SUVs Expires Dec. 31.

Still, spouses can write out an agreement recasting pieces of property as either separate or community, depending on what works best for them.

FORBES: Investment Guide

Losses at Ulster Bank have increased in the first three months of this year as the bank continues to write off vast sums due to the property crash.

BBC: Ulster Bank losses increase in first quarter

Analysts fear that the implied assumption, that the banks will have to write off just under half of all their property loans, may still prove too optimistic.

BBC: Has Spain flunked banking test?

"Because the American people were the most educated in the world, they were in the best position to invent, be entrepreneurial, and produce goods and services using advanced technologies, " they write (nodding, of course, to other preconditions such as secure property rights and a form of government sympathetic to free markets).

FORBES

If you sell a California house and use the cash to buy one in New York, write into the deed of the New York place that the parties intend that it remain community property.

FORBES: Investment Guide