Breaking Ground: Royal Island & Epic Residences & Hotel. A private island residential resort, and a waterfront residential and hotel development.

Your Second Home | Mortgages: The Tighter Loan Market. At a time when homes — especially second homes in some regions — are dropping in price, it’s getting harder to get a loan to buy one.

Letters: What’s ‘Sustainable?’. We really need to start thinking about the way we throw around the word “sustainable.” In “A Cabin Is Not a Shack,” the writer speaks of a variety of cabins “being reimagined in sustainable yet stylish ways.” While it’s better for the environment (and the owners) to use lower-cost reclaimed and recycled materials, and employ solar panels and other energy-saving devices, clearly there’s more to consider before deeming something sustainable. Surely the size of the cabin and the amount of building materials used (even the gentler materials) has to count for something. Noël Merino.

Winter Hikes, Skyline Views. Hiking in the winter, through the stripped and skeletal trees, can lead to brilliant vistas of city skylines that were cloaked by the greenery of summer.

The New Old Mexico. In San Miguel de Allende, a place beloved for its preserved Spanish colonial architecture and aura of timeless charm, new developments for expatriates may threaten the lifestyle that drew them there.

Living Here | First-Floor Master Suites: At Ground Level. “There’s something very pleasant about walking out the door into the main part of the house. Meanwhile, the kids are upstairs in their own world, and we have ours.”

Rituals: House Hunting, Catch and Release Style. Beyond historic house tours, the heirloom houses most likely to be available for scrutiny — without attracting the attention of the police — are properties for sale.

Havens | Yamhill County, Ore.: Rural Vistas, Natural Healing and Pinot Noir. Sitting in the state’s northwest corner, not far from Portland, many of the county’s open hills have been transformed into vineyards.

American Journeys | Atlanta: Antiques of the Old South. Atlanta may be “the capital of the New South,” but its surrounding towns offer a glimpse of the South’s old patina.

In Florida, New Condos on the Block. Once viewed primarily as a means to sell foreclosed properties, auctions are increasingly being used to jump-start sales in new developments.

Sea Hunt in the Desert. At Bonneville Seabase, 10 miles south of Utah’s Great Salt Lake, scuba divers swim in warm, geothermic springs with sharks and angelfish.