A new poll by CBS and our partner the New York Times shows that Americans are split on whether owning a home is a safe investment. 49 percent of those polled said it was, while 45 percent said that owning a home in this economic climate is risky. Despite that, nearly nine in ten Americans said that home ownership is vital to the American Dream. We asked Takeaway listeners whether or not they feel optimistic about buying a home right now, or if it's a smarter and safer bet to rent, and rounded up their responses. 

Over the past two years, we’ve been told to expect a silver lining to the housing crisis.  At a first glance, the release of tomorrow’s foreclosure numbers should add to that optimism, as analysts expect the number of new foreclosures to drop dramatically.  But does that mean we’ve truly passed the worst moments of the housing crisis?

Today, we continue our week-long series on American values with an examination of land and home ownership. The desire to own land — dating back to the notion of “Manifest Destiny,” as newly-minted Americans spread west across the continent — has always been considered a fundamental American value. How has our government and culture reinforced this value? And is it still as important to our identity as Americans as it was in the days when our motto was “Go West, Young Man”?

All week long we have been talking about the idea of "home," and the physical attributes and emotional attachments we have to our homes.

We end our series by talking with artist and writer Maira Kalman. She is the author of “And the Pursuit of Happiness,” a compilation of her year-long journey for our partner, The New York Times, to explore her adopted home, America. Kalman was not born in the United States, but she traveled the country to fall back in love.

In honor of Thanksgiving, all this week we’re talking about what makes a home, a home. And we’ve been hearing from lots of you via our iPhone app. Some of the latest submissions feature chickens in a back yard, a construction project next door and four-legged companions.

As part of our week-long series, we speak with two immigrant writers whose parents were forced to flee their homelands because of political unrest, and came to rest in America. Both live outside the U.S. now, and both say their notion of "home" has become ... portable.

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet…  but what about a song in any other key? Could the Beatles’ guitar gently weep if it were written in a major key? For that matter, would Eric Satie’s nocturnes evoke the same sense of loneliness had the tempo been increased by a few beats per minute?  

This week, as we inch closer to the holidays, we wonder about home. What is it? Where is it? And what are the essentials, the bare minimum to make a place home? It's a complex question for me.

The image of home is a changeable picture for me. I lived in the same home through my 18th birthday, and the smells and textures of my childhood home are still familiar. I can imagine the bumpy green carpet of the hallway; imagine sliding down that long staircase without hitting the banister and relaxing on the fuzzy orange bean bag while watching “The Love Boat.”

As we continue our week long series of what "home" means, Celeste Headlee, joins in on the fun. She and her kids share their idea of what "home" is, especially after having moved so many times.

We've been asking listeners to use the new Takeaway iPhone app and call in to tell us about their idea of home. You've been sending the sound and pictures of the things that make a place a home for you. Here are the voices behind two of those photos: Alexandra Haller from Northville, Mich. and Danielle Sager from Colorado Springs.

This week as we contemplate the holidays we've all been thinking about home. What is it? Where is it? We've been getting a lot of examples from you, and every one of them makes me think, how would I answer that question?

In my home, a big old 110-year-old house my wife and I have had for almost as long as we've been married, the piano is the center, where you can hear folks playing away on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

This whole week, in honor of the upcoming holidays, we’re exploring the notion of home — what home feels like and sounds like, and how you define home.

We kick off the week in the simplest way: with an exploration of the structure of a home — and what we consider absolutely necessary, regardless of its budget or square footage.

Host John Hockenberry joins in on the "Home Assignment," to give us a glimpse of his and his kids' ideas about what think of as representing their own home. John talks to son Zachary, who knows he's home when he smells dinner cooking. But the piano also plays an important role in the Hockenberry household. 

The notion of home means something different for everyone. As part of our Thanksgiving series on the home, you've been sending in the images and sounds of the things the invoke home to you.

For some of you, home is the company you share. To Erin in Dearborn, Mich. and Nicholas in Joplin, Mo., that's a cat. To Michael in West Palm Beach, Fla., it's a human being — his girlfriend, Laura.

A typical image in a home ideal is a comforting hearth. That's the case in real life for Alexsis in Ossining, NY, who sent us a video of her crackling fireplace.

For Carl in Detroit, Mich., home is something he can take with him: his wind chimes. He just moved to a new neighborhood and he says the new house wasn't a home until the wind chimes were up on the back porch.

And for Nik in Milwaukee, home is "the smell of warm waffles & syrup, the sound of Saturday morning cartoons, the glint of sunshine streaming through the curtains."

Here are some of the images and sounds you've sent us.

Just in time for the holidays, we're asking, What says home to you? Identify the scenes, the sounds and the events of what makes a place a home: Snap a photo, record audio or video and upload it via The Takeaway iPhone app.

Read more about the assignment and the new series we're launching for Thanksgiving.

Home is where you hang your hat. There's no place like it, or so we're told. But what exactly is home? Is it a place? A state of mind? A smell, sound or look? Or the presence of a person we love?

During the week of Thanksgiving, we'll be exploring the notion of home each day. We'll look at the details that matter: from the specific structural aspects of a home to our ideas of what constitutes a homeland. And we'll be talking with people across the United States (and maybe even outside it).

John and Celeste will also share their personal memories of home, and what the word home means to them.

Tell us: What  says 'home' to you?  What are the details that make a place look like, smell like, or sound like home to you? Is home a place you long for, or do you carry it with you? Is there something that makes you love or dread the thought of going home for the holidays?

This is the latest assignment with The Takeaway iPhone app. Take a photo of the things that make a place home to you. Record audio of the sounds. And take video of the events that make it that way.

If you don't have an iPhone, just submit the photo below. If you do, get the app.

"Houses aren't refuges from history. They are where history ends up."

This is the latest assertion from Bill Bryson, who first made national headlines when he attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail, as documented in "A Walk in the Woods." Bryson turns his attention closer to home in his newest book “At Home: A Short History of Private Life.”

Going room by room through the modern home, Bryson looks at the objects that surround us in our everyday lives, from sofas to forks, and traces the history of those objects and the rooms they inhabit.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner convenes a meeting of mortgage analysts and economists today to discuss the future of mortgage financing. There will be a lot of nitty-gritty details, including the amount of debt the federal government should back and the proper role of securitization. However, there’s a bigger question that gets at the heart of American culture:  Is home ownership still a social good in and of itself? And how much should the government put on the line to encourage it?

We discuss the implications of the government's next moves, and we want your input: Should the government encourage people to buy their homes? Is property ownership a social good in America today? 

In our regular series The Value, Takeaway correspondent Farai Chideya brings us the story of a woman in Miami who found the value of home in an unlikely place.

Trouble viewing this video? Check out the YouTube version.

In 1942, in the middle of World War II and at the start of food rationing, the writer MFK Fisher published How to Cook a Wolf. It's was meant to be a part cookbook part self-help guide to inspire those faced with the “wolf” of hard times to get creative in the kitchen. With today's economic climate, we thought it would be fun to revisit MFK Fisher’s classic book. So we asked New York Times food writer Melissa Clark to give us some tips from this classic.

Want a recipe? Click here!

If you don't know MFK Fisher's work, check out her books and here is a brief introduction to her life and works: