Because home equity represents a significant percentage of total household net worth for most Americans, particularly the baby boomer generation that is now approaching retirement, real estate market downturns wreak havoc on our collective state of well-being.

Our current market downturn has captured the attention of a host of real estate bubble blogs and more recently cover stories from financial and general news magazines.

One of these cover stories worth a read comes from the November issue of Business 2.0, featuring real estate guidance, including where to buy, where not to buy, bubble proof markets, and new rules of real estate.

For the Rich Dad, Poor Dad crowd, the feature provides advice on buying low and renting high including a tidy formula for how to make the rent pay.

With the raft of real estate guidance, you have a fighting chance to protect your home equity or even increase your net worth with a few well-informed moves.