tonight on "nightline." home sweet home. the housing market starts to come to life as new figures show the first house increases in three years. so where are the best places to buy and sell? it's a "nightline" guide to how much your house is worth. and gun shy. just how did an nfl star manage to shoot himself in the leg? tonight on "nigh to shoot himself in the leg? plaxico burress speaks out on a night that destroyed his life and a prison cell that awaits him. plus into the wild. join us on a journey deep into the bolivian jungle on the hunt for the elusive pink dolphin.

captions paid for by abc, inc. good evening, everyone. i'm terry moran. some big real estate news today and that's where we'll begin for first time in years, a handful of american cities got some glimmers of good news in their housing markets. one of the most important measuring of housing prices showed that for the first time in three years prices in some markets are actually going up. month over month. so which cities look like they may be turning the corner and why? vicki mabry has this report in tonight's "realty check". >> well, we are seeing a turn around. the beginning of what might be a turn around. >> the fact that this man robert shiller is cautiously bullish today is quite something.

everyone that the housing market was bad news and predictedcocre closely watched case shiller price index. >> we have seen prices go up, now two months in a row. nationally. home prices have been falling for almost three years before that. it's quite remarkable. >> it may not be enough to say the housing bust is turning into a boom. but for the second month in a row, home prices rose in 18 of the nation's 20 largest cities. what do you think accounts for the fact that they're going up for the first time in three years? >> well, i think it's the general recovery of confidence. the stock markets of the world are going up as well. and we have a president that has a new plan, which was announced in february. so we started to think more

positively. >> the two stubborn bleak spots are economically depressed detroit and overbuilt las vegas. but on the bright side, seven cities showed prices climbing by a respectable rate. boston, cleveland, minneapolis, denver, san francisco and in san diego where we met up with jim klinge, also known as jim the realtor back this april. >> how about that roof? >> it was just outside the city where he was helping joella thomas who was afraid of the plummeting stock market and saw opportunity in real estate. she was looking for bargains with her builder john harwood to renovate, betting she would win by betting on the housing market while it was still depressed. you're looking to put money into bricks and mortar as opposed to having it sit around in the bank right now? >> yes. >> it's putting money into like termites and bad stuff.

>> her bet paid off. a testimony to the case shiller numbers out today. to date, two of the five properties she bought and rehabbed are already under contract for well over the amount she paid to buy and fix them up. >> do you want to keep doing it? >> absolutely. >> all right. so we're going to keep buying -- buying to rentals? >> the lower priced houses are absolutely on fire. >> in aurora, colorado a suburb of denver, realtor charles robbers knows that bargains are driving the numbers up. >> if you're a first-time home buyer at the low end, you're a kid in a candy store. if you can find one and get it under contract fast enough. >> he's seeing prices climb after seeing them fall as much as 50% over the last three years. >> what we have seen in the last three or four quarters is the typical prices going up.

it might have 10 or 15 offers on it, we see that all the time. got a very nice full bath right here. >> he showed us three houses under contract or sold lately that wouldn't have sold a year ago. >> this is a two-bedroom, two-bath house. a very small house, but it's perfectly appointed. >> on this one, a novel approach. the bank that foreclosed on the house fixed it up and then put it on the market. >> right now it's on the market for $112,000, but it has been fixed up. it's ready for a first time home buyer. new paint and carpet. this is not a typical deal but we are seeing more of this. because the bank is saying maybe if i put $5,000 in it, i'll sell it for $112,000 and they're making a rational decision. >> people are buying houses to live in not necessarily as investments and not going

overboard with their spending. >> under about $200,000 to $225,000 is a strong market. they're flying off the shelves and you go to the other side, above $500,000 it's the exact opposite. those properties right now are in a down swing. you get to a million dollar-plus properties in denver, and you've got seven years of inventory. >> but on balance there were some rare good news. an end of summer boost after months of terrible job's numbers. housing led the way down and will be a big part of an economic recovery. >> i agree that there were some bad times to buy a house. like a couple of years ago, but it's not like that anymore. it could still go down, but it's not obvious that it has that direction. >> he's being cautious because he says we saw a bump like this in early 2008. then prices dropped again. but in denver, charles roberts is convinced the trend is up.

>> in the 80 to $110,000, ten times more properties on the market right now. we're definitely going back up in these neighborhoods. >> prices are know back to 2000 -- are now back to the 2003 levels and climbing. i'm vicki mabry for "nightline" in new york. >> think about that good news in real estate. thanks to vicki mabry for that. when we come back, nfl star plaxico burress tells what really happened on the night he shot himself in the nightclub. a mishap that will land him in prison. this is more than my easy button. it's my "save-so-much-on- hi-graphing-calculator... look. i made it say,"booger." ...i-can-get-him-a- mah-tutor" button. it's my "save-so-much- on-school-supplies- he-can-stop-using-his-sister's- ld-backpack" button. it's my "save-so-much-i-can- get-a-binder-for-every- day-of-the-week" button. there's no school on saturday and sunday, genius. don't ruin this for me.

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just last year nfl star plaxico burress was on top of the world. he was basking of a glory of a super bowl championship and his huge contract. but tonight, he faces two years in prison because of one fateful night in a new york city nightclub and the gun he brought

there. our colleague jeremy schaap of espn's e-60 sat down with burr es to hear his side of the story. >> on the night of november 28, 2008, plaxico burress along with antonio pierce and ahmad bradshaw went to a nightclub on the eastside. >> i had my weapon with me. you know, it wasn't like, you know, i was trying to hide it r or, you know, going into this place and go through the security. they know i have it. they pat me down. they said, okay. they let me in. with it. so that was just -- >> security at the latin quarter patted you down, felt the gun, you produced it and they said, go right in? >> walk through the metal detector and let me in. and i'm there for maybe five minutes and it was getting so crowded, everybody is coming

over, how you doing? i'm walking up the stairs and i miss a step. so my gun like slides down my pants. so it's getting ready to hit the ground, and i don't want it to hit the ground. so when it slides down my jeans, you know, i go to stop it from hitting the ground. then my fingers like hit right on the trigger. like -- what are the odds of that happening? and it's like when it happens, i don't even realize that, you know, i'm shot. i take two or three steps, i'm like -- my pants are like wet. i had on some chuck taylors and the top of my shoe was like red. i looked at a.p., i went -- >> antonio pierce? >> ye ah.

i'm like, yo, take me to the hospital. he's like, what's wrong -- >> nobody heard the gunshot in the crowd noise? >> nobody. i said, take me to the hospital. he was like, why? i think i just shot myself. >> why didn't you have a holster? >> bad judgment. first thing that went through my mind, i don't want to bleed to death. i just want to see my family. because when pany min live in the public domain and make their living because of their visibility.

>> three or four minutes before i'm to and the in front of the judge, my bail went from $10,000 to $250,000 in three minutes. i remember standing there looking at my lawyer and he was like, what just happened? >> why, plaxico, you're a millionaire, why go anywhere where you would feel the need to bring a loaded weapon? >> i'm not -- i'm not a criminal. you know? i'm not going around like pulling my gun out and robbing people and stealing. i'm not a criminal. i'm protecting plaxico burress. i mean, many ways to get around it. as far as hiring bodyguards or whatever you want to make of it. but if somebody wants to get you they'll get you. >> on august 3, a grand jury indicted burress on three

charges. if convicted at trial, he would have served at least 3 1/2 years in prison. instead, he decided last week to plead guilty to a lesser charge. attempted criminal possession of a weapon. >> i got to wake up every morning and look at -- look at my leg. i've got a hole in my leg. i almost killed my own self. and i'm -- i've got to go to prison for almost killing myself. who wants to go to prison? nobody. and i'll be away from my wife. she's pregnant. she's due on thanksgiving day. i'm having a baby girl. i won't even be there for that. >> as he readies himself for

incars race, he's hired a prison consultant and he's spoken to michael vick. >> he said, you know, you'll get through it. he said, you know, i went through it. he said you'll get through it. it will be better days. you know, to hear it come from somebody that had been through it, you know, it means a lot. >> your daughter is to be born at the end of november and you're going to be in prison in all likelihood. you won't see that. what thoughts run through your head? >> it breaks my heart. >> this is jeremy schaap for "nightline" in light house point, florida. "nightline" in light house point, florida. i'm semi retired and i'm here to tell a story.

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we're going to take you now to the bolivian jungle and the amazon basin where you can find the pink dolphin. it serves as a kind of gauge of the overall health of the mighty river's ecosystem. for now, pink dolphins are abundant, but they are elusive as jeffrey kofman reports on "nightline's" "into the wild". >> it was as exotic as an assignment gets. in bolivia, we chartered the cessna with a pretty cool paint job.

for a flight into the amazon basin. i had begun to think ahead to the story we come to shoot, a look at the elusive pink dolphin of the amazon now under threat by development. there below our destination. the village of the bay sitting on the tribute to the amazon. off the plane and on to a truck for a short bumpy ride for the dirt streets, our destination -- the river. we were accompanied by gabriela tavera who has been studying the dolphins for the last three years. we quickly learned there are actually two species of pink dolphins in the amazon. >> we're looking for the dolphins. >> do you know where to look here? >> well, it's easy to recognize where they are because when you see the water and it's really calm, it's easy to see the waves

they make when they're swimming. >> easy to see them as we motored our way up the river. i had a sinking feeling. >> there they are. there they are. >> where are they? >> there. >> you're seeing something i'm not seeing. our trusty boat driver began to pound the water with the oar, saying that they were attracted by noise. we keep looking until we see something breaking the surface? >> yeah. >> have you seen a lot of them? >> yes. because here in bolivia, we have like one of the healthiest populations of river dolphins in the world. >> we saw spectacular jungle birds of all sorts and lots of beautiful butterflies. they were easy to spot. but dolphins? they surfaced for barely a second. behind you? >> yeah. >> oh, yeah. look. yeah. so they exist? >> they do exist. i saw them. there's two more. >> uh-huh.

oh, i just one -- oh, it is pink. uh-huh. okay. now try to capture that on camera. >> it's like the color of pigs. >> that's right. pigs. like the pigs we saw on the main street of town. not a bright pink like the tree in the church yard, not a potent pink like the t-shirt drying on the fence. but we didn't come to this enchanted corner to see the pink dolphin, but to learn of the threats it faces. there are plans to harness the rivers here and across the river in brazil, and it will flood the habitat. what makes the pink dolphin so special? >> because it can provide us a sense of how the water and the forest are doing, how the whole system is doing. why? because they feed on fish that have eaten other fish that have eaten other fish.

if there's something wrong with the system in a way the dolphins acts as a warning bell. >> early the next morning we are back on the river in search of the elusive dolphin. and our boat driver has brought us a surprise. her name is dorca. she is 21. and very pregnant. you're seven months pregnant. see? yes, and i believe i can help you, she said. it's true. well, it is certainly true that around here they believe that dolphins are drawn to pregnant women. a kind of protective instinct. we are about to put this rural legend to a test. but it doesn't seem to make much difference. i thought we had him. he was close. see them? pity for al, the camera guy. here he is, al. al. right there.

okay. got two of them pretty good. >> rewind that shot and freeze. that is the bolivian pink dolphin. catch it while you can. i'm jeffrey kofman for "nightline" in bolivia. >> an a for effort. they are tough to see in the natural environment, but for those of you still wondering what these pink dolphins look like. here are some photos. kind of pink like a pig i suppose. while we didn't get a picture like that, they look like dolphins. thanks to jeffrey kofman and his cameraman for making that effort. we'll be right back with tonight's "closing argument." ( sighs )

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