Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (4-30-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending April 25, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 567.0, a decrease of 11.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 637.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 10.2 percent compared with the previous week and was down 14.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

Bloomberg - "Citigroup Increases Stock Offering to $4.5 Billion" (4-30-08)

"Citigroup Inc., under pressure to bolster capital depleted by mounting losses, sold $4.5 billion of stock, 50 percent more than it planned. Citigroup fell as much as 4 percent in New York trading after the biggest U.S. bank said in a statement that it priced 178.1 million shares at $25.27 each, a discount to yesterday's closing price of $26.32. The sale represents about 3 percent of the bank's shares outstanding as of March 31."

The San Diego Union Tribune - "Housing prices off 19.2% in S.D. area" (4-30-08)

"The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index for February, which was released yesterday, showed San Diego County prices down 19.2 percent from February 2007. San Diego, which ranked fifth out of 20 markets surveyed, trailed Las Vegas, which was down 22.8 percent; Miami, down 21.7 percent; Phoenix, down 20.8 percent; and Los Angeles, down 19.4 percent over the same period."

CNBC - "FDIC Finalizing Direct Home Loan Plans: WSJ" (4-30-08)

"Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair is finalizing a legislative proposal that will let the Treasury Department issue direct loans for nearly 1 million homeowners, in a move to prop up the housing market, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. The plan, which needs Congress approval, would permit new government loans so borrowers can repay up to 20 percent of the principal they owe on their mortgage, the report said, citing confidential draft of the proposal."

Bloomberg - "Jones Lang Declines After Earnings Miss Analysts' Estimates" (4-30-08)

"Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., the second-largest commercial property broker, fell as much as 10 percent in New York trading after earnings missed analysts' estimates. First-quarter net income declined to $2.8 million, or 9 cents a share, the Chicago-based company said yesterday in a statement after the regular trading. Analysts on average projected net income of 69 cents a share."

Orange County Register - "Building slump zaps drywall prices 36%" (4-30-08)

"Sheetrock-brand wallboard maker USG says its average North America selling price for its signature product was $104.41 per thousand square feet in the first quarter, down 36% from $164.12 in the year ago period."

Orange County Register - "O.C. mortgage debt slipped in 2007" (4-30-08)

"TransUnion, one of the big three credit-reporting agencies, said the average mortgage debt in Orange County dropped at the end of 2007 for the first time in two years. The average consumer mortgage debt of $410,093 in the fourth quarter of 2007 was down 3.4 percent from the prior quarter, the first time it dropped quarter-to-quarter since the end of 2005 (back then it was a meager 0.5 percent dip.)"

Orange County Register - "Industrial property still hot in O.C." (4-30-08)

"Grubb & Ellis says the place to be in O.C. real estate during the first quarter was in warehouses and other industrial space. Industrial vacancies here remained tight at 4.3% during the first quarter, just slightly above the 4% in the fourth quarter of 2007. That compares to the office market, which saw the vacancy rate jump to 14.9%."

Wall Street Journal - "Room to Rise? In Hotels, Operators Have an Edge Over Owners" (4-30-08)

"For investors trying to determine which hotel companies are best positioned to ride out a downturn, economic and construction data don't tell the whole story. The industry has evolved over the past decade into two groups. One is composed of companies that manage and operate hotels, such as InterContinental Hotels Group PLC, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts LLC, a unit of Wyndham Worldwide Corp. The other group is composed of real-estate investment trusts that build, buy and own hotel properties; most REITs aren't household names."

Wall Street Journal - "Wells Fargo Is Sanctioned For Role in Mortgage Woes" (4-30-08)

"a federal bankruptcy judge has penalized a trustee, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., imposing a $250,000 sanction against it. The judge last week said Wells Fargo failed to monitor a mortgage-servicing company that the court found took improper actions in a consumer-bankruptcy case and made misrepresentations to the court."