Thursday, April 03, 2008

NAR - "REALTORS® Say Treasury 'BluePrint' Causes Financial Concern and Controversy" (4-3-08)

"The National Association of Realtors®, in a letter today to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, expressed opposition to the 'Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure,' which would permit banking conglomerates to engage in the commercial activity of real estate brokerage and management, and asked the Treasury to withdraw this proposed rule."

Yahoo - "Bear Stearns Rescue Defended" (4-3-08)

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Bush administration on Thursday defended the decision to rescue Bear Stearns amid questions by lawmakers about why the government was helping Wall Street investment houses but not people on Main Street."

Bloomberg - "Muni Losses May Put Taxpayers on Hook for $7 Billion" (4-3-08)

"On the evening of Jan. 22, Minooka, Illinois, school Superintendent Al Gegenheimer stood in front of the village board and said it had a problem: The district was running out of room to house its 3,700 students. Minooka needed $55 million to build two schools and renovate two others in the town 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Chicago, he said. Two months later, the district sold 10-year tax-exempt bonds at a 4.16 percent yield, 0.8 percentage point more than Treasuries of similar maturity. It's the first time the district sold bonds yielding more than the taxable benchmark Treasury, data compiled by Bloomberg show."

Bloomberg - "Geithner Says Markets Still `Impaired,' Urges Action" (4-3-08)

"New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner said capital markets are still 'substantially impaired' and policy makers and financial industry leaders must 'act forcefully' to stem the crisis. The New York Fed chief also said that the central bank's emergency actions to rescue Bear Stearns Cos. were aimed at halting a crisis that would have caused 'protracted' damage to the economy. Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers that while the aid wasn't a Fed bailout of Bear Stearns, it was true that the central bank 'bailed out the markets in general.'"

Bloomberg - "Home Prices Fall in 21 U.S. Cities Amid Foreclosures" (4-3-08)

"Home prices declined in 21 U.S. cities in January, led by Sacramento and Las Vegas, as banks sold foreclosed homes at bargain prices. The price per square foot in Sacramento, the capital of California, dropped 28 percent to $166 from a year earlier, according to a report released today by New York-based Radar Logic Inc., a real estate data company. Las Vegas fell 25 percent to $137 a square foot."

Bloomberg - "Liquidity Won't Fend Off Cannibal Banks" (4-3-08)

"U.S. and U.K. regulators are wasting their time threatening traders who profit from speculation about the deteriorating health of the financial community. The gossips aren't to blame for the demise of Bear Stearns Cos., and they won't be at fault when the next firm goes bang, either. Brokers, futures traders, collateral managers and compliance officers are ranking their counterparties from strongest to weakest, and choosing to stop doing business with whichever company comes bottom. If the same name gets crossed out on every list, it spells game over for the loser -- deserved or not."

Orange County Register - "Not all real estate is dead" (4-3-08)

"Who said real estate is dead? Home builders may be hurting, but several other real estate sectors are enjoying handy returns, based on the latest numbers from the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts."

Orange County Register - "Foreclosures to ding borrowers’ credit longer" (4-3-08)

"Fannie Mae, the largest funder of U.S. home loans, recently announced tougher guidelines, including an expansion of how long a foreclosure will hurt someone’s credit. With foreclosures spiking — Orange County saw a record 802 foreclosures in January — this is bad news for a lot of former and current but struggling homeowners."

Orange County Register - "Is the median price a true measure of home values?" (4-3-08)

"In a recent blog post, Zillow.com’s numbers guy, Stan Humphries, analyzed Orange County home sales by quarter for the past two years to see how well changes in the median sales price corresponds to changes in home values. Humphries’ conclusion: not well at all. After dividing O.C. home sales into four groups, or 'quartiles,' from lowest price to highest, Humphries concludes that median prices are influenced by the proportion of sales in each price category, rather than changes in home values"

1 comment:

Judy Graff, Broker Realtor said...

"The National Association of Realtors®, in a letter today to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson, expressed opposition to the 'Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure,' which would permit banking conglomerates to engage in the commercial activity of real estate brokerage and management, and asked the Treasury to withdraw this proposed rule."
-- The big banks have been trying to capture the business for many years now. It's like whack-a-mole: every time one of their efforts to do this fails, they try another tactic.