CNN - "Housing rescue on the rise; so are foreclosures" (5-30-08)

"Hope Now helped 183,000 at-risk borrowers stay in their homes during the month of April, according to numbers released by the coalition on Friday. The alliance of mortgage lenders, servicers, investors and community advocacy groups also said it has arranged a total of nearly 1.6 million loan workouts since the program began in July, 2007."

Bloomberg - "Kohn Signals Wall Street May Get Permanent Access to Fed Loans" (5-30-08)

"Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn raised the possibility of giving Wall Street securities firms permanent access to loans from the central bank, as long as regulators tighten oversight of the companies. Kohn also advocated continuing Fed auctions of funds to commercial banks and loans of Treasuries to Wall Street dealers even after markets stabilize. Such channels would stay open 'ether on a standby basis or operating at a very low level,'he said in a speech in New York yesterday."

Bloomberg - "Subprime Finds New Victim as Muni Defaults Triple" (5-30-08)

"So far this year, $736 million in municipal bonds have defaulted. That doesn't necessarily mean they didn't pay investors; they may have just drawn down reserves. That's what happens just before they stop making payments to bondholders."

MSN - "April insured mortgage defaults rise" (5-30-08)

"MICA said the numbers showed 73,880 insured borrowers were at least 60 days late on payments in April. That is up from 43,161 a year earlier."

Financial Times - "US banks likely to fail as bad loans soar" (5-30-08)

"US banks set aside a record $37.1bn to cover losses on real estate loans and other credits during the first quarter in a sign of the growing economic pain being caused by the global credit crisis, regulators said on Thursday. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said it was likely loan-loss provisions and bank failures would rise in coming quarters as the fallout from market turmoil hits the real economy."

Bloomberg - "Moody's Implied Ratings Lab Reveals Ambac, MBIA Turning to Junk" (5-30-08)

"Moody's Investors Service has created a new unit that surprises even its own director. The team from Moody's Analytics, which operates separately from Moody's ratings division, uses credit-default swap prices as an alternative system of grading debt. These so-called implied ratings often differ significantly from Moody's official grades. The implied ratings frequently show that swap traders think debt is in more danger of defaulting than Moody's credit ratings signify. And here's the kicker: The swaps traders are usually right."

Bloomberg - "Pimco's Auction-Rate Holders Fail to Get Satisfaction" (5-30-08)

"David Chandler is tired of waiting for Pacific Investment Management Co. to decide whether to help investors trapped by the collapse of the $330 billion auction- rate securities market."

Orange County Register - "Laguna Beach home sales dip mid-May, Garden Grove’s up" (5-30-08)

"DataQuick’s freshest stats from mid-May hint at a distinct turn in the market. For the 22 business days ended May 14, the ZIP code with the fastest drop in sales among O.C.’s 83 major ZIP codes was Laguna Beach 92651 (sales down 67.6%) with a $1.15 million median selling price, while the neighborhood with the fastest growing sales was Garden Grove’s 92843 (+100%) with a median of $389,500."

Realty Times - "Which is America's Most Valuable Niche Market?" (5-30-08)

"It's the Military niche -- and it can be yours if you live in a military community and make your specialized services known to its members. You see, military families are re-assigned every 3 to 4 years. And with 1.4 million military members on active duty, and only about 200 military bases in the U.S., that means that hundreds of families are moving in and out of your military community every year."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: Guess What? Equity Recovers" (5-30-08)

"The California Association of Realtors most recent report notes that state-wide inventory is going down from 11 months on hand a year ago to nine months. That's faster than the national average, folks, which has climbed to 11 months, according to the National Association of Realtors."