NAHB - "Housing Jobs Key To State And Local Economic Recovery" (10-10-08)

"Job losses and declining tax revenues resulting from the deep housing slump and the decline in property values require state and local governments to consider innovative ideas to help put the housing market back on track, according to Sandy Dunn, Chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Point Pleasant, W.Va."

Yahoo - "Greenspan sees 1st half 2009 U.S. housing recovery" (10-10-08)

"Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. housing market will begin to recover in the first half of 2009, according to an article he wrote for Emerging Markets magazine published on Friday."

CNN - "Home deals go bust" (10-10-08)

"The Dow has shed thousands of points and the global economy is in crisis. So who wants to buys a house right now? Not many people, it turns out. The National Association of Home Builders, for instance, has seen its contract cancellations spike recently to as high as 30%, compared with an average rate of about 20%. During the housing boom, as few as 5% of sales were cancelled."

Bloomberg - "Wells Fargo Gains After $12 Billion Bid for Wachovia" (10-10-08)

"Wells Fargo & Co. jumped 3.9 percent in U.S. trading after sealing a $12.2 billion deal to acquire Wachovia Corp., creating the largest U.S. bank by branches."

Bloomberg - "Lehman Credit-Swap Auction Sets Payout of 91.38 Cents" (10-10-08)

"Sellers of credit-default protection on bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. will have to pay 91.375 cents on the dollar to settle the contracts, setting up the biggest-ever payout in the $55 trillion market. An auction to determine the size of the settlement on Lehman credit-default swaps set a value of 8.625 cents on the dollar for the debt, according to Creditfixings.com, a Web site run by auction administrators Creditex Group Inc. and Markit Group Ltd. The auction may lead to payments of more than $270 billion, BNP Paribas SA strategist Andrea Cicione in London said."

Bloomberg - "Colony's Barrack Says `Better to Be Late' Amid Credit Crisis" (10-10-08)

"Colony Capital LLC's Thomas Barrack, who founded his private-equity firm in 1991 in the wake of the savings-and-loan crisis, told investors it's too early in the financial crisis to start buying assets."

Bloomberg - "Fannie, Freddie Mortgage-Bond Spreads Exceed Pre-Takeover Level" (10-10-08)

"Yields on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage bonds jumped relative to Treasuries for a second day, pushing spreads above their levels before the U.S. seized the companies and vowed to support the market to bolster home prices. The difference between yields on Washington-based Fannie's current-coupon 30-year fixed-rate securities and 10-year Treasuries rose 12 basis points to about 204 basis points at 3:05 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rise in yields this week suggests higher interest rates on new home loans of about 50 basis points, or 0.50 percentage point."

Orange County Register - "Can a church assume your mortgage?" (10-10-08)

"As a general rule, fixed-rate loans are not assumable but adjustable-rate loans are assumable, at the option of the lender. Having a church be the borrower is unusual but not impossible. You just have to ask and be persistent because their knee-jerk reaction will be NO. These days one would think they would be happy to have someone making the payments. Another option is to have one of the wealthier parishioners buy the property, assume the loan and lease it to the church under generous terms."

Orange County Register - "O.C. homebuying takes biggest jump since ‘96" (10-10-08)

"DataQuick’s freshest stats show a $437,250 median selling price for the 22 business days ended Sept. 19 — 26.6% below a year ago and 32% less than June 2007’s peak of $645,000."