NAHB - "NAHB Applauds FHA's On-Time Roll Out Of New Foreclosure Prevention Program" (10-1-08)

"Under the program, the holder of a troubled mortgage must agree to accept, as payment-in-full, an amount equal to 87 percent of the current value of the mortgaged property. The borrower receives a new, FHA-insured mortgage that represents 90 percent of the home’s current value, with the 3 percent balance going to cover the borrower’s upfront FHA mortgage insurance premium. The homeowner is responsible for an annual mortgage insurance premium of 1.5 percent. Borrowers must meet a mortgage payment-to-income test and agree to share equity gains on the home with the federal government. FHA was granted an additional $300 billion in mortgage insurance authority by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 to operate the new program, which was authorized for three years."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (10-1-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending September 26, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 455.4, a decrease of 23.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 591.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 23.4 percent compared with the previous week and was down 28.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

Bloomberg - "GE Raises $15 Billion; Buffett Gets Preferred Stake" (10-1-08)

"General Electric Co. got a $3 billion investment from Warren Buffett and said it will sell $12 billion in common stock, gathering more cash to fund operations amid the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. will buy $3 billion in preferred shares that pay an annual 10 percent dividend and are callable after three years at a 10 percent premium, Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE said today in a statement. The 78-year-old investor also gets warrants to buy $3 billion of common stock with a strike price of $22.25 a share for five years."

Bloomberg - "If There Must Be a Bailout, Here's How to Do It" (10-1-08)

"The fatal flaw in Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's $700 billion bailout plan was that it wouldn't fix the problem: Too many important financial institutions don't have enough capital. If the government wants to save dying banks before they take others down with them, it should choose the clean and direct path: Inject capital into them. Take ownership stakes in return. And, where that's not feasible, seize them and sell their assets in an orderly way, just as the Resolution Trust Corp. did after the 1980s savings-and-loan crisis."

Bloomberg - "Senate Rescue Bill Lifts FDIC Coverage to $250,000" (10-1-08)

"The U.S. Senate is proposing to raise Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage for bank deposits to $250,000 per customer from $100,000 through 2009 as lawmakers seek support for the Bush administration bank-rescue plan."

Bloomberg - "Paulson Bank Rescue Proposal Is `Crazy,' O'Neill Says" (10-1-08)

"Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said the $700 billion bank-rescue proposal under negotiation in Washington is 'crazy,' with potentially 'awful' consequences for the world's largest economy."

Bloomberg - "L.A. Foreclosures Triple, Seattle Doubles, PropertyShark Says" (10-1-08)

"New foreclosures tripled in Los Angeles and doubled in Seattle in the third quarter as the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression continued to deepen, the online real estate data company PropertyShark.com reported."

Bloomberg - "General Growth Should Allow Shorting, Proxy Firm Says" (10-1-08)

"General Growth Properties Inc., the mall owner whose executives sold 2.44 million shares of company stock after shorting the shares was barred, should remove the short-sale ban on investors, proxy adviser Glass, Lewis & Co. said."

Orange County Register - "Subprime’s dearly departed" (10-1-08)

"The list of major subprime lenders for 2006 and 2007 resembles the casualty roster from the Battle of Verdun in World War I. Only difference: way fewer walking wounded this time. Of the 30 biggest subprime home lenders in 2006, measured by dollar volume, 22 have gone bankrupt, shut down, been sold or been seized by Uncle Sam. Most of the survivors have scaled back."

Orange County Register - "O.C. called nation’s 8th riskiest housing market" (10-1-08)

"Mortgage insurer PMI’s quarterly rankings of the shakiness of the 50 big U.S. housing markets says there’s a 97.7% chance that O.C. home prices will be lower two years from now."