NAR - "No Economic Recovery Without Housing Stabilization, Say Realtors®" (10-31-08)

"NAR today provided an economic analysis demonstrating that a reduction, or a buydown, of interest rates by just 1 percentage point could result in up to 840,000 additional home sales and reduce the inventory of homes by as much as 20 percent. Inventories currently at 9.9 months’ supply would decrease to approximately a 7.5 month supply"

NAR - "Americans Want More Government Involvement in Lending, NAR Survey Shows" (10-31-08)

"More than half of those surveyed (56 percent) favor the federal government taking a more active oversight role in lending and mortgages, while 38 percent prefer that private companies oversee their businesses. That is a marked shift from the 2007 survey, which showed respondents were more evenly split on the issue of government involvement."

CNN - "7.5 million homeowners 'underwater'" (10-31-08)

"At least 7.5 million Americans owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth, according to a real estate research firm's report released Friday. Another 2.1 million people stand right on the brink, according to the report by First American CoreLogic. Their homes are worth less than 5% more than the mortgages they're paying on them."

Yahoo - "Banks borrow record amount from Fed" (10-31-08)

"The Fed reported that commercial banks borrowed a record $111.9 billion a day, on average, from the Federal Reserve's emergency lending window over the past week. That's up $6.1 billion from the $105.8 billion they borrowed in the previous week."

Bloomberg - "Depository Trust to Release Credit-Default Swaps Data" (10-31-08)

"Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., the operator of a central registry for the more than $47 trillion credit-default swaps market, will start releasing weekly data on the amount of trades linked to the top 1,000 companies and benchmark indexes. DTCC will begin publishing the data on its Web site starting Nov. 4, the New York-based company said in a statement today. The company will publish both the gross and net amount of contracts used to hedge against losses or to speculate on the creditworthiness of companies, governments and other borrowers."

Bloomberg - "Frank Says Bonuses, Acquisitions Violate Bailout Plan" (10-31-08)

"House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said banks using cash from the $700 billion U.S. rescue plan for bonuses, acquisitions and other purposes unrelated to lending are in 'violation' of the law."

Bloomberg - "JPMorgan Agrees to Keep Customers Out of Foreclosure" (10-31-08)

"JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by market value, said it won't begin new foreclosure proceedings on some loans while it finds ways to make payments easier on $110 billion of problem mortgages."

Bloomberg - "General Re, AIG Fraud Cost $597 Million, Judge Says" (10-31-08)

"American International Group Inc. shareholders lost as much as $597 million because of a fraud that led to the convictions of five insurance executives, the U.S. judge who oversaw their trial ruled."

Orange County Register - "Gov’t actions fail to ease O.C. mortgage rates" (10-31-08)

"The best rate on a 30-year fixed-rate conforming mortgage actually rose a bit to 6.375% with a one-point fee after the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate to 1% on Wednesday, said broker Al Hensling, who heads United American Mortgage in Irvine. Conforming loans are sold to Fannie or Freddie, and Hensling quoted a rate on loans up to the old conforming limit of $417,000 — rates are lowest on those loans. Rates on larger mortgages were anywhere from 6.625% to 9.500%, Hensling said."