NAR - "Effective Implementation Critical for Home Buyer Tax Credit Success" (1-14-08)

"If all home buyers become eligible for a tax credit without a repayment feature, it could result in an additional 555,000 home sales – enough to meaningfully draw down excess housing inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors®. An evaluation of options for a home buyer tax credit by NAR shows wide ranging implications and benefits. A full credit to all buyers means an additional 2.22 million households would meet the income requirements for purchasing a home, but only one in four of those households would actually make a purchase."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Record Low Mortgage Rates Boost Refinance Activity in Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (1-14-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 9, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1324.8, an increase of 15.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1143.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 95.7 percent compared with the previous week and was up 52.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

Bloomberg - "Bankruptcy Law Changes May Not Cut Home Foreclosures" (1-14-08)

"A proposed change to bankruptcy laws that would allow judges to reduce consumers’ mortgages may not succeed in reducing the foreclosures that have been dragging down property prices, according to a Barclays Capital strategist. Some borrowers would later default on their reworked loans while others, who wouldn’t benefit by filing because their incomes are high enough to handle their debts, would face 'a greater temptation' to abandon their obligations if their neighbors get bailed out, Glenn Boyd, head of U.S. asset-backed securities strategy at Barclays in New York, said yesterday."

Inman News - "Fannie Mae won't evict renters" (1-14-08)

"Fannie Mae will allow qualified renters to sign month-to-month leases and stay on in homes it forecloses on -- without requiring a security deposit, credit check or payment history -- while it markets the homes for sale."

Bloomberg - "U.S. Home Prices Will Continue to Tumble Until 2010, PMI Says" (1-14-08)

"U.S. home prices, already down 23 percent from their July 2006 peak, will continue to fall until the third quarter of next year, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. said in a report."

Bloomberg - "Commercial Building in U.S. to Drop 11% Percent, Architects Say" (1-14-08)

"Construction spending on offices, shopping centers, hotels and industrial buildings in the U.S. will fall this year and next as the recession prompts businesses to delay or cancel plans, the American Institute of Architects said. Non-residential construction likely will drop 11 percent this in 2009 and 5 percent in 2010, the Washington-based group said today in its semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast. The declines will follow an estimated 8 percent to 9 percent gain in non-residential construction spending last year, the institute said."

Bloomberg - "Lennar Adds Minkow and Fraud Discovery to Libel Suit" (1-14-08)

"The amended complaint, filed yesterday in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County, Florida, claims Minkow and his company were hired by Nicolas Marsch III, a former partner with Lennar in a joint venture construction project in California. In a deposition yesterday, Marsch said he recently paid Minkow $50,000 to $100,000 for unnamed services, Lennar said today in a statement."

CNN - "Taming inflated home appraisals" (1-14-08)

"Now, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the government agency created to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has announced a plan to curb the influence that loan originators exert on appraisers to overvalue homes. A new Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which will take effect this May, is an attempt to improve the reliability of appraisals for mortgages sold to the two companies. The guidelines prohibit lenders from coercing, extorting, colluding with, intimidating or bribing appraisers into making inaccurate appraisals."

Orange County Register - "O.C. pre-foreclosure filings hit four-month high" (1-14-08)

"Foreclosureradar.com reports banks filed 2,423 notices of default in December in Orange County, up 96% from the prior month. It was the highest monthly total since August’s peak of 2,539."