NAR - "Existing-Home Sales Show Strong Gain In December" (1-26-09)

"Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – jumped 6.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.74 million units in December from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million units in November, but are 3.5 percent below the 4.91 million-unit pace in December 2007."

Bloomberg - "House Prices Dropped in 70% of U.S. States in 2008, Report Says" (1-26-09)

"Home prices fell in 34 U.S. states in 2008 as it became harder to get a mortgage and foreclosures hammered property values, First American CoreLogic said. Prices for single-family detached houses fell a record 10.6 percent nationally, the biggest annual decline in data that goes back to 1976, Santa Ana, California-based First American said today in its year-end report."

Bloomberg - "Bernanke Risks ‘Very Unstable’ Market as He Weighs Buying Bonds" (1-26-09)

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues may try once again to cure the aftermath of a bubble in one kind of asset by overheating the market for another. Fed policy makers meeting tomorrow and the day after are exploring the purchase of longer-dated Treasury securities in an effort to push up their price and bring down their yield. Behind the potential move: a desire to reduce long-term borrowing costs at a time when the Fed can’t lower short-term interest rates any further because they are effectively at zero."

Bloomberg - "Caterpillar, Sprint, Pfizer Slash Jobs as Sales Fall" (1-26-09)

"Caterpillar Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Home Depot Inc. and ING Groep NV led companies today announcing at least 74,000 job cuts as sales withered and construction slowed amid a global economic recession that may persist through 2009."

Bloomberg - "Banks Sell Bad Residential Project Debt, DebtX Says" (1-26-09)

"Banks are selling troubled loans on land and residential construction debt at a faster pace as property prices plummet, according to Debt Exchange Inc. Chief Executive Officer Kingsley Greenland. Banks and other sellers used the Boston-based company’s online marketplace to dispose of more than $1 billion of U.S. debt last quarter, triple the amount from a year earlier, including 'hundreds of millions' of dollars of land loans and housing construction and development debt, Greenland said. Buyers pay at least 50 percent less than the face amount, he said."

Bloomberg - "Geithner to Press Mortgage, Bank Relief in Growing Rescue Plan" (1-26-09)

"President Barack Obama’s financial rescue plan will be unveiled soon and is likely to be larger and more ambitious than originally planned as the economy and banking system worsen. The last procedural roadblock is set to be removed today, congressional Democrats said, when the Senate confirms Obama’s choice for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, who will speed the rescue program out the door as soon as this week. Administration officials and members of Congress said yesterday the second $350 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, released by Congress earlier this month, may not be enough to shore up lenders and pull the economy out of recession."

Orange County Register - "9 keys to housing’s bottom" (1-26-09)

"In 2007-2008, DataQuick found 54,000 Orange County homes were sold — roughly what was sold in 2004 alone. Homebuying in the last six months, best since mid-2007, was still 30 percent below the average pace since 1988. Banks took back 11,500 Orange County homes in 2008, more than double ‘07. Can we, at least, hold at this pace?"

Orange County Register - "Half of SoCal homes for sale are distressed" (1-26-09)

"As a percent of all listed homes for sale, distressed properties were 44.2% of the O.C. market last week vs. 50% for the 5-county SoCal region. Other So Cal counties: LA (41% distressed); San Diego (46%); San Bernardino (60%); and Riverside (68%). "