Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Bloomberg - "Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fall More Than Forecast" (5-26-09)

"Home prices in 20 major metropolitan areas fell more than forecast in March as foreclosures surged, threatening to extend the housing slump. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index decreased 18.7 percent from March 2008, matching the drop in the year ended in February. The measure declined 19 percent in January, the most since data began in 2001."

Bloomberg - "Housing Hitting Bottom Means Fewest Starts Since 1945" (5-26-09)

"The slump in the U.S. housing market that caused the median value of homes to decline 24 percent since 2006 may bottom next month without any prospect of a rebound for another year, according to estimates from chief economists at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Bankers Association and national realtors and homebuilder groups."

Orange County Register - "Banks to earn billions from bad-loan accounting" (5-26-09)

"JPMorgan Chase & Co. stands to reap a $29 billion windfall thanks to an accounting rule that lets the second-biggest U.S. bank transform bad loans it purchased from Washington Mutual Inc. into income. Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. are also poised to benefit from taking over home lenders Wachovia Corp., Countrywide Financial Corp. and National City Corp., regulatory filings show. The deals provide a combined $56 billion in so-called accretable yield, the difference between the value of the loans on the banks’ balance sheets and the cash flow they’re expected to produce."

Orange County Register - "Slump cuts 32,300 O.C. construction jobs" (5-26-09)

"Orange County building industry has lost 32,300 construction jobs from the September 2007 peak — or 29%. The last time there were this few construction jobs in the country? May 2002."

Realty Times - "Washington Report: Obama Signs Bills" (5-26-09)

"Last week alone President Obama signed two major bills into law. The first is intended to combat widespread mortgage fraud. It authorizes nearly half a billion dollars for the federal government to hire new prosecutors targeting mortgage fraud, and to beef up Secret Service, U.S. Postal Service and HUD fraud investigation capabilities."

Realty Times - "Real Estate Outlook: Recovery Underway" (5-26-09)

"The facts are that the Commerce Department found that apartment starts -- new multifamily units -- took a drop in April, but starts of new single family homes were up by 3 percent, and permits for future construction of detached single family homes jumped by nearly 4 percent. That's the second straight month of increases. Home builders themselves are seeing a turnaround -- more shoppers in their models and showrooms, more contracts, fewer cancellations."

Realty Times - "Seniors Only: Surviving the Economic Crisis with a Reverse Mortgage" (5-26-09)

"HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) created one of the first reverse mortgage programs, called the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM). With HUD's HECM , homeowners don't have to repay the 'loan' as long as one or more of the borrowers continues to live in the home and is able to keep the property taxes and homeowner insurance current. The initial loan is calculated based on life expectancy tables known as actuarial tables. Even if the homeowner outlives the statistical estimate, they will not have a mortgage payment."

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