NAHB - "New-Home Sales Virtually Flat In May" (6-24-09)

"New-home sales declined 0.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 342,000 units in May. Meanwhile, the number of new homes for sale fell 2.3 percent to 292,000, which is a 10.2-month supply at the current sales pace. Regionally, the decline in new-home sales was entirely focused on the South, where sales fell 8.5 percent for the month. Meanwhile, sales of new homes gained 1.3 percent in the West and posted double-digit gains of 28.6 percent and 18.6 percent in the Northeast and Midwest, respectively"

CBIA - "Single-Family Housing Starts Hold Their Own in May, CBIA Announces" (6-24-09)

"Statistics compiled by the Construction Industry Research Board found that builders pulled permits for 2,203 single-family homes in May, down just 7 percent from April but 40 percent lower than in May 2008. On a seasonally adjusted basis, CIRB reported that May’s figures were down just 1.6 percent compared to April."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (6-24-09)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 19, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 548.2, an increase of 6.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 514.4 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 6.0 percent compared with the previous week and increased 17.2 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

Mercury News - "Tax refund letters on the way for Santa Clara County property owners" (6-24-09)

"Ending a long-running battle over open space funding, refund letters will be mailed out Thursday to roughly two-thirds of the property owners in Santa Clara County, telling them how to receive a check for as much as $130 each for a typical homeowner. The money is part of a legal settlement between a taxpayer group and a San Jose-based government agency that purchases land for parks and wildlife."

Washington Post - "Not Paying the Mortgage, Yet Stuck With the Keys" (6-24-09)

"During the first quarter of this year, the share of all homeowners seriously delinquent on their mortgage but not yet facing foreclosure more than doubled to 3.04 percent, or about $227 billion in loans. There was a total of $97 billion in such loans during the same period in 2008, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. In more prosperous times, the rate is much lower -- it was less than 1 percent in the first quarter of 2007, according to the industry publication."

Yahoo - "Fed says recession easing, inflation is tame" (6-24-09)

"The Federal Reserve sought Wednesday to defuse fears that the trillions it's spending to revive the economy could spark inflation later on. But Wall Street didn't seem to buy it."

Bloomberg - "Home-Price Recovery May Be Undermined by Appraisals" (6-24-09)

"There may be another culprit scuttling a U.S. housing recovery: low home appraisals. Flawed appraisals are derailing real estate sales and depressing values across the U.S., the National Association of Realtors said yesterday as it reported that existing home prices declined 17 percent in May from a year earlier."

Bloomberg - "Tishman Speyer May Lose California Land After Default" (6-24-09)

"Tishman Speyer Properties LP may lose a plot of land in California’s Silicon Valley to Bank of America Corp. after defaulting on an $86.2-million loan used to buy the site, people familiar with the matter said. Tishman Speyer, the New York-based owner of Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center, is in negotiations with the bank about the 41 acres (16.6 hectares) in North San Jose, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are private."

Bloomberg - "Citi Unit Halts Mortgage Applications on Missing Data" (6-24-09)

"Citigroup Inc. suspended loan applications at a unit that produced half of its $115 billion in mortgages last year after a review found that some property appraisals and income-verification documents were missing."