Voice of San Diego - "A Smoother Look at Foreclosures and Home Sales" (7-27-09)

"homes prices tend to rise when the sales-per-default ratio is high and fall when the ratio is low; and that directional changes to the ratio tend to precede price changes."

CNN - "Fannie & Freddie: The most expensive bailout" (7-27-09)

"Since Congress essentially wrote a blank check to the Treasury Department in July 2008 to do what needed to be done to inject capital into the two firms, Fannie has received $34.2 billion of direct government support while Freddie has received $51.7 billion. While that's lower than the $117.5 billion poured into insurer AIG by the Federal Reserve and the $200 billion given to the nation's largest banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the current cost of the Fannie and Freddie bailouts dwarfs original estimates from a year ago"

Orange County Register - "How much value does a cool pool add to a home?" (7-25-09)

"Regionally, in-ground pools will add about 5% to the value of a home in the Northeast part of the country, about 6% in the Midwest and 7.5% in the Southeast and West. In the Southwest, a swimming pool will add nearly 11% to the home’s value"

Orange County Register - "Calif. seen hottest U.S. home market in 2010" (7-27-09)

"California, the nation’s hottest real estate market? Yes! If you can wait … until 2010. That’s a projection from the folks at FiServ, who bring you the Case-Shiller home-price indexes."

Orange County Register - "Is nightmare for O.C. broker sales over?" (7-25-09)

"Has the free-fall ended? Broker-generated home sales last month totaled $1.3 billion in Orange County — half the amount in 2005, but nearly even with the revenue generated in June 2008, figures from the Southern California Multiple Listing Service show."

Bloomberg - "U.S. Economy: New-Home Sales Climb 11%, Most in Eight Years" (7-27-09)

"Purchases of new homes in the U.S. climbed 11 percent in June, the biggest gain in eight years, underscoring evidence that the deepest housing slump since the Great Depression is starting to stabilize. Sales increased to a 384,000 annual pace, higher than every forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and the most since November, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The number of houses on the market dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade."

Bloomberg - "Almost $165 Billion in Commercial Loans Due in ‘09 " (7-27-09)

"Almost $165 billion in U.S. commercial real estate loans will mature this year and need to be sold or refinanced as rents and occupancies fall, according to First American CoreLogic. The U.S. South has the most maturing loans with 60,893 mortgages valued at $96 billion coming due on shops, offices, hotels, apartment buildings and land, Santa Ana, California- based First American said in a report. The West is second with 20,549 mortgages maturing for a value of $35 billion."

Bloomberg - "Wells Fargo Buys Mortgage Bonds as Defaults Rise, Sloan Says" (7-27-09)

"Wells Fargo & Co., the bank that boosted its U.S. property-related holdings by acquiring rival Wachovia Corp., is adding to those investments with purchases of mortgage-backed bonds, even as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke warns of another wave of defaults. The bank reported its portfolio of real-estate securities, excluding those backed by the U.S. government, rose 6.6 percent last quarter to $41.2 billion. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has been buying commercial-mortgage bonds because the debt has been available at “good” prices, said Tim Sloan, an executive vice president."

Bloomberg - "Option ARM Defaults Shrink Size of Recast Wave, Barclays Says" (7-27-09)

"The wave of 'option' adjustable- rate mortgages recasting to higher payments, projected by some economists to represent a looming source of foreclosures that will hurt housing markets over the next few years, will be smaller 'than feared' because many borrowers will default before their bills change, Barclays Capital analysts said."

Bloomberg - "Real Yields Highest Since 1994 Aid Record Debt Sales" (7-27-09)

"The highest inflation-adjusted yields in 15 years are helping provide the Treasury with record demand at auctions as the U.S. prepares to sell $115 billion of notes this week. Treasuries are the cheapest relative to inflation since 1994 after consumer prices fell 1.4 percent in June from a year earlier. The real yield, or the difference between rates on government securities and inflation, for 10-year notes was 5.10 percent today, compared with an average of 2.74 percent over the past 20 years."