Bloomberg - "Home Sales May Increase to a Two-Year High in Third Quarter" (9-11-09)

"U.S. sales of new and existing homes may increase to an annual pace of 5.1 million in the current quarter, the highest in two years, according to a forecast by Freddie Mac, the government-run mortgage buyer. That would be an 11 percent gain from the second quarter’s annual pace of 4.61 million sales, the McLean, Virginia-based company said in a report today."

Bloomberg - "Commercial Property Deal Drought Worst in 18 Years" (9-11-09)

"About $16 billion of office transactions will be completed by year-end, according to data compiled by Real Capital Analytics Inc., a New York research firm that has tracked deals for almost a decade. Real Capital Managing Director Dan Fasulo and Sam Chandan, chief economist of Real Estate Econometrics LLC, said that may be the lowest volume since at least 1991."

Orange County Register - "O.C. homebuying surge nears 14th month" (9-11-09)

"It looks like August will be 14th straight month of sales gains vs. the year-ago period. That follows 33 consecutive months where sales failed to beat the previous year’s pace. "

Orange County Register - "O.C. property tax fights up 23%" (9-11-09)

"With the deadline to file an appeal less than a week off, the number of Orange County property owners disputing their taxes jumped 23% this year, the county Clerk of the Board of Supervisors reports."

Orange County Register - "O.C. loan officer arrested in $30 million fraud" (9-11-09)

"Attorney General Jerry Brown said today his office arrested a Huntington Beach loan officer and two other men for allegedly placing consumers into $30 million worth of fraudulent loans and pocketing $1 million in illicit profits."

Orange County Register - "Inventory drops in south coast cities, prices come down" (9-11-09)

"68 homes priced at $1 million or higher have seen price reductions in the past two weeks in Dana Point, Laguna Beach and San Clemente combined. This is most likely due to a drop in inventory in all three beach communities, which incidentally drove the average active list price up in at least Laguna Beach, according to a recent biweekly report by Steven Thomas of Altera Real Estate."

Inman - "MSN, AOL real estate sites get traction" (9-11-09)

"MSN Real Estate leaped four positions to break into a list of the top 10 most popular real estate Web sites in August, while AOL Real Estate and mlsfinder.com climbed into the top 20.