Reuters - "Further loan deterioration seen for Alt-A market-S&P" (6-26-07)

"Delinquency rates are rising for so-called 'Alt-A' home mortgages held by U.S. borrowers who are rated above the subprime category but below the more pristine prime borrower, said Standard & Poor's in a report on Tuesday."

NAHB - "Casa Y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design Named Winner in Prestigious Franklin Awards" (6-26-07)

"Casa y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design, published by BuilderBooks, the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) book publishing division, and edited by Henry Cisneros, was named a silver medallion winner in the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Awards in the category of business publications. The award was presented in New York City last month on the eve of the BookExpo America held during the 2007 Publishing University."

Orange County Register - "Report: O.C. home prices dip" (6-26-07)

"May was a disappointing month for home sales in Orange County and around the country, according to real estate sales data released Monday by the California Association of Realtors. Sales of existing single-family homes locally fell 21.1 percent when compared with a year ago, a trend that mirrors the state and national pictures. In California, the state association reported that May sales fell 25 percent from a year earlier. During the month, homes sold at a pace equal to about 366,300 sales a year, down from a 2006 pace of 488,000 and a 2005 pace of more than 600,000."

NAHB - "New-Home Sales Slide 1.6 Percent In May As Correction Continues" (6-26-07)

"In the latest indication that the housing market remains in a correction phase, sales of new single-family homes slipped 1.6 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 915,000 units, according to figures released by the U.S. Commerce Department today. The May sales pace was 15.8 percent below a year earlier. 'Builders are continuing to offer incentives in order to shore up sales and work down their inventories as home buyer demand remains slack' said Brian Catalde, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from El Segundo, Calif."

Yahoo - "S&P Says U.S. Home Prices Fell in April" (6-26-07)

"U.S. home prices fell for a fourth consecutive month in April, with all regions showing the effect of the housing slowdown, according to the most recent figures in a housing index released Tuesday by Standard & Poor's. The trend followed 13 months of slowing price growth. The S&P/Case-Shiller index that covers 10 U.S. cities fell 2.7 percent in April from a year earlier. It was the steepest decline since 1991."
Market Watch - "Home prices fall at fastest rate in 16 years" (6-26-07)

"Home prices in 10 major U.S. cities dropped at the fastest pace in 16 years during the 12 months ending in April, according to Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. Home prices in the 10 cities fell 2.7% on a year-over-year basis, the largest decline since September 1991. Meanwhile, prices in 20 cities dropped a record 2.1% year over year."

Market Watch - "Lennar posts loss as home prices fall" (6-26-07)

"Lennar Corp. said Tuesday it swung to a quarterly loss, blaming impairment charges and growing inventories of homes for sale which are pushing prices lower and further squeezing margins. The Miami-based home buildersaid it saw a second-quarter loss for the period ended May 31 of $244.2 million, or $1.55 a share, compared with profit of $324.7 million, or $2 a share a year earlier. "The housing market has continued to deteriorate throughout the second quarter. The supply of new and existing homes has continued to increase resulting in declining home prices across our markets," said Chief Executive Stuart Miller in a statement."

Bloomberg - "Freddie Mac Says Subprime Rout `Severe but Contained'" (6-26-07)

"Freddie Mac Treasurer Timothy Bitsberger said the subprime mortgage slump is 'severe but contained.' Subprime borrowers, people with the riskiest credit records, make up a small part of the U.S. mortgage market and are mostly in seven states, Bitsberger said today at a conference in London. The owners of bonds made up of subprime mortgages are mainly 'large institutional players who can withstand the loss,' he said. Freddie Mac is the second-biggest U.S. mortgage finance company."

Reuters - "PIMCO's Gross says 'subprime crisis' not isolated" (6-26-07)

"Bill Gross, manager of PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund, said on Tuesday the subprime mortgage crisis gripping U.S. financial markets was not an isolated event and will eventually take a toll on the economy. Gross, the chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., or PIMCO, also said in his July investment outlook that the crisis would prompt the Federal Reserve to lower the benchmark interest rate by year-end."

Bloomberg - "CDOs in `Hooker Heels' Fool Moody's, S&P, Gross Says" (6-26-07)

"Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's were duped by the make-up and ``six-inch hooker heels'' of collateralized debt obligations they gave investment-grade ratings, and investors now stand to lose all their money, according to Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest bond fund. Subprime mortgage bonds made up about $100 billion of the $375 billion of CDOs sold in the U.S. in 2006, Moody's and Morgan Stanley data show. CDO's are created by bankers and money managers who bundle together securities and divide them into slices with credit ratings as high as AAA."

Los Angeles Times - "It's Real Estate Fraud Week at L.A. Land" (6-26-07)

"Now houses are piling up in forelcosure and so are the lawsuits. Reporter Chris Bagley at the North County Times has been all over this story: 'Nurses and other middle-class investors bought more than 100 Murrieta-area houses in 2004 and 2005 through Stonewood Consulting Inc., a Murrieta mortgage brokerage that the California Department of Real Estate is now seeking to bar from the industry.' More: 'The first of those houses fell into the foreclosure process last fall, and the owners began filing lawsuits in January. Stonewood clients often paid far more for their houses than did buyers of comparable houses nearby and, according to numerous neighbors and real estate agents who followed the purchases, $50,000 to $120,000 more than the original asking prices -- a pattern that raised eyebrows in the slackening market.'"
Real Estate Journal - "New Reverse Mortgages Bring Perks, but Also Some Risk" (6-26-07)

"As more homeowners nationwide tap into reverse mortgages, banks are jumping into the market to offer their own versions of these sometimes controversial loans. The new breed of reverse mortgages generally allow for higher loan amounts and lower fees than the traditional, government-backed loans, but may charge higher interest rates. There's even a new product that sidesteps banks entirely and structures a reverse-mortgage loan between family members. Reverse mortgages allow homeowners who are 62 and older to convert home equity into income, with the lender paying out via a lump sum, monthly payments or a credit line. When the house is sold, the lender is paid back with interest. With a typical reverse mortgage, the homeowner never owes the lender more than the value of the home."

The Real Estate Journal - "Tax Deductions For Second Homes" (6-26-07)

"Before you make any decisions, crunch the numbers again to make absolutely sure that itemizing your deductions would be better than claiming the standard deduction. If so, that brings us to your next question: Can you amend your tax returns for the past five years? The answer is you certainly can amend some of those prior returns -- but not for all five years."