CBIA - "Total Housing Starts Dip 14% in June, CBIA Reports" (7-27-07)

"California’s total housing starts in June fell by nearly 14 percent when compared to production levels in May, the California Building Industry Association announced today. According to housing permit data supplied by the Construction Industry Research Board, both single-family and multifamily units saw a decline in permits being pulled for the month and had also fallen behind when compared to production levels for the first half of 2006. In June, permits were pulled for 6,533 single-family homes statewide, down 11 percent from the previous month and 50 percent below the number in June 2006, while multifamily housing starts — condos and apartments — totaled 3,003, down 18 percent from the previous month and down 54 percent when compared to June 2006."

Market Watch - "Subprime Surprise" (7-27-07)

"Thursday's market plunge was the worst since the 416-point drop in late February. The February drop, of course, was blamed on a drop in the Chinese stock market, which is why some commentators blamed the drop on Wall Street on what they called the 'Shanghai Surprise.' It's too early to know what the commentators will name the cause of Thursday's drop. But since the culprit is assumed to be continued weakness in the subprime lending market, I'll call it the 'Subprime Surprise.'"

Market Watch - "Around the globe, rout in credit markets accelerates" (7-27-07)

"America's era of easy money is going out with a bang - and on a global scale. Investors around the world on Thursday got a painful reminder of the fallout. Behind the latest sell-off in the Dow Jones Industrial Average was an erosion in credit-market confidence that has plunged international corporate bonds along with emerging-market debt into an accelerated retrenchment, analysts said."

Yahoo - "No Housing Turnaround for Two Years?" (7-27-07)

"First, it was the second half of 2007. Then it was 2008. Now analysts are saying the national housing market may not rebound until 2009. On July 25, the National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell 3.8% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units, contributing to the bleak-and-getting-bleaker outlook."

Bloomberg - "Franco Is Still Dead, and Housing Is Still Bust" (7-27-07)

"The latest round of housing statistics -- sales, starts, homebuilders' outlook surveys and earnings reports -- offered little hope that residential real estate would be back on its feet anytime soon. 'Housing is bust, and wishful thinking cannot unbust it anytime soon,' says Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York."

Time - "California's Real-Estate Tailspin" (7-27-07)

"If Wall Street wants to get even more worried about the real estate market, it need look no further than southern California. There, the culprits aren't just the bad-credit borrowers whom banks and lenders loaded up with ballooning debt to purchase their dream homes. The well-to-do have partaken of those treacherous loans as well. And now everyone is hard-pressed to pay as interest rates rise."

Forbes - "Standard Pacific Joins The Pack" (7-27-07)

"Another homebuilder, another big loss. Like other builders that posted earnings this week, Standard Pacific racked up hefty charges as it reduced the value of its real estate holdings on its balance sheet. Standard Pacific (nyse: SPF - news - people ) said Friday morning that it swung to a second-quarter loss of $165.9 million, or $2.56 per share, from a profit of $96.5 million, or $1.44 per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting a loss of 34 cents per share."

Market Watch - "Fannie, Freddie seen facing subprime losses" (7-27-07)

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have $4.7 billion in unrealized losses from the deterioration in subprime mortgages, Citigroup's fixed-income strategy team estimated on Friday. The bank's strategists said that probably won't be a big problem and argued that recent moves in the credit-derivatives market suggesting Fannie and Freddie are more risky have been overdone. The estimated $4.7 billion in losses represent about 6% of the equity capital of the government-sponsored mortgage-finance giants, the strategists noted, adding that Fannie and Freddie's retained portfolios contain roughly $182 billion of subprime bonds, most of which are rated AAA."

Orange County Register - "Orange County home prices and sales" (7-27-07)

"For the 22 business days ending July 12, sales for all types of Orange County home sales decreased 26.1 percent. The median sales price increased .2 percent. The median is where half the homes sold for more and half for less. Types of homes selling, as well as home value changes, cause the median to change."

Los Angeles Times - "New-home sales fall 6.6% in June" (7-27-07)

"Sales of new U.S. homes dropped more than expected in June, while orders for long-lasting U.S.-made goods were weaker than analysts forecast, according to reports Thursday that raised fresh concerns about the economy. 'The U.S. business sector may not be providing as much of a sturdy offset to the weak housing sector as expected,' said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. Orders for U.S.-made durable goods rose 1.4% in June, the Commerce Department reported, but they were less than Wall Street expectations for a 1.8% gain, and a measure of business spending in the data fell unexpectedly."

Los Angeles Times - "Irvine to sue government group over housing demand" (7-27-07)

"Irvine announced Thursday that it would sue a regional government group that had demanded that the city plan for 35,660 new homes in the next seven years to accommodate regional growth. Many of the homes would be designated low- and moderate-income housing. City leaders say Irvine lacks the land to meet the goals that had been mandated in a housing plan that was approved this month by the Southern California Assn. of Governments."

Los Angeles Times - "It was investors' last straw" (7-27-07)

"Wall Street finally caved Thursday. For months, investors had looked past a series of warning signs: major U.S. banks reporting losses from portfolios of sub-prime loans amid a slowing housing market, private equity funds not being able to attract investors on junk bond deals as they had just weeks before, and hedge funds going belly up on soured investments linked to the sub-prime market. The proverbial last straw came Thursday, with the Commerce Department's report that new-home sales fell 6.6% last month, more than triple what had been expected. Investors decided that it was time to sell."