SGVTribune.com - "Wave of foreclosures hits homeowners across nation" (7-15-07)

"Those proverbial chickens are coming home to roost in the mortgage market, and the picture isn't a pretty one. The Riverside/San Bernardino metropolitan area ranked fourth in the nation for foreclosures in June 2007, according to a report released Thursday by Realty-Trac, with one of every 134 homes in the two counties in some stage of the foreclosure process."

The San Diego Union-Tribune - "The worst isn't over in mortgage meltdown" (7-15-07)

"When the Standard & Poor's and Moody's ratings services lowered the boom on mortgage-backed securities last week, the second shoe finally dropped on the real estate market. The first shoe dropped earlier this year, when a bevy of mortgage firms went bankrupt after helping far too many unqualified borrowers buy homes. With last week's action, two of Wall Street's most respected firms acknowledged that the problems associated with those “subprime” borrowers will be much worse than they previously thought. S&P and Moody's warned they may cut the credit ratings of more than $12 billion in mortgage-backed bonds issued by such respected names as Citigroup, Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch."

Los Angeles Times - "No magic formula" (7-15-07)

"DETERMINING how to price a house for sale is like working a jigsaw puzzle where some of the pieces don't fit. Of course, there are tangibles such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage. But what about features that may matter to one person — a swimming pool, for instance — or be meaningless to the next — a professional Viking range for a bachelor who lives on takeout? How do views, zoning for horses or quality schools figure in?"

Los Angeles Times - "The sticks or the city? Well, both" (7-15-07)

"Early Elysian Heights settlers viewed their hilltop community as a place to escape the hubbub of central Los Angeles. Today, though residents can see downtown looming through their windows, the neighborhood and its adjacent park remain a sanctuary."