DQNews - "Southland home sales plummet" (11-14-07)

"Southern California home sales remained at their lowest level in more than 20 years last month, the result of market uncertainty and a continued drop in 'jumbo' mortgage financing. Prices have dropped back to spring 2005 levels, a real estate information service reported. A total of 12,999 new and resale houses and condos sold in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, San Bernardino and Orange counties in October. That was up 4.4 percent from 12,455 for the previous month, and down 45.3 percent from 23,745 for October last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Increase as Refis Jump In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (11-14-07)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending November 9, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 707.3, an increase of 5.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 670.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 4.2 percent compared with the previous week and was up 21.8 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

Yahoo - "Foreclosure Filings Up in Metro Areas" (11-14-07)

"Homeowners across the U.S. are increasingly having trouble making their mortgage payments on time, but borrowers in metro areas of California, Florida and other once-booming housing markets are accounting for the biggest spikes in foreclosure filings, according to a mortgage research company."

CNN - "HSBC takes $3.4B charge on U.S. mortgages" (11-14-07)

"HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday it was taking a $3.4 billion charge against third-quarter profits because of accelerating losses in its HSBC Finance Corp. mortgage business in the United States. However, in a trading update the company said that those losses were 'more than offset by revenue growth in the group' as a whole and that third-quarter operating income was up compared with a year ago."

Bloomberg - "Citigroup, Merrill, HSBC Credit-Default Swaps Fall" (11-14-07)

"The risk of financial companies defaulting on their debt fell after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. stoked optimism that the nation's largest banks may have seen the worst of credit market losses. Credit-default swaps on Goldman Sachs fell 7 basis points to 73.5 basis points, following a drop of 15 basis points yesterday, according to CMA Datavision in London. Citigroup Inc. fell 1.5 basis point to 72.5 basis points, after narrowing 8 basis points yesterday. Merrill Lynch & Co. declined 8.5 basis points to 117.5 basis points, following a 10 basis-point drop."

Bloomberg - "California, Ohio, Florida Cities Lead in Foreclosures" (11-14-07)

"California, Florida and Ohio accounted for more than two-thirds of the 25 metropolitan areas in the U.S. with the highest foreclosure rates as subprime borrowers and property speculators fell behind on adjustable- rate mortgages, RealtyTrac Inc. said. Seventy-seven of the 100 largest metro areas had more foreclosure filings in the third quarter than in the previous three months, according to the Irvine, California-based research firm. California locations accounted for seven of the top 25 foreclosures rates, and Florida and Ohio each had five."

Bloomberg - "Lehman, Bear Stearns Are Ripe for European Offers" (11-14-07)

"A lot of people might chuckle over that sentence. Most bankers would rather buy a slug-and-seaweed sandwich for lunch than take control of institutions drowning in subprime debt. Why pay billions of pounds or euros for a whole heap of trouble? Yet the credit crunch has hit the share prices of all the banks hard, and the dollar is slumping to record lows. That means Wall Street banks cost about as much as the free toy at the bottom of a cereal packet."

CNN - "Fannie Mae's fuzzy math" (11-14-07)

"Investors might want to take a closer look at Fannie Mae's latest earnings report. Lost in the unsurprising news of the mortgage lender's heavy losses was a critical change in the way the company discloses its bad loans -- a move that could mask that credit losses that are rising above levels that the company predicted just three months ago."

Los Angeles Times - "Pending home sales inch up but market remains weak" (11-14-07)

"Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly rose in September, but the outlook for the housing market remains weak and there are signs consumers have tightened up on spending. Pending home sales rose 0.2% in September but were still more than 20% lower than they were a year earlier, the National Assn. of Realtors said Tuesday. Wall Street economists had expected pending sales to fall 2.8%."