NAHB - "New-Home Sales Edge Up In October" (11-29-07)

"New single-family home sales edged up 1.7 percent in October following a dramatic downward revision to the preliminary estimate for September, the U.S. Commerce Department reported today. October’s seasonally adjusted annual rate of 728,000 units was 23.5 percent below a year ago."

Reuters - "Home foreclosures soar 94 percent: RealtyTrac" (11-29-07)

"Home foreclosure filings in October edged up 2 percent from September but at 224,451 were a whopping 94 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday. The figure, a sum of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions, was down from a 32-month peak in August however, RealtyTrac, an online market of foreclosure of properties, said in its monthly foreclosure market report."

Washington Post - "SEC Votes to Limit Shareholder Rights" (11-29-07)

"Companies will be able to scuttle investor attempts to nominate board members under a plan adopted by a bitterly divided Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. The move drew an outcry from key lawmakers, unions and major retirement funds, which criticized SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, a Republican, for pushing the plan at a time when the agency is short one Democrat and another is on her way out the door."

The Washington Post - "Municipal Bond Deals Squeezed By Credit Crisis" (11-29-07)

"The widening credit crunch is making it harder for cities and school systems to get money for buildings, ballparks and other vital projects from the $2.5 trillion market for municipal bonds, a sector of Wall Street that rarely sees trouble. That is leaving them with a tough choice: either put off the projects, or pay higher interest rates on their bonds, a cost that ultimately would fall on the backs of taxpayers."

Bloomberg - "Treasury 3-Month Bill Yields Fall Below 3% on Credit Concern" (11-29-07)

"Treasuries rose and three-month bill yields fell below 3 percent for the first time since August as concern over banks' willingness to lend drove investors to the relative safety of U.S. government debt. The interest rate that banks charge each other for borrowing in dollars for one month rose the most in more than a decade as banks sought to cover their commitments through the start of 2008. Yields on notes fell as futures traders increased bets that the Federal Reserve will cut borrowing costs a half- percentage point next month to prevent a recession."

Bloomberg - "GM, Wounded by Autos, Now Catches It From Housing" (11-29-07)

"General Motors Corp. probably thought nothing could be worse than poor quality ratings or a strike by the United Auto Workers union. Now the world's biggest automaker has a new headache: a nationwide glut of unsold homes and plunging housing-related securities."

Bloomberg - "Paulson Housing Bets Make $2.7 Billion, Beat Citadel" (11-29-07)

"The subprime crisis that's caused so much trauma for hedge funds and investment banks has brought only good news for John Paulson. He's the manager of more than $7 billion in hedge fund money keyed to mortgage credit. Paulson started warning his investors back in the middle of 2006 that the frenzy to build and sell housing was a bubble about to pop. His New York-based firm, Paulson & Co., made big bets predicting the edifice would soon come crashing down. The wager paid off in the first nine months of 2007, when Paulson's Credit Opportunities funds rose an average of 340 percent."

Los Angeles Times - "Down (54%) in the Valley" (11-29-07)

"Good morning. If I had to pick only one region of Los Angeles to monitor for housing trends, in hopes of capturing the overall market, I'd probably pick the San Fernando Valley. Yes, it's expensive (median sales price $590,000), but it's a big area, containing within it a range of neighborhoods and properties. That said, things are looking down in the Valley. From the Daily News: 'Home sales in the San Fernando Valley hit a record low for the second consecutive month in October, plunging 54 percent from a year ago as mortgage industry turmoil continued to roil the market, a trade association said Wednesday.'"

Orange County Register Blog - "Santa Ana condo towers take a sales break" (11-29-07)

"Sales at Skyline at MacArthur Place have been halted through Feb. 1, said Cory Alder, president of Nexus Cos., which is developing Skyline. The 25-story luxury condo towers are rising above the Hutton Center in Santa Ana near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway."

Orange County Register Blog - "Citadel to give E*Trade $2.55 billion cash infusion" (11-29-07)

"Citadel Investment Group in Chicago, which bought failed subprime lender ResMae Mortgage Corp. in Brea earlier this year, now will provide E*Trade Financial Corp. with $2.55 billion in cash as the brokerage faces mortgage woes, reports Reuters."