Mortgage Bankers Association - "Delinquencies Increase, Foreclosure Starts Flat in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey" (12-5-08)

"The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties stood at 6.99 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the third quarter of 2008, up 58 basis points from the second quarter of 2008, and up 140 basis points from one year ago on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) National Delinquency Survey."

The San Francisco Chronicle - "Owners of affordable S.F. condos balk at limits" (12-5-08)

"Owners of condominiums sold under a San Francisco affordable-housing program decades ago are balking at new rules that would limit the homes' resale price and restrict whether they could be rented or inherited. Approximately 550 units remain under the program that ran for about a decade until 1988. It required apartment building owners who wanted to convert their properties to condominiums to sell some percentage of their lower-priced rental units at below-market prices."

San Francisco Chronicle - "Half-million jobs vanish as economy deteriorates" (12-5-08)

"An alarming half-million American jobs vanished virtually in a flash last month, the worst mass layoffs in over a third of a century, as economic carnage spread ever faster and the nation hurtled toward what could be the hardest hard times since the Great Depression."

Inman News - "Feds warn of real estate fraud scheme" (12-5-08)

"Realtor Magazine, a publication of the National Association of Realtors on Thursday reported on a fraud scheme in which individuals have attempted to purchase real estate and vehicles using bogus documents. The fraudulent documents reportedly have the name of U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on them, though a savings bond is the only hard-copy bond issued by Treasury that a citizen can purchase."

Bloomberg - "Fed Takes a $3 Trillion Gamble to Spur Lending" (12-5-08)

"Federal Reserve officials are throwing everything they have into the fight to stabilize financial markets and restore economic growth. In the process, the Fed balance sheet is ballooning to $3 trillion, if not more. It's a risky approach because all the cash piling up in the banking system might spark rising inflation down the road. The alternative -- just relying on traditional interest-rate cuts -- might leave markets and the economy mired in the mud for years."

Bloomberg - "Bank of America’s Merrill Takeover May Be Tough Deal" (12-5-08)

"Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis’s takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co., the capstone of more than $100 billion in acquisitions he’s made since 2001, may prove the hardest to digest. Lewis, 61, called Merrill 'the ideal long-term fit' when the deal was announced on Sept. 14. He will generate fees from Merrill’s 16,850-strong sales force and says he can slash $7 billion of costs with the combination, approved by shareholders of both firms today and likely to close by the end of the month. The firm’s $2.8 trillion of assets would vault it over Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. as the No. 1 U.S. bank."

Orange County Register - "90% of O.C. ZIPs lack home gains in mid-Nov." (12-5-08)

"90% of the O.C. ZIPs have losses or no price gain in past year; with 8 lone winners being: Irvine 92612 (+2.6%); Corona del Mar 92625 (+3.4%) ; Laguna Beach 92651 ( +3.8%); Fullerton 92831 (+4.4%) ; Fountain Valley 92708 (+6.6%); Huntington Beach 92646 (+7.2%); Irvine 92618 (+11.7%); and Villa Park 92861 (+14.9%)"

Inman News - "Report: Home prices to fall below fundamentals" (12-5-08)

"A new report suggests that homes are no longer overpriced in the vast majority of markets, but concludes prices will continue to fall in areas hard hit by foreclosures -- in many cases overshooting market fundamentals on their way down. IHS Global Insight's quarterly report, House Prices in America, looks at historical home-price-to-income ratios in 330 metro areas. The latest report concludes that homes were fairly valued in all but 33 of those markets at the end of September."