Bloomberg - "Schwab May Pay Half-a-Quarter Profit on Fund Losses" (6-10-08)

"Charles Schwab Corp., the largest U.S. online brokerage, may pay the equivalent of half a quarter's profit, or about $260 million, to win public-relations points by settling investors' claims over losses in a bond fund with subprime holdings. The San Francisco-based company is accused in eight proposed class-action suits of misleading investors by describing its YieldPlus mutual fund in prospectuses as only 'marginally' riskier than cash. From last July 1 through April 30, investors lost about $1.3 billion, said Boston-based Financial Research Corp., which tracks investment flows for 35,000 funds."

Realty Times - "Interest Rate Update" (6-10-08)

"Inflationary fears have rates on the rise. Wall Street is keeping a close eye on any hint of rising prices and that’s going to translate into higher rates. If you like today’s rates you might think about locking in."

Realty Times - "Home Equity Stakes Stumped" (6-10-08)

"The equity stake in Americans' most important asset has dropped to its lowest level since the end of the second World War. Home owners' home equity slipped to 46.2 percent in the first quarter this year, the fifth consecutive quarter the rate was below the 50 percent market, according to the Federal Reserve's first quarter Flow of Funds report."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: Good News Cautiously Follows Rocky Week" (6-10-08)

"Rocked by four dollar per gallon gas, rising unemployment to 5.5 percent and a steep stock market decline, the nation is ready for some good news, and it just might come from the housing sector. The National Association of Realtors April Pending Home Sales Index stopped its nearly three-month slide, and rose 6.3 percent to a reading of 88.2. That's still well off the 101.5 reading in April 2006, but significantly better than the March 2008 index of 83."

Orange County Register - "Rents seen falling 3.1% at big O.C. complexes" (6-10-08)

"Preliminary numbers for this April and May show average rents in the second quarter at $1,657. Although that was up 1.5% from the second quarter of 2007, rents were down sequentially for the last two quarters. The second quarter dropped 0.7% from first quarter and the first quarter was off 0.8% from the fourth quarter of last year."

Orange County Register - "O.C. mortgage delinquency rate climbs faster than state, nation" (6-10-08)

"the bad news: O.C.’s delinquency rate increased more dramatically quarter-to-quarter, rising 32 percent, vs. California’s rate rising 25 percent and the nation’s rising just 8 percent. It seems delinquencies are leveling off across the country, while still climbing in the Golden State."

Orange County Register - "O.C. to cut property taxes for 116,000" (6-10-08)

"The Orange County Assessor’s Office has announced that about 100,000 houses and condos and about 16,000 timeshares will see their property taxes go down next year because of declining home values. But the majority of the 570,000 homeowners in Orange County won’t get a tax break next year, even though home values have fallen on average 20 percent in the past 12 months."

NAR - "Home Sales May Rise Modestly Before Broader Upturn in Second Half Of 2008" (6-9-08)

"The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.3 percent to 88.2 from a reading of 83.0 in March. It’s the highest index since last October, but remains 13.1 percent lower than April 2007 when it stood at 101.5."

Market Watch - "Lehman to post $2.8 billion quarterly loss" (6-9-08)

"Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. said Monday it will report a quarterly loss of nearly $3 billion, its first since going public, and set forth plans to raise $6 billion to offset damage inflicted by the persistent credit crunch that has wreaked havoc on Wall Street and the U.S. economy."

Bloomberg - "SEC May Ban Moody's, S&P From Structured Consulting" (6-9-08)

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may recommend this week that Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings be prohibited from advising investment banks on how to earn top rankings for asset- backed securities, according to people familiar with the matter."

Yahoo - "Is $1 Million Enough to Retire On?" (6-9-08)

"Becoming a millionaire once conjured up images of wealth and luxury, or at the very least financial security. But is a million bucks enough to retire comfortably on anymore? Many baby boomer millionaires don't think so, at least for the lifestyle they want to lead."

Bloomberg - "Wealth Evaporates as Gas Prices Clobber McMansions" (6-9-08)

"Sky-high gasoline prices aren't just raising the cost of Eugene Marino's 120-mile (193-kilometer) round-trip to his job in the Washington area. They're reducing his wealth, too. House prices in his rural subdivision beyond the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charles Town, West Virginia, have plunged as commuting expenses have soared. A four-bedroom home down the street from his is listed for $239,000, after selling new for $360,000 five years ago."

Yahoo - "Giant Calif. land partnership files for Chapter 11" (6-9-08)

"LandSource Communities Development LLC issued a news release late Sunday to announce the bankruptcy filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The partnership's assets include 15,000 acres of undeveloped land north of Los Angeles in the Santa Clarita Valley, making it one of the largest land deals to falter amid the national housing glut."

Bloomberg - "Fed Not in It to Back a `Strong Dollar' Policy" (6-9-08)

"Let's get one thing straight: The Federal Reserve isn't going to raise interest rates to back a 'strong dollar' policy. The dollar's value isn't a central consideration in the Fed's interest-rate policy deliberations. Only on rare occasions has it ever been, such as in the late 1970s when the country was having difficulty financing its current account deficit."

Orange County Register - "Big Calif. land bankruptcy won’t hit Lennar’s O.C. plans" (6-9-08)

"Lennar’s Aliso Viejo office, home to the Miami-based builder’s West Coast operations, played a role in arranging the bankruptcy filing of major California land owner LandSource. But LandSource’s woes should not impact Lennar’s plans for El Toro and Tustin airbases in O.C."

Realty Times - "Washington Report: Mortgage Crisis Relief Bill" (6-9-08)

"Funding for a special $300 billion FHA program aimed at borrowers who are delinquent and also may be underwater on their loans. In a compromise last month, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to tap Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's operating revenues to pay for losses expected to be generated by the special FHA program. But that hasn't gone over well with House Democrats and top executives of Fannie and Freddie."

Realty Times - "Wild, Wild West: Housing Mother Lode Drained In Golden State" (6-9-08)

"California home builders have long held that the state needs 250,000 new homes every year to keep homes affordable. This year, however, they plan to produce a paltry 79,000 new homes -- fewer starts than in any year since 1954, according to the California Building Industry Association."

CNN - "The trick to getting a mortgage fixed" (6-7-08)

"what's best for a borrower isn't always best for the lenders, who weigh the cost of every workout against the cost of foreclosure. Whether or not a homeowner gets help boils down to the numbers. If keeping an at-risk borrower in their home is going to cost the lender more than a foreclosure will, that homeowner is usually out of luck. The good news is that foreclosures are expensive - at least $50,000 according to the Center for Responsible Lending."

Orange County Register - "Insider QA hears housing to be ‘healthy’ by ’09’s end" (6-7-08)

"I foresee that by Q1 2009, the market will have improved a good deal. It will still be somewhat rocky in various areas, but it will be healthier overall. By the end of 2009 we will have a truly healthy market — no longer rocky; it will be fully stable and equitable for both buyers and sellers."

Orange County Register - "Psst… Want to sell your home equity? Ex-Lending Tree exec will buy." (6-7-08)

"Hsieh said his new plan is a revolution in the mortgage business. He is offering to give a homeowner cash up to 15 percent of the home’s appraised value today — the home must be worth at least $500,000 and the owner must live in the home. Hsieh gets nothing back until the home is sold. His investment is sort of like a second mortgage, expect without those annoying monthly payments."

Los Angeles Times - "Santa Barbara County home prices" (6-8-08)

-this article provides sales information for housing in Santa Barbara

Orange County Register - "Big Calif. landowner seeks bankruptcy" (6-8-08)

"LandSource Communities Development — major owner of housing sites north of L.A. that’s funded in part with state pension dollars — late Sunday announced that it is seeking bankruptcy protection"

Orange County Register - "Tustin company hopes to lead lenders down the right path, this time" (6-8-08)

"In 2006, a study by the Mortgage Brokers Association for Responsible Lending compared a sample of 100 stated-income mortgage applications to IRS records, and found that 90 percent of the sampled loans had overstated their income by more than 5 percent. Almost 60 percent exaggerated their income by more than 50 percent!"

San Francisco Chronicle - "Bay Area cities issue fewer housing permits" (6-6-08)

"Amid the worst housing downturn since the Depression, fewer units are being built, exacerbating the Bay Area's critical need for places to live, a government group said Thursday. Cities in the nine Bay Area counties issued 22,843 permits in 2007, down 24 percent from an annual average of 29,978 issued from 1999 through 2006, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments. Particularly striking was that most of the permits were for housing designed for affluent populations."

Inside Bay Area - "Bank of America wins approval to buy Countrywide" (6-6-08)

"In its order, the Fed board said that after the proposed deal Bank of America would remain the largest depository institution in the country, controlling approximately $773.4 billion in deposits, which represent 10.9 percent of total insured bank deposits in the country."

Bloomberg - "AIG Declines as U.S Regulators Probe Swaps Accounting" (6-6-08)

"American International Group Inc., the world's largest insurer, led the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower as regulators examine the firm's accounting before it booked record losses on derivatives tied to subprime mortgages."

Bloomberg - "Frank-Dodd Rescue Prolongs Housing Crisis by Deferring Defaults" (6-6-08)

"Proposals advancing in the Senate and House of Representatives would call for the federal government to insure as much as $300 billion in refinanced mortgages, potentially saving up to 2 million borrowers from foreclosure, according to one of the sponsors, Representative Barney Frank. Declining home prices will mean that one-third of those borrowers will default again, prolonging the deepest housing crisis since the 1930s, said Michael Carliner, former economist at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington."

Bloomberg - "GE Money Hires Citigroup, JPMorgan for Wizard Sale" (6-6-08)

"General Electric Co. hired Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to advise on the sale of its Wizard mortgage unit in Australia as part of a broader plan to pull back in consumer finance. The banks will assess a sale, joint venture or partnership for Wizard, which GE Money bought in 2004, according to Geoff Lynch, a GE Money spokesman in Melbourne. A sale may fetch more than A$500 million ($479 million) for Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE, two people with knowledge of the matter said."

Bloomberg - "Hint of Housing Recovery Finding Fidelity National" (6-6-08)

"Fidelity National Financial Inc. has beaten every stock in the KBW Insurance Index this year by attracting investors who want to bet on a U.S. housing recovery without owning assets tainted by subprime mortgages."

Orange County Register - "O.C. houses off $199,000 from peak in mid-May" (6-6-08)

"Latest homebuying stats from DataQuick, for the 22 business days ended May 20, show modest sales strength, with O.C. deals closed still running above 2,000 residences — a level not seen from September to March. (Psst! That’s still not great. The 1988-2007 monthly average is 3,793!)"

Realty Times - "Long-Term Rates Nearly Unchanged in Freddie Mac Weekly Survey" (6-6-08)

"Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.09 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending June 5, 2008, up very slightly from last week when it averaged 6.08 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.53 percent."

Yahoo - "Senate confirms Preston as HUD secretary" (6-5-08)

"The Senate has confirmed President Bush's new housing secretary, elevating Small Business Administration Administrator Steven Preston to be the administration's point man on the slumping housing market and subprime lending crisis. Preston is likely to be lead negotiator as Congress and the White House work on legislation to allow the Federal Housing Administration to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages, including many in which the mortgages exceed the value of their homes.?

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Delinquencies and Foreclosures Increase in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey" (6-5-08)

"The seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties stood at 6.35 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the first quarter of 2008 on a seasonally adjusted (SA) basis, up 53 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2007, and up 151 basis points from one year ago, according to MBA’s National Delinquency Survey."

CNN - "The trick to getting a mortgage fixed" (6-5-08)

"what's best for a borrower isn't always best for the lenders, who weigh the cost of every workout against the cost of foreclosure. Whether or not a homeowner gets help boils down to the numbers. If keeping an at-risk borrower in their home is going to cost the lender more than a foreclosure will, that homeowner is usually out of luck. The good news is that foreclosures are expensive - at least $50,000 according to the Center for Responsible Lending."

Orange County Register - "More O.C. homes for rent? HUD thinks so" (6-5-08)

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest Orange County market housing analysis suggests the so-called 'shadow market' of homes and condos now being rented by individual owners — vs. big landlords’ complexes — is for real. During the early 2000s in North Orange County, the number of new single-family homes and condos being used as 'shadow' rentals was increasing at 100 units a year, says the report. That jumped to 700 units a year after 2005."

Orange County Register - "Loan delinquencies fall! Are government aid efforts working?" (6-5-08)

"The percentage of loans on which borrowers missed one payment dropped in March vs. a month earlier for people with good, bad or in-between credit, according to an industry report released last week that tracked loans which have been turned into securities and sold to investors."

The Wall Street Journal - "Housing Supply Declined in May" (6-5-08)

"The supply of homes available for sale in major metropolitan areas declined slightly in May. Total listings of homes in 29 metro areas at the end of May edged down 0.3% from a month earlier, according to figures compiled by ZipRealty Inc., a real-estate brokerage firm based in Emeryville, Calif. The data cover listings of single-family homes, condos and town houses on local multiple-listing services in those areas, where Zip operates."

Bloomberg - "MBIA, Ambac May Quit Aaa Battle on Moody's Likely Cut" (6-5-08)

"The world's largest bond insurers, which have raised $4.1 billion combined in the past six months, said they won't seek more capital after New York-based Moody's yesterday said the most likely result of its examination would be a downgrade of the companies' top insurance financial strength rankings."

Bloomberg - "MGIC, PMI Downgraded by Fitch on Poor Underwriting" (6-5-08)

"MGIC Investment Corp. and PMI Group Inc., the two largest U.S. mortgage insurers, had their financial strength grades cut by Fitch Ratings based on the sale of coverage for risky loans in 2007."

Realty Times - "Real Estate Outlook: Positive GDP Growth Rate" (6-5-08)

"But last week's big economic number -- positive growth in the national gross domestic product for the second straight quarter -- is the latest sign that this economy still has some fight left in it."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (6-4-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 30, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 502.3, a decrease of 15.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 593.3 one week earlier. This week’s results include an adjustment to account for the Memorial Day holiday. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 24.2 percent compared with the previous week and was down 20.3 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

CNN - "Downsizing the American home" (6-4-08)

"During the bubble Bruce Karatz, a flamboyant marketer, believed that the public's hunger for McMansions would keep the good times rolling for years to come. It was his successor, Jeff Mezger, a hammer-and-studs operator, who recognized that the world had gone mad and steered KB back to first-time buyers. That strategy shift may prove to be a primer on how the housing market rejuvenates itself after a boom and a bust. "

Bloomberg - "MBIA, Ambac Credit Ratings Under Threat at Moody's" (6-4-08)

"Moody's Investors Service placed the Aaa insurance ratings of MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Corp. under review for a downgrade for the second time this year after the two largest bond insurers reported wider losses from the mortgage-market slump. "

Bloomberg - "Hovnanian Falls as Quarterly Loss Exceeds Estimates" (6-4-08)

"The stock declined 42 cents to $7.92 at 11:56 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Red Bank, New Jersey- based Hovnanian yesterday said its fiscal second-quarter net loss widened to $340.7 million, or $5.29 a share. Eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast a loss of $2.86 a share."

Bloomberg - "Cuomo Nears Settlement With Moody's, S&P, People Say" (6-4-08)

"The companies won't admit wrongdoing and will have six months to implement policies such as a new fee structure and increased disclosure about the deals they rate, said the people, who declined to be identified before a public announcement that might come as early as this week. "

Bloomberg - "Metlife Buys Mortgage Business From First Horizon" (6-4-08)

"MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, agreed to buy a residential mortgage business from First Horizon National Corp., expanding its bet on the U.S. housing market. The purchase includes the home loan unit of First Horizon's Tennessee Bank National Association outside of that state, with 230 offices in the U.S., the New York-based insurer said today in a statement. MetLife said it isn't acquiring any subprime or Alt- A mortgages in the purchase. Terms weren't disclosed. "

Orange County Register - "Forget ‘08 and ‘09! Housing’s recovery seen far off" (6-4-08)

"The chief executive of Toll Brothers Inc., the nation’s largest luxury-home builder, said Wednesday the housing industry is in a 'depression' and any recovery could be two or three years away."

Orange County Register - "A week of foreclosure auctions to kick off in Anaheim" (6-4-08)

"Hudson & Marshall is holding a week-long series of foreclosure auctions in Southern California, beginning in Anaheim. At the Anaheim Marriott, the company will auction more than 300 homes on Saturday and Sunday. It plans to sell more than 800 homes during the week."

Realty Times - "Condo Trends: Keeping the Dues Flowing" (6-4-08)

"In the face of record number foreclosures, one of the residual points of concern is when condo owners dues begin to suffer. When a condominium goes into foreclosure, more than likely the dues for that unit have not been paid for months – long before the property went into foreclosure."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: How To Make The Short Sale" (6-4-08)

"The seller must realize by reading and signing the short sale addendum to the sales contract that the short sale doesn't absolve them of all responsibility for the debt. Short sales may affect their credit scores, and some lenders may not forgive the entire debt, requiring the seller to pay the difference as a personal debt. FHA or VA loans may also require repayment in full. There may also be tax consequences -- the IRS requires a 1099 from the forgiving bank so the amount will be on record and must be declared by the seller at tax time."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Commercial/Multifamily Originations Lowest Since 2004, Originations for CMBS Show Biggest Drop" (6-3-08)

"Commercial and multifamily mortgage bankers' loan originations fell on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations. First quarter originations were fifty-three percent lower than during the same period last year. The year-over-year decrease was seen across all property types and most investor groups."

Yahoo - "Don't Raid Retirement Savings to Pay the Mortgage" (6-3-08)

"Before you dip into your retirement, try to prioritize your spending. After health care, keeping your home should be your first priority, says Jacob Benaroya, president of Biltmore Capital Group, a company which buys nonperforming mortgages and tries to get borrowers back on the straight and narrow. So make your house payments before your pay on your credit cards or other unsecured debts. Visa can't take your house away from you, but your mortgage holder can."

Bloomberg - "Toll Reports Third Straight Loss on Land Writedown" (6-3-08)

"Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, reported its third straight quarterly loss as tumbling demand forced the company to write down land values. The net loss for the fiscal second quarter ended April 30 was $93.7 million, or 59 cents a share. In the year-earlier second quarter, Toll had net income of $36.7 million, or 22 cents a share. The shares rose 3.1 percent after Toll recorded its lowest cancellation rate in a year and the loss was smaller than analysts' estimates."

CNN - "Fat pensions spell doom for many cities" (6-3-08)

"The jig is up. For years, politicians have been playing what amounts to a multi-trillion-dollar shell game with state and local pensions. They've doled out lush retiree benefits to their heavily unionized workforces, knowing that they could shove the cost for those benefits onto future generations of taxpayers. But a recent financial bombshell dropped by a San Francisco suburb shows why that shell game is now starting to unravel in a nasty way. And it's a cautionary tale that you can't afford to ignore."

Yahoo - "Lehman shares plunge on capital raising concern" (6-3-08)

"Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc shares plunged as much as 14 percent on Tuesday to their lowest level since the meltdown of Bear Stearns on concern that Wall Street's smallest surviving major brokerage could need to raise more capital."

Bloomberg - "ResCap Gets GMAC, Cerberus Funding to Avoid Default" (6-3-08)

"Cerberus Capital Management LP and GMAC LLC will prop up Residential Capital LLC with at least $2.88 billion in funding after previous rescue plans for the mortgage unit failed. GMAC, the owner of ResCap, and Cerberus, which controls GMAC, stepped in after the home-loan unit fell $2 billion short of meeting its debt obligations this month -- more than triple the gap disclosed last month, according to a regulatory filing today. ResCap's original plan to sell $1.3 billion in assets collapsed, the filing said."

Yahoo - "Inflation moves up on Bernanke's worry list" (6-3-08)

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has moved inflation up on his list of worries, suggesting more pointedly than ever that the time for cutting interest rates is over in view of soaring oil and commodity prices and a weakened dollar."

Bloomberg - "Wachovia's Thompson Joins Prince, O'Neal Toppled by Subprime" (6-3-08)

"Wachovia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kennedy Thompson sounded like a gambler who'd spotted a sure thing in 2006 when he paid $24.6 billion for Golden West, a California lender specializing in adjustable-rate mortgages."

Bloomberg - "Moody's, McGraw-Hill Shares Rise on Cuomo Pact Report" (6-3-08)

"Moody's Corp. and McGraw-Cos. rose in New York trading on speculation they reached a settlement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo without agreeing to any harsh penalties. Moody's Investors Service, McGraw-Hill's Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings, the three largest bond-rating companies, agreed to change the way they collect fees as part of the agreement with Cuomo, the Wall Street Journal reported today."

Bloomberg - "Vornado Seeks Retail Acquisitions With $1.4 Billion in Cash" (6-3-08)

"Vornado Realty Trust, the fourth- biggest U.S. real estate investment trust, is looking for retail properties to buy with the $1.4 billion of cash on its balance sheet, company executives said."

NAR - "REALTORS® Under 30 Reflect Real Estate Market Trends" (6-2-08)

"in today’s real estate market, more and more home sellers are turning to auctions. The real estate auction market rose 39 percent between 2003 and 2007, according to the National Auctioneers Association, and Realtors® work with both buyers and sellers in auction sales. Realtor® Julie First, a 30 Under 30 winner from Chicago, is an Accredited Auctioneer of Real Estate designee and has sold everything from condos to mineral rights to land. 'I really like the fast pace of auctions,' said First."

Bloomberg - "U.S. Stocks Drop, Led by Financials; Wachovia, Lehman Retreat" (6-2-08)

"U.S. stocks fell for the first time in five days after Wachovia Corp. ousted its chief executive officer and Standard & Poor's lowered its debt ratings on three of Wall Street's biggest securities firms. Wachovia slid to the lowest level since 1995 after saying Kennedy Thompson will step down, reigniting concern that subprime losses will deepen. Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. tumbled after S&P said the firms will be forced to report more writedowns. Marriott International Inc. spurred declines in consumer shares as the largest hotel chain said lower U.S. demand is hurting revenue growth."

Yahoo - "Manufacturing, construction, founder; prices rise" (6-2-08)

"Dark clouds continue to hang over the economy: The manufacturing sector shrank for the fourth consecutive month, construction spending has been falling for more than two years, future orders are down and prices are skyrocketing."

Bloomberg - "Wall Street Says -2 + -2 = 4 as Liabilities Get New Bond Math" (6-2-08)

"Merrill Lynch & Co., Citigroup Inc. and four other U.S. financial companies have used an accounting rule adopted last year to book almost $12 billion of revenue after a decline in prices of their own bonds. The rule, intended to expand the 'mark-to- market' accounting that banks use to record profits or losses on trading assets, allows them to report gains when market prices for their liabilities fall."

MSN Money - "The Fed embraces inflation" (6-2-08)

"A top Fed official warns of the hazards of printing money to solve economic problems. He's right -- and yet the nation's central bank keeps running the press at top speed."

Bloomberg - "Morgan Stanley, Merrill, Lehman Ratings Cut by S&P" (6-2-08)

"Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. declined in New York trading after Standard & Poor's lowered credit ratings for the investment banks, saying they may have to book more writedowns on devalued assets."

Bloomberg - "Home Prices Fall in 23 U.S. Cities as Defaults Rise" (6-2-08)

"The price per square foot in Sacramento, California's capital, dropped 31 percent to $160 from a year earlier, according to a report released today by New York-based Radar Logic Inc., a real estate data company. Prices in San Diego declined 27 percent to $251 a square foot. New York area prices fell compared with a year earlier for the first time since Radar Logic began publishing in 2000, the report said."

Bloomberg - "Starwood's Sternlicht Says Banking in `Dire Straits'" (6-2-08)

"Banks around the world have lost or written down $379 billion since the beginning of 2007 on the collapse of U.S. subprime residential mortgages, which were available to borrowers with bad or incomplete credit."

Bloomberg - "Centro Wins Fifth Debt Reprieve on A$6.6 Billion" (6-2-08)

"Centro Properties Group, the Australian owner of more than 650 U.S. malls, reached agreements confirming extensions on as much as A$6.6 billion ($6.3 billion) of debt while it works to sell assets. The agreements allow the deadline on A$2.3 billion owed to Australian creditors and $450 million owed to U.S. bondholders to be extended to Dec. 15, Centro said today in a statement."

Orange County Register - "Distressed homes 63% of O.C.’s cheaper supply" (6-2-08)

"Home market watcher Steve Thomas at Re/Max Real Estate Services in Aliso Viejo reports that the number of O.C. distressed properties (homes listed by agents as foreclosures or short sales) was 5,905 last week, up 227 vs. two weeks earlier or a +4% change."

Orange County Register - "O.C. homes seen undervalued, 1st time since ‘03" (6-2-08)

"Economists at Global Insight and National City Bank say Orange County housing is now 5.2% undervalued — yes, undervalued. That’s the first time this math shows local homes as relative bargains to broad economics since the second quarter of 2003. It’s also the largest undervaluation since the final three months of 2002."

MSN Money - "JPMorgan completes takeover of Bear Stearns" (5-31-08)

"JPMorgan Chase & Co said on Saturday it completed its $1.4 billion Bear Stearns Cos takeover, capping the demise of a Wall Street firm that survived the Depression and numerous slumps in its 85 years but could not navigate the mortgage crisis."

Orange County Register - "Insider Q&A told O.C. sellers ‘not accepting reality’" (5-31-08)

"It will take over a year to get to get to a vacancy of less than 10%. Landlords can get aggressive because they have deeper pockets during this downturn as they are more institutional than they were before."

Orange County Register - "Benefiting from the mortgage bust" (5-31-08)

"It can take six months right now to get FHA approval for your brokerage shop if you don’t already have it. Many brokers aren’t approved, and if you do want to put in for approval there is a backlog. Not all brokers can qualify. You have to put up $62,000 to $250.000."

Los Angeles Times - "In Escondido: Buy one (house), get one free. " (6-1-08)

"In a sign of how difficult it is to sell new homes in Southern California right now, a San Diego developer is offering a "buy one, get one free" deal, pairing million-dollar homes with less expensive homes."

CNN - "Housing rescue on the rise; so are foreclosures" (5-30-08)

"Hope Now helped 183,000 at-risk borrowers stay in their homes during the month of April, according to numbers released by the coalition on Friday. The alliance of mortgage lenders, servicers, investors and community advocacy groups also said it has arranged a total of nearly 1.6 million loan workouts since the program began in July, 2007."

Bloomberg - "Kohn Signals Wall Street May Get Permanent Access to Fed Loans" (5-30-08)

"Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Donald Kohn raised the possibility of giving Wall Street securities firms permanent access to loans from the central bank, as long as regulators tighten oversight of the companies. Kohn also advocated continuing Fed auctions of funds to commercial banks and loans of Treasuries to Wall Street dealers even after markets stabilize. Such channels would stay open 'ether on a standby basis or operating at a very low level,'he said in a speech in New York yesterday."

Bloomberg - "Subprime Finds New Victim as Muni Defaults Triple" (5-30-08)

"So far this year, $736 million in municipal bonds have defaulted. That doesn't necessarily mean they didn't pay investors; they may have just drawn down reserves. That's what happens just before they stop making payments to bondholders."

MSN - "April insured mortgage defaults rise" (5-30-08)

"MICA said the numbers showed 73,880 insured borrowers were at least 60 days late on payments in April. That is up from 43,161 a year earlier."

Financial Times - "US banks likely to fail as bad loans soar" (5-30-08)

"US banks set aside a record $37.1bn to cover losses on real estate loans and other credits during the first quarter in a sign of the growing economic pain being caused by the global credit crisis, regulators said on Thursday. Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said it was likely loan-loss provisions and bank failures would rise in coming quarters as the fallout from market turmoil hits the real economy."

Bloomberg - "Moody's Implied Ratings Lab Reveals Ambac, MBIA Turning to Junk" (5-30-08)

"Moody's Investors Service has created a new unit that surprises even its own director. The team from Moody's Analytics, which operates separately from Moody's ratings division, uses credit-default swap prices as an alternative system of grading debt. These so-called implied ratings often differ significantly from Moody's official grades. The implied ratings frequently show that swap traders think debt is in more danger of defaulting than Moody's credit ratings signify. And here's the kicker: The swaps traders are usually right."

Bloomberg - "Pimco's Auction-Rate Holders Fail to Get Satisfaction" (5-30-08)

"David Chandler is tired of waiting for Pacific Investment Management Co. to decide whether to help investors trapped by the collapse of the $330 billion auction- rate securities market."

Orange County Register - "Laguna Beach home sales dip mid-May, Garden Grove’s up" (5-30-08)

"DataQuick’s freshest stats from mid-May hint at a distinct turn in the market. For the 22 business days ended May 14, the ZIP code with the fastest drop in sales among O.C.’s 83 major ZIP codes was Laguna Beach 92651 (sales down 67.6%) with a $1.15 million median selling price, while the neighborhood with the fastest growing sales was Garden Grove’s 92843 (+100%) with a median of $389,500."

Realty Times - "Which is America's Most Valuable Niche Market?" (5-30-08)

"It's the Military niche -- and it can be yours if you live in a military community and make your specialized services known to its members. You see, military families are re-assigned every 3 to 4 years. And with 1.4 million military members on active duty, and only about 200 military bases in the U.S., that means that hundreds of families are moving in and out of your military community every year."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: Guess What? Equity Recovers" (5-30-08)

"The California Association of Realtors most recent report notes that state-wide inventory is going down from 11 months on hand a year ago to nine months. That's faster than the national average, folks, which has climbed to 11 months, according to the National Association of Realtors."

Bloomberg - "Libor Proxies Gain as Traders Seek Truth With Swaps" (5-29-08)

"Libor, the benchmark for 6 million U.S. mortgages and more than $350 trillion of derivatives and corporate bonds, has been called into question since the Bank for International Settlements said in March some lenders may have understated borrowing costs to keep from appearing like they are in financial straits."

Bloomberg - "Treasuries Fall as Economy Grows More Than Initial Estimate" (5-29-08)

"U.S. debt dropped before the Treasury's $19 billion auction of five-year notes, following a $30 billion sale of two-year securities that attracted tepid demand. Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said yesterday the central bank will probably raise the target lending rate if the public's inflation expectations increase."

Bloomberg - "Higher Treasury Yields Means 'Darker' U.S. Outlook" (5-29-08)

"The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note increased to the highest level of the year after the government said the world's largest economy grew at a faster pace in the first quarter than it originally estimated. Rates on home loans typically track long-term government debt and may soon follow suit, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania."

Bloomberg - "Centro Talks 'Progressing Well' on A$1.2 Billion Sale" (5-29-08)

"Centro Properties Group, the Melbourne-based owner of more than 650 U.S. malls, said talks are progressing to sell its stake in a fund that manages A$1.2 billion ($1.16 billion) of assets."

Orange County Register - "13% of Calif. homes have quake insurance. Good call?" (5-29-08)

"New state Department of Insurance stats show Californians continue to shun earthquake insurance for their residences. In 2007, 13.07% of residential insurance policies included earthquake coverage, that’s up slightly from 12.8% in 2006 and 11.85% in ‘05."

Los Angeles Times - "Straight to auction: 17 model homes in Palmdale" (5-29-08)

"Another clump of new homes is going straight to auction on June 1. The auction house Kennedy Wilson is billing these 17 homes in Palmdale and Lancaster as 'gorgeous, luxury model homes.'"

Realty Times - "Real Estate Outlook: Forecasts from Top Bank Execs" (5-29-08)

"Howard Atkins, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, was quoted in the American Banker newspaper as saying that lower mortgage rates -- the latest 30-year average dropped below 6 percent again last week -- plus more affordable housing, and banks newly strengthened by capital infusions, should trigger a recovery this year."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: HomeBuyers At Walk-Away Price, Best Buys To Come This Summer" (5-29-08)

"In Q1-08, housing prices were down over three percent, the largest decline since OFHEO began tracking the index. The purchase index showed prices falling in 43 states, a testimony to the pervasive credit crunch and fear gripping housing markets, even in economically healthy locales."

Realty Times - "ID Theft Hits Home" (5-29-08)

"A growing number of crooks who steal your identity don't swipe your personal information to pilfer from your financial accounts. They want to get their hands on your home and snatch it right out from under you."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Drop as Refinance Activity Decreases In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (5-28-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 23, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 593.3, a decrease of 4.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 621.6 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 4.6 percent compared with the previous week and was down 7.5 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

The Washington Post - "Choosing Bankruptcy to Stay Afloat" (5-28-08)

"Despite the 2005 passage of a law that made it more difficult and expensive to file for personal bankruptcy, more Americans are choosing bankruptcy over destitution. Filings -- including Chapter 7, which wipes out debt, and Chapter 13, which reorganizes it -- totaled 822,590 last year, up 38 percent from 2006."

Bloomberg - "AIG Falls to Lowest Since 1997 on Capital Concerns" (5-28-08)

"AIG may seek $5 billion to $10 billion rather than letting its credit ratings be cut again and risking higher borrowing costs and lower sales, Shanker said late yesterday in a research note. Standard & Poor's, Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service downgraded New York-based AIG this month after the company posted a $7.81 billion first-quarter loss."

Bloomberg - "Standard Pacific Continues to Rise on Equity Firm's Investment" (5-28-08)

"Standard Pacific Corp., the homebuilder that has lost 84 percent of its market value since 2005, rose as much as 12 percent today, a day after a private equity firm said it would invest more than $530 million in the company."

Bloomberg - "KB Home Founder Broad Says U.S. Home Prices Will Drop 10% More" (5-28-08)

"U.S. home prices likely will drop another 10 percent from their peak before the housing market begins to recover, said Eli Broad, founder of Los Angeles-based homebuilder KB Home."

Orange County Register - "O.C.’s commercial construction down in ‘08" (5-28-08)

"The Construction Industry Research Board reports that permits for commercial construction in Orange County fell in every category but two during the first four months of the year."

Orange County Register - "Another subprime hot dog" (5-28-08)

"According to county records obtained by NEWSWEEK, Kellogg was the broker of record for the purchase of 71 houses in Slavic Village from 2003 to 2006—during the height of the subprime investment boom. All of them went into foreclosure within a year or two."

Orange County Register - "SoCal home pricing seen at worst in 43+ years" (5-28-08)

"The Real Estate Research Council of Southern California has perhaps the most curious tracking of local home value: Every six months they send out volunteer appraisers who value the exact same homes over and over again. While it involves a small sample of homes — 308, to be exact — it’s a marker that’s not tilted by changing mixes of homes that sold recent, a problem with other indexes, for example. And RERC’s been doing this math for 43 years, so there’s great history, too."

Realty Times - "Real Estate Marketing Strategies: How to Attract Your Ideal Client" (5-28-08)

"Remember, before people will do business with you, they need to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you. So follow your basic word of mouth strategies to be in contact with them. Remember--they are your target market now, so you need to join the networking organizations they belong to, speak at places where they will be listening, write articles that they will read and form cross referral relationships with other professionals that work with them."

Realty Times - "Senate Takes On Mortgage Walk-Away" (5-28-08)

"The Senate Banking Committee has just passed the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 by an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 19-2. Buried in the proposed legislation is something new and revolutionary, an effort to stop mortgage walk-aways."

NAR - "NAR, DOJ Agree on MLS Policy: REALTORS® Compete, Consumers Win" (5-27-08)

"The National Association of Realtors® has reached a favorable settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, resolving litigation between them regarding how listings from multiple listing services are displayed on brokers’ virtual office Web sites. The proposed final order, to be filed with the federal district court in Chicago today, validates NAR’s longstanding Internet Data Exchange (IDX) policy and strengthens the rule governing participation in multiple listing services."

NAHB - "New-Home Sales Up In April Following Downward Revision In March" (5-27-08)

"Sales of newly built, single-family homes rose 3.3 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 526,000 units, the U.S. Commerce Department reported today. However, this gain reflected downward revisions to sales numbers reported for each of the previous three months, including a particularly large revision for March."

CBIA - "New-Home Production Remains Weak in April, CBIA Announces" (5-27-08)

"Total housing starts in California, as measured by building permits issued, fell 42 percent in April when compared to the same month a year ago to 6,197 units, according to housing permit data supplied by the Construction Industry Research Board. Single-family home production dropped 55 percent while construction of multifamily units dipped 15 percent when compared to April of 2007. "

Bloomberg - "Libor Cracks Widen as Bankers Struggle With Reforms" (5-27-08)

"Few companies have suffered from the subprime mortgage collapse more than UBS AG, which has taken $38 billion of writedowns and losses, replaced its chief executive officer and chairman and saw its stock tumble 60 percent."

Bloomberg - "Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate" (5-27-08)

"In the midst of the worst surge in mortgage defaults in seven decades, foreclosures in U.S. towns where soldiers live are increasing at a pace almost four times the national average, according to data compiled by research firm RealtyTrac Inc. in Irvine, California. As military families like the VerSteeghs signed up for the initial lower rates and easier terms of subprime mortgages, the number of people taking out Veterans Administration loans fell to the lowest in at least 12 years."

Bloomberg - "Standard Pacific Soars on $530 Million Investment" (5-27-08)

"Standard Pacific Corp., the homebuilder that has lost $1.4 billion in market value since 2005, had its biggest gain in at least 28 years after announcing a private equity firm will invest more than $530 million in the company."

Bloomberg - "California Home-Price Cuts End Sales Losing Streak" (5-27-08)

"Housing demand in California, where one out of every eight U.S. residents lives, is reviving as bargain hunters buy foreclosed properties, reversing a two-year slide in home sales."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: Expert Discourages Foreclosures For First-time Buyers" (5-27-08)

"One way first-time homebuyers can keep housing costs down is to get a great deal on a foreclosure. Right? Wrong, says author, real estate attorney and investor James Randel."

Orange County Register - "61 Realtor groups eye statewide MLS" (5-27-08)

"The California Association of Realtors reported recently that 61 multiple listing services or Reator assocaitons have sent in letters indicating that they intend to be part of the new statewide database of homes for sale."

Bloomberg - "UBS Falls After Saying More Mortgage Losses Possible" (5-26-08)

"UBS AG, the European bank hardest hit by the U.S. subprime contagion, fell the most in more than two months in Swiss trading after saying it may face more losses from mortgage securities."

Yahoo - "Plenty of 'For Sale' signs but actual sales lagging" (5-26-08)

"The National Association of Realtors reported that 46 states saw sales decline in the first three months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. Two-thirds of 149 metropolitan areas saw prices decline during the same period, the largest percentage of cities reporting price drops in the history of the NAR survey, which goes back to 1979."

Orange County Register - "O.C. real estate/finance jobs creep up again" (5-26-08)

"State Employment Development Dept. stats, analyzed by your blogger, show that Orange County real estate and finance jobs last month rose again — this time by 800 jobs to 234,400, the first back-to-back, month-to-month gain in 13 months."

Orange County Register - "Renters spooked about homebuying. Agree?" (5-26-08)

"A new National Apartment Association survey reports that 69% of renters plan to stay in their rentals over the next year rather than buying a home."

Ventura County Star - "Home sales offer hope to some" (5-24-08)

"Two reports this week showed an uptick in Ventura County home sales in April that some see as good news for the real estate market. On Friday, the California Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes increased from a year ago, while the median price was down 28.2 percent."

Yahoo - "Buffett sees 'long, deep' U.S. recession" (5-24-08)

"The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday."

Orange County Register - "Lenders try to help homeowners in trouble but is it too little, too late?" (5-24-08)

"Banks are helping a broader array of homeowners struggling with their loan payments, but the sheer number of bad loans is overshadowing their efforts. Experts say lenders and loan servicers are now willing to work with financially strapped borrowers even if they are current on their loans. During the housing boom, banks generally modified home loans only after borrowers missed at least one payment and thus dinged their credit, sources said."

North County Times - "HOUSING: Foreclosure crisis to grow before it shrinks" (5-25-08)

"Foreclosures have flooded North County's housing market, and indicators show that the waters will be rising, not receding through the rest of the year.Just as April's sales data was the best in months and provided some encouragement for real estate agents, the month's huge foreclosure numbers offered more ammunition to housing market bears who see San Diego County's housing recession dragging on for two or three years."

The Philadelphia Inquirer - "A nation of borrowers" (5-25-08)

"Just over the last two years, the share of people borrowing from their 401(k) retirement accounts doubled, to 18 percent from 9, according to the Boston College Center for Retirement Research. And Federal Reserve data reveal that credit card debt grew at a yearly rate of 8 percent so far this year, compared with 3 percent in 2005. "

The San Diego Union Tribune - "Fannie, Freddie scrap declining-market label" (5-25-08)

"Fannie switched to a nationally uniform policy of charging borrowers the same minimum down payments irrespective of location. A spokesman for Freddie Mac, Brad German, said his company would be 'suspending' its declining markets policy indefinitely as well."

Yahoo - "Sales of existing homes fall 1 percent in April" (5-23-08)

"Sales of existing homes fell for the eighth time in the past nine months, with the backlog of unsold single-family homes rising to the highest level in more than two decades. The National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales dropped by 1 percent to 4.89 million units, matching the all-time low set in January. These records go back to 1999."

Bloomberg - "Citigroup Says Swaps Mania in Muniland Is Finished" (5-23-08)

"perhaps the most popular type of interest-rate swap engaged in by states and municipalities is history."

Bloomberg - "Muni Yields Fall to 3-Month Low as `Sanity' Returns" (5-23-08)

"U.S. municipal bond yields fell to the lowest in three months as 'sanity' returned to the tax- exempt market following the auction-rate rout, helping borrowers escape interest costs as high as 20 percent. The benchmark Bond Buyer 20 index of yields on long-term tax-exempt debt fell to 4.52 percent this week, the lowest since Feb. 14. Rates declined from a high of 5.11 percent Feb. 28, after investors abandoned the $166 billion market for municipal bonds with yields set through periodic auctions. State and local governments have spent the last three months replacing the debt."

CNN - "In search of a fix for jumbo loans" (5-23-08)

"as part of the Economic Stimulus Act, Congress tried to get funds for jumbo loans flowing again by temporarily raising the dollar limits for mortgages that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy. The two government-sponsored entities (GSE) had previously only been permitted to buy so-called conforming loans of up to $417,000 and then resell them on the secondary market."

Bloomberg - "Ranieri, Ex-GMAC Execs Plan $1 Billion Home-Loan Fund" (5-23-08)

"Ranieri is the latest investor to plunge back into a U.S. housing market wracked by record foreclosures. BlackRock Inc., which manages almost $1.4 trillion, is backing Private National Mortgage Acceptance Corp., or PennyMac, which will buy delinquent mortgages, while firms including Lone Star Funds and Blackstone Group LP raised more than $25 billion to invest in real estate-related assets."

Realty Times - "Realty Viewpoint: Enjoy Those Mortgage Interest Rates While You Can" (5-23-08)

"If you are a home buyer who is dependent on a good interest rate to qualify for a home, or you're a homeowner considering refinancing to lower your interest rate, or you're a Realtor working with buyers, you might consider locking in your mortgage interest rate while they're still below or at 6.00 percent for a 30-year fixed rate."

Realty Times - "Long-Term Rates Slip on Weak Economic News" (5-23-08)

"Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.98 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending May 22, 2008, down from last week when it averaged 6.01 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.37 percent."

Orange County Register - "Early May O.C. home price below $500,000" (5-23-08)

"Fresh homebuying stats from DataQuick shows you no longer need a half-million bucks to buy the mythical 'typical' Orange County residence. For the 22 business days ended May 6, the median selling price was $490,750, a 22.1% drop from a year ago and 23.9% off the June ‘07 peak of $645,000. If the current pricing hold for all of May, it would mark the first time a month’s median had been below $500,000 since March ‘04."

Orange County Register - "Good credit, good job but still need mortgage aid? Maybe…" (5-23-08)

"Credit counselors say lenders are now willing to work with borrowers who have trouble paying their mortgage, even if they have good credit and are current on their payments. That’s a big shift from the housing boom when most of the time homeowners had to start missing payments, and thus ding their credit, before a lender would even talk about cutting a deal."

The Wall Street Journal - "Builders Tout Incentives In Bid to Sell Homes" (5-23-08)

"Highlighting their desperation to sell houses, builders are bringing back the gimmicks -- mortgage rates that start low, help with down payments, zero out-of-pocket expenses -- that helped fuel the housing bubble before it went bust."

NAR - "REALTORS® Say RESPA Reform Too Confusing and Overly Expansive" (5-22-08)

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's proposed Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act reform 'tips the balance in favor of the largest financial industry players, opens the door to legal challenges, and does little if anything to benefit consumers,' according to the National Association of Realtors®."

NAR - "Permanent Loan Limit Increase would be good for Homeownership, Says NAR" (5-22-08)

"Making the temporary loan limit increases authorized by the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 permanent will give families in high-cost areas equal access to fair and affordable loans on a continuous basis, according to the National Association of Realtors®."

DQNews - "California April 2008 Home Sales" (5-22-08)

"A total of 31,150 new and resale houses and condos were sold statewide last month. That was up 26.8 percent from 24,565 in March and down 10.9 percent from 34,949 for April last year. While last month's total made for the slowest April since 1995 when 27,625 homes sold, it was the first month since August last year that wasn't a record low in DataQuick's statistics, which go back to 1988."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "MBA’s Agenda to Stabilize the Housing Market" (5-22-08)

"Congress and the Administration can help keep people in their homes by addressing policy issues in three areas: stabilizing the mortgage market, helping distressed borrowers and ensuring that the problems we see in today’s market do not recur. At the same time, it is important that Congress not take action like allowing bankruptcy cram downs that could further destabilize the market by increasing borrowing costs, promoting uncertainty or limiting the availability of credit."

Reuters - "Crunch turns back clock on mortgage lending" (5-22-08)

"As U.S. banks mop up the mess from billions of dollars of bad home loans, buyers are finding the days of cheap money are over and, in many cases, tougher versions of old lending rules now apply."

The Washington Post - "Fallout From a Bailout" (5-22-08)

"Politicians seeking to expand the role of government to help ease problems in the mortgage market face an inconvenient fact: Most Americans own their homes outright, meet their mortgage payments or are renters. As a consequence, mortgage relief never polls well. When people are asked whether they think government aid should be given to households failing to meet their mortgage obligations, a majority routinely says no. The average American, meeting the struggle to live within his or her means, bridles at the notion that those who are overextended should be helped."

Bloomberg - "Fed Signals Contraction Won't Spur Interest-Rate Cut" (5-22-08)

"Federal Reserve policy makers signaled that an economic contraction in the first half won't be enough to spur further interest-rate cuts because of a rising threat from inflation."

Yahoo - "S&P: Subprime delinquencies continue to climb" (5-22-08)

"Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said Thursday that subprime mortgages bundled into securities that were rated between 2005 and 2007 continue to increasingly default."

Bloomberg - "Citigroup's `Last Roman' CDO Shows Enron Accounting" (5-22-08)

"Citigroup Inc. created a $2.5 billion mortgage-backed security called Bonifacius Ltd. in August as capital markets seized up and panic swept Wall Street."

Bloomberg - "Cerberus Rues ResCap as Mortgages Put Brakes on Plans" (5-22-08)

"Cerberus Capital Management LP's $7.4 billion purchase of General Motors Corp.'s finance arm in 2006 also won control of a mortgage unit supplying a steady stream of cash to finance the auto lender. Then the home-loan money disappeared in a flood of subprime losses. Now the GMAC LLC unit, Residential Capital LLC, is fighting to avoid bankruptcy. ResCap has been forced to stop making loans to borrowers with poor credit histories after losses of $5.3 billion during the past six quarters. "

Bloomberg - "Hotel Deals May Fall More Than 50% on Credit Crunch" (5-22-08)

"Hotel investment fell to about $8 billion in the first quarter of 2008, after exceeding $20 billion a year earlier, Jones Lang LaSalle, the world's second-largest real-estate broker, said this month. The last time global hotel investment was below $50 billion was in 2005 when transactions totaled $47 billion, de Haast said."

NAR - "Leading Commercial Real Estate Index Contracts in First Quarter" (5-21-08)

"The Commercial Leading Indicator for Brokerage Activity1 edged down 0.7 percent to an index of 119.0 in the first quarter from a downwardly revised reading of 119.9 in the fourth quarter, and is 0.8 percent below the first quarter of 2007 when it stood at 120.0."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Decrease In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (5-21-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending May 16, 2008. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 621.6, a decrease of 7.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 674.4 one week earlier."

Yahoo - "Where Home Prices Are Holding Up" (5-21-08)

"Consider the San Francisco Bay area. Overall, prices there slid 17% in the 12 months through February, the most-recent data available, and were down 8% over the first two months of 2008 alone, making it one of the worst-performing metro areas in the country, according to the S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices. Yet prices within the city of San Francisco are up 0.3% over the first quarter of 2008, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a San Diego-based real-estate-data firm."

Bloomberg - "Moody's Begins Probe on Report Bug Caused Aaa Grades" (5-21-08)

"Moody's Investors Service said it's conducting 'a thorough review' of whether a computer error was responsible for assigning Aaa ratings to debt securities that later fell in value."

Bloomberg - "Freddie Mac Suffers Bout of Temporary Insanity" (5-21-08)

"How long does the word 'temporary' mean? The accountant who wants to stay employed knows the right answer: 'How long do you want it to mean?' That new twist on an old joke goes a long way toward explaining Freddie Mac's net loss last quarter of $151 million, which was smaller than analysts' estimates. In reality, Freddie is gushing much more red ink than that. Yet hardly any of it is showing up on the company's income statement."

Bloomberg - "Greenspan Helped Pimco Make Billions, Gross Says" (5-21-08)

"During a 30-minute discussion on banks several months before the global credit crisis, Greenspan's 'brilliance in terms of forecasting the potential for exactly what happened was a big money saver for us,' Gross, who runs the world's largest bond fund, said yesterday at a conference organized by the Asia Society in Los Angeles. 'He's made and saved billions of dollars for Pimco already.'"

Orange County Register - "Impac Mortgage posts $2 billion loss for ‘07" (5-21-08)

"Impac Mortgage Holdings on Tuesday reported a $2 billion loss for 2007, mostly because it set aside an additional $1.4 billion for potential losses on problematic loans amid a housing slump and tepid investor demand for securities backed by mortgages."

Orange County Register - "Traders see LA/OC price falling 24.8% more" (5-21-08)

"My occasional glance at TFS Derivatives‘ weekly report on trading of home-price contracts shows that money’s being bet on further drops in regional values as measured by the S&P/Case-Shiller indexes. It’s one more projection, one backed up by somebody’s cash."

The Wall Street Journal - "Why a Housing Bailout Won't Help" (5-21-08)

"Proponents say a bailout would benefit all homeowners, halting foreclosures and propping up prices. But it wouldn't. Even by the generous reckoning of the Congressional Budget Office, only a small fraction of the soon-to-be-foreclosed would voluntarily take up the House plan or Monday's proposed Senate version on its offer."

Realty Times - "How to Make a Success of Short Sales" (5-21-08)

"If you are in a declining market (who isn't) you should probably begin adding a qualifier into your normal list presentation right now. I know a lot of Realtors who find out in the 11th hour that Joe and Jane seller have not made a mortgage payment in three months and that the auction is looming. This throws your entire system out of whack. You now have to rev up you marketing, get with the lender, drop the price and call everyone you know to try and get an offer at the last minute. Chances are that without an offer on the table, the lender will not stop the sheriff sale. All your time, money and efforts are now wasted because you just didn't know."

NAR - "REALTORS® See Senate Stimulus Bill as Step Toward Housing and Mortgage Market Stabilization" (5-20-08)

"The National Association of Realtors® expressed appreciation to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Ranking Member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., for their efforts to bring forth a bipartisan bill that can bring stability to the housing market and help stem the rising rate of foreclosures. Today, the committee voted to pass the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008."

CBIA - "California Still Home to Nation’s Least-Affordable Housing, CBIA Announces" (5-20-08)

"Fueled by sharp price reductions in many Central Valley communities, housing affordability soared in many parts of California during the first quarter of 2008, but the welcome news for prospective homebuyers doesn’t mean an end to the state’s chronic housing affordability crisis, the CEO of the California Building Industry Association said today."

DQNews - "Bay Area home sales edge up in April" (5-20-08)

"A total of 6,310 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine- county Bay Area in April. That was up 28.8 percent from 4,898 in March, and down 15.3 percent from 7,447 for April 2007, DataQuick Information Systems reported."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "MBA Releases Policy Paper Clarifying Roles of Mortgage Bankers and Brokers" (5-20-08)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released a new policy paper titled, 'Mortgage Bankers and Mortgage Brokers: Distinct Businesses Warranting Distinct Regulation.' The paper brings clarity about the roles and responsibilities of mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers to current legislative and regulatory discussions."

Bloomberg - "Credit Crisis Will Extend Into 2009, Oppenheimer Says" (5-20-08)

"The U.S. credit crisis will extend into and even beyond 2009 as banks will write off more than $170 billion of additional reserves by the end of next year, according to Oppenheimer & Co. estimates."

Bloomberg - "Mary Had a Little Lamb and a Jumbo Mortgage" (5-20-08)

"Fannie announced it will now accept mortgages with a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of up to 97 percent on a primary, single-family residence, even in areas where prices are declining."

Financial Times - "Housing slowdown hurts Home Depot" (5-20-08)

"Home Depot’s first-quarter earnings tumbled by 66 per cent after the world’s largest home improvement retailer was hit by costs from store closings and scrapping new stores, as well as a worsening housing market. Net income fell to $356m, or 21 cents a share, from $1.05bn, or 53 cents, a year ago."

Bloomberg - "Dollar Falls on Oil Surge, Speculation ECB Will Keep Rates High" (5-20-08)

"The dollar fell the most in more than a month against the euro as the price of oil rose above $129 for the first time and speculation increased that the European Central Bank will keep interest rates high."

Market Watch - "Fed's Kohn signals intention to hold rates steady" (5-20-08)

"Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn gave the clearest signal to date Tuesday that U.S. central bankers want to hold short-term interest rates steady in the weeks ahead until the outlook for the economy becomes clearer."