Homeownership Is No Cure-All

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• McMansion Era May Be Over

  Jan 6, 09 5:33 PM CST
  As strapped Americans develop a conscience and, er, sense of taste about living, the practice of razing existing homes to make way for super-size replacements is slowing, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Languid McMansion sales have brought quiet back to historic neighborhoods, drowned out for years by bulldozers and upset preservationists.
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• Don't Blame Fannie for Mess

  Jan 5, 09 9:11 AM CST
  Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the "toxic twin" housing financing behemoths blamed for setting the world on fire, were not operating any differently than the entire financial sector, Bethany McLean writes in Vanity Fair. McLean documents Fannie Mae's history starting from conception in FDR's New Deal, when it was chartered by Congress to help homeownership (Freddie Mac followed in 1970), and ending in its failure to resist the profitable subprime game.
  
  
  
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• Vindicated in 2008, Some Experts Foresee Gloomy '09

  Jan 2, 09 10:52 AM CST
  Labeled overly pessimistic for years, a few Wall Street prognosticators became the oracles of 2008 by correctly predicting the unwinding of the global economy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The doomsayers correctly anticipated bank failures, stock market declines, and the housing market collapse of the second half of 2008. As for 2009, don’t expect things to get any rosier, they say.
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• Foreclosed Pools a Mecca for Skateboarders

  Dec 29, 08 8:12 AM CST
  Skateboarders in California are making the most of the mortgage crisis: they’re turning the swimming pools at foreclosed homes into skate parks. Tracking local foreclosures, one Fresno skater arrives at empty homes with a pump and buckets, drains the pools, and hops on his board, the New York Times reports. The newly-made parks are drawing people from around the world.
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• White House Slams NYT Story as 'Gross Negligence'

  Dec 21, 08 6:40 PM CST
  The White House accused the New York Times of “gross negligence” today in response to a page one story that largely places the housing and financial messes at the feet of Bush policies, Politico reports. “The Times’ ‘reporting’ in this story amounted to finding selected quotes to support a story the reporters fully intended to write from the onset, while disregarding anything that didn't fit their point of view,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
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