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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 24, 08 2:39 AM CDT
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Lawmakers have backed a $15 billion aid package for municipalities so they can buy and fix up foreclosed homes, the Wall Street Journal reports. A House panel voted 38-26 for the measure, which would be split evenly between loans and grants. States could use the money to get vacated homes in shape and filled quickly. It's part of a larger relief measure making its way through the House.
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Bloomberg
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Apr 22, 08 10:02 AM CDT
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Prices on existing homes fell in March, but buyers stayed away, either unable to get loans, or betting on yet bigger drops, Bloomberg reports. Sales dropped 2%, to an annual rate of 4.93 million, as the median price fell to $200,700 from $217,400 last year. The number of available homes meanwhile swelled by 40,000, exacerbating supply problems.
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New Republic
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Apr 20, 08 3:08 PM CDT
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Should all Americans own their dream home? Not really, writes Joshua Riner in the New Republic —only those who can afford one. But Washington made homebuying easy, sparked the subprime crisis, and is now making things worse by buying up risky mortgages. Officials "need to replace the dream of homeownership with policies that actually increase wealth—not just the illusion of it," writes Riner.
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Washington Post
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Apr 18, 08 3:15 PM CDT
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With the housing market in turmoil, President Bush is turning to an investment banker-turned-bureaucrat to head HUD, the Washington Post reports. Steven Preston, 47, has run the Small Business Administration since 2006 after a stint at Lehman Brothers; he succeeds Alphonso Jackson, who announced his resignation 2 weeks ago amid allegations of uethical misconduct.
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New York Times
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Apr 16, 08 9:54 AM CDT
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The bill was rushed through the Senate to come to the aid of homeowners facing foreclosure, but it turns out that some of its biggest beneficiaries are automakers, airlines and energy producers. The Senate’s housing bill is packed with billions in corporate tax cuts, the New York Times reports. With populist fervor behind the bill, lobbyists from a host of industries hit the Hill. And while the bill would help homebuilders and homebuyers, there’s little to actually prevent foreclosures.
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Bloomberg
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Apr 16, 08 8:45 AM CDT
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Foreclosures and a glut of unsold homes flooding the market were blamed for an 11.9% drop in new housing starts last month, more than twice the slide economists had predicted, reports Bloomberg. Starts are at the lowest level since March 1991, according to the Commerce Department, casting a pall over hope for a rapid economic recovery. "Home construction is probably going to continue to fall right through this year,'' says one economist.
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Reuters
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Apr 15, 08 6:55 AM CDT
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Bank repossessions skyrocketed 129% over the 12-month period ending in March, and foreclosure filings rose 57% over the previous year, RealtyTrac announced today. March foreclosure notices rose 5%, after a 4% decline in February. All this “is ongoing fallout from people overextending themselves and using highly toxic loan products,” said a RealtyTrac VP. And it hasn't peaked yet.
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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 11, 08 6:50 AM CDT
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Linens ‘n Things ls expected to file for Chapter 11 by Tuesday, the deadline for a $15-million quarterly debt payment, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move would make the home-furnishings giant the first major retailer sunk by the housing crisis, after bloated debt and plummeting demand handed the New Jersey company $242 million in losses last year.
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Reuters
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Apr 10, 08 3:02 PM CDT
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The Senate approved a $15 billion measure to address the housing slump today, including $6 billion in total tax breaks to homebuilding firms and a $7,000 tax credit for buyers of foreclosed homes. Though it passed by an 84-12 margin, opposition from President Bush and the House could yet sink the measure, Reuters reports.
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Times (UK)
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Apr 9, 08 10:58 AM CDT
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UK home prices tumbled 2.5% in February—the largest fall since the 1990s—as the International Monetary Fund warned that Britain could face a housing crisis similar to the US. British PM Gordon Brown insisted yesterday the decline was containable, but the Bank of England is now under serious pressure to cut interest rates at its meeting tomorrow, the Times of London reports.
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Los Angeles Times
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Apr 8, 08 2:13 PM CDT
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The housing crisis has caused the number of homes for sale across the country to grow, but in Las Vegas, brokers are dealing with an unusual aspect of swelling inventory—an excess of $1 million-plus listings. Although they're luxury properties with pools and excesses of polished marble, those constructed more than a few years ago are tough to sell because they're considered outdated. The LA Times goes house-hunting.
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Bloomberg
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Apr 8, 08 1:00 PM CDT
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Contracts to buy previously owned homes declined 1.9% in February, according to the National Association of Realtors’ index, which fell to its lowest levels since its creation in 2001. The drop was nearly double the 1% decline analysts predicted, reports Bloomberg, and sent stocks tumbling further.
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Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Apr 6, 08 11:20 AM CDT
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If Bob Fanning dies in the next decade, the buyer of his Wisconsin home—listed at $498,900—will get a half-million dollar payday. That’s because the 69-year-old plans to make the new owner the beneficiary of a 10-year life-insurance policy, a carrot he hopes will sweeten the deal in a tough real-estate market, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 5, 08 12:12 PM CDT
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Condo-hotel rooms were a hot buy at the height of the housing boom, but marketing them as investments that would pay out every time they were occupied could come back to haunt developers, the Wall Street Journal reports. As business sours, buyers who find themselves making mortgage payments on empty rooms are suing to get refunds.
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Bloomberg
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Apr 4, 08 4:24 PM CDT
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With foreclosures skyrocketing, overwhelmed mortgage lenders are turning a blind eye to homeowners who haven’t paid up, letting them live in their houses despite delinquency, Bloomberg reports. The 3.6% of borrowers at least 90 days behind is almost twice the percentage foreclosed upon. Lenders’ delays are skewing foreclosure records and means even more homes could soon clog a flooded market.
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Wall Street Journal
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Apr 4, 08 11:17 AM CDT
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State lawmakers aren’t sitting around waiting for Washington to solve the mortgage crisis, the Wall Street Journal reports. Instead, many are taking aggressive steps to ease borrower pain, sometimes running afoul of lenders in the process. Illinois, Maryland, and Minnesota all have bills in the works to impose a moratorium on foreclosures—in one state as long as 12 months— for families attempting to restructure mortgages.
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