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Washington Post
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Mar 29, 08 6:48 AM CDT
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Homeowners facing foreclosure could soon be getting a helping hand from the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. Details are being finalized on a plan that would see portions of loans forgiven for people who now owe the bank more money than their house is worth. The remainder would be refinanced into smaller mortgages backed by public funds.
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Associated Press
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Mar 28, 08 7:29 PM CDT
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Looking for cheap real estate? Hop on a foreclosure bus tour, a trend sweeping the nation in the wake of the mortgage crisis, the AP reports. The excursions typically include experts who educate buyers while showing empty homes: some bargain beauties, some fixer-uppers. "We're kind of a seminar on a bus," says one California real-estate agent.
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 28, 08 10:23 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Banks and mortgage companies are hoping a “cash for keys” policy will stem a growing problem for lenders taking possession of foreclosed homes: dispossessed homeowners trashing their houses on the way out the door. Cheaper and faster than eviction proceedings, the policy is "win-win for both parties," an agent who handles foreclosures tells the Wall Street Journal .
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 26, 08 11:21 AM CDT
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Durable goods took an unexpected tumble in February, the Commerce Department announced today, with a 1.7% drop headlining a raft of bad economic news. Analysts expected a 0.8% increase. “Businesses definitely have shown they are beginning to retrench,” one analyst told Bloomberg. “Demand is weakening.” New-home sales, meanwhile, fell 1.8% to a 13-year low, despite a median-price drop to $244,100.
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Bloomberg
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Mar 25, 08 9:58 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Home prices plummeted again in January, falling a record 10.7% compared to January 2007, according to the bellwether S&P Case/Shiller Hope Price composite. The March consumer confidence index, also out today, plunged to a 5-year low in yet another indication of recession, Bloomberg reports. The Conference Board measures consumer confidence as well as expectations for the next 6 months; that metric fell to a level not seen since the Nixon administration.
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Associated Press
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Mar 24, 08 3:06 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Young people have long fled recessionary job markets by moving back home, but the current crisis has a new demographic scurrying there: the middle-aged. "This is not like, 'OK, my son just graduated from college and needs to move back in' type of thing," says one financial planner, who has seen more adult children leaning on parents for everything from rent to groceries.
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Bloomberg
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Mar 24, 08 12:50 PM CDT
(Newser) -
The best way for the Fed to help reverse the sagging economy is for it to buy some of the $6 trillion in outstanding mortgage-backed securities that have Wall Street so nervous, investors say. The move would ease the credit crunch but put taxpayers at risk. It’s an option the Bush administration has been reluctant to take, reports Bloomberg.
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 24, 08 11:38 AM CDT
(Newser) -
"Regulation" is becoming less of a dirty word in Washington in the wake of the mortgage meltdown, woes on Wall Street, and scares over tainted food and toys. Many Democrats and even some Republicans want a shift from voluntary industry standards in vogue since the Reagan administration. "We're in for a potentially significant regulatory response," one economist tells the Wall Street Journal .
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Bloomberg
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Mar 24, 08 10:45 AM CDT
(Newser) -
Existing home sales stunned Wall Street today with an unexpected spike, Bloomberg reports. The metric rose 2.9% in February to an annual pace of 5.03 million. Analysts had predicted yet another decline, to a 4.85 million pace. But one economist said this was only a “temporary pause.” “We’re still a long way from a recovery in housing,” he warned.
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Los Angeles Times
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Mar 24, 08 10:00 AM CDT
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US real estate is hurting, but the top price for a beachfront summer rental in Malibu hit $150,000 this year. The area is flush with homes valued at or above $10 million—a bracket unaffected by the housing slump. And Tinseltown's elite is happy to pay. "Recession? What recession?" one Malibu real estate agent asked the Los Angeles Times .
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 22, 08 8:17 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A deluge of new condos is about to hit many American cities already flooded with an unprecedented number of unsold units, the Wall Street Journal reports. This year, thousands of projects started at the height of the housing boom will be completed; oversupply and economic slowdown are likely to cause prices to plummet in condo-heavy cities like Miami, Atlanta, and Dallas.
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 21, 08 3:00 AM CDT
(Newser) -
The housing market collapse that's sending homeowners into foreclosure is starting to hit small- and medium-size builders left with developments they're unable to sell, the Wall Street Journal reports. Buyers are canceling contracts and builders are missing mortgage payments on often highly leveraged projects. Small regional banks, in turn, could be the next victims.
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Bloomberg
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Mar 20, 08 12:51 PM CDT
(Newser) -
Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke’s own home illustrates the very crisis his organization must fight—in the midst of a national housing slump, it’s worth roughly the same as when he bought it in 2004, Bloomberg reports. Values peaked just after that; the fact that his Capitol Hill pad is still worth about $839,000 suggests the downturn is reaching the country’s richest neighborhoods.
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New York Times
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Mar 19, 08 11:39 AM CDT
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The credit crisis that’s roiled financial markets has its genesis in the housing boom that began in 1998, David Leonhardt writes in the New York Times . The boom led lenders to create new financing options—incl