housing crisis

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New Home-Sale Incentive: Free House Calls

(Newser) - Home sales being a little tricky these days, a luxury developer in the trendy Buckhead section of Atlanta has stumbled onto a unique form of incentive: free house calls from doctors. Deep-pocketed buyers who plunk down $2 million to $12.5 million to live in a new high-rise will get...

Feds Near $50B Plan to Guarantee 3M Mortgages

Treasury, FDIC working on measure to help avoid more foreclosures

(Newser) - The Treasury Department and the FDIC are working on a plan to guarantee the mortgages of 3 million struggling homeowners, the Washington Post reports. Under the plan, lenders would reduce monthly payments so owners could avoid foreclosure. If the homeowners defaulted anyway on the reconfigured loan, the government would repay...

Homeowners Need Bailout, Too: FDIC Chief

Regulator clashes with Paulson, Bernanke over relief for lenders

(Newser) - The FDIC chief is blasting the White House and Congress for focusing the $700 billion bailout on financial institutions and not giving homeowners facing foreclosure more help, reports the Wall Street Journal. Sheila Bair, a Bush appointee, says the government’s insistence that homeowners not profit from its help—while...

Prosperity Gospel Blamed for Subprime Hell

Belief that God bestows riches may have duped faithful into dodgy mortgages

(Newser) - A fast-growing strain of Pentecostalism may have made its followers victims of the credit crisis by preaching that God's hand was behind dubious mortgages, Time reports. "Prosperity Gospel" preaches that God will "make way" for the poor to gain wealth, making believers easy prey for greedy mortgage brokers,...

Foreclosures Soar on Homes Over $1M
Foreclosures Soar on
Homes Over $1M
Sep 27, 2008 5:38 PM CDT

Foreclosures Soar on Homes Over $1M

Foreclosures on million-dollar homes way up since last year

(Newser) - The housing crisis, having wreaked havoc on low- and middle-income homeowners, is moving into the mansion set. Foreclosures on $1 million plus homes have almost doubled since last year, MSNBC reports, and more than doubled for homes over $2 million. The reasons are familiar: layoffs in the executive and professional...

O'Neill on Bush: He Doesn't Get It, and 'It Shows'

Former treasury chief says leaders are acting out of 'panic'

(Newser) - Former Treasury chief Paul O'Neill doesn't have a lot of confidence in the ability of his old boss to find a financial solution, ABC News reports. “I don’t think he understands or knows much about any of this and it shows,” O’Neill said of President Bush....

Goldman Profit Drops 70%, Still Beats Estimates
 Goldman Profit Drops 70%, 
 Still Beats Estimates
EARNINGS REPORTS
Sep 16, 2008 8:37 AM CDT

Goldman Profit Drops 70%, Still Beats Estimates

Revenue cut by half, but firm helped by less mortgage exposure

(Newser) - Amid the financial industry's meltdown, survivor Goldman Sachs reported that third-quarter profit plunged by 70% —the sharpest decline in its history as a public company, but still enough to beat estimates of $1.71 per share. The bank dipped 7% in New York trading, Bloomberg reports, after reporting an...

Housing Will Bottom June 30, 2009: Cramer
Housing Will Bottom June 30, 2009: Cramer
OPINION
Sep 8, 2008 2:29 PM CDT

Housing Will Bottom June 30, 2009: Cramer

Bombastic guru lists 10 signs of a real-estate turnaround

(Newser) - Jim Cramer has spent over a year “shouting in my usual unhinged way” about the bleak real estate market, he writes in New York. But now he’s so confident housing’s headed for a bottom that he’ll name the exact date: June 30, 2009. Why?
  1. New home
...

Juggled Books at Freddie, Fannie Sparked Fed Takeover

Situation more dire than accounting revealed, probers found

(Newser) - Federal advisers pushed for a government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae after discovering fuzzy accounting that failed to fully reveal the dire nature of the companies' financial situation, reports the New York Times. The practices, while not illegal, overstated the mortgage giants' capital cushions while attempting to delay...

Fannie-Freddie Merger: The Math Adds Up
Fannie-Freddie Merger:
The Math Adds Up
OPINION
Sep 2, 2008 10:54 AM CDT

Fannie-Freddie Merger: The Math Adds Up

As both companies plummet, combining them might make sense

(Newser) - With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggling to stay afloat, arguments for a merger are gathering steam. “Sometimes size can be a strength,” writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times. The companies spent $1.825 billion in total overhead in the first half of 2008 doing...

Home Sales Up in July; Market Glut Begins to Ease

Inventory still high as monthly declines ease

(Newser) - New home sales rebounded a bit in July, according to Commerce Department data released today, and the glut of properties on the market began to ease, Bloomberg reports. The 2.4% uptick in sales fell short of the pace economists were looking for—hitting a 515,000 annual pace rather...

Pressure Mounts for a Freddie, Fannie Bailout

Investors want Treasury to take the lead on mortgage giants sooner rather than later

(Newser) - A federal bailout for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac looks more likely every day, both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times report, as the mortgage giants find it increasingly difficult to borrow and their stock continues to take a pounding. Freddie was able to auction $3 billion...

Feel Good Again About Your Pricey House
Feel Good Again About
Your Pricey House
OPINION
Aug 17, 2008 7:59 PM CDT

Feel Good Again About Your Pricey House

In 10 years, you'll be back in the black

(Newser) - Bought an expensive house right before the subprime crash? Fret not, writes Chris Ayres in the Los Angeles Times. With 5% inflation, lower interest rates, and a mortgage tax deduction, buyers of pricey houses will be smiling in 10 years. "If you're a boom-time buyer who can still pay...

Greenspan: Housing Will Hit Bottom in 2009

Skilled immigrants would help end slump, he says

(Newser) - Alan Greenspan said housing prices could continue to edge lower through 2009, but should “stabilize or touch bottom” in the first six months of the year, reports the Wall Street Journal. And, the former Fed chief says, while a government bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie May was the...

Bank Losses Soar on Falling Home Prices

Lenders swamped with foreclosures are selling them at firesale prices

(Newser) - The rising costs of carrying foreclosed homes are prompting banks to sell them off for as little as half of their original value, reports the Wall Street Journal, a strategy that’s costing financial institutions big money. The losses, and the specter of their continuing to rise, pummeled bank share...

Fannie Misses Estimates, Slashes Dividend
Fannie Misses Estimates, Slashes Dividend
Earnings
Aug 8, 2008 8:37 AM CDT

Fannie Misses Estimates, Slashes Dividend

Stock drops 12% in early trading

(Newser) - Fannie Mae reported its fourth straight losing quarter today, Bloomberg reports, coming in $2.3 billion in the red and slashing its dividend. The $2.51-per-share loss far exceeded the 72-cent average predicted by analysts, much as Freddie Mac surprised investors two days ago. “Neither of these companies have...

Freddie Has 4th-Straight Loss as 2nd Quarter Charges Rise

Increase in foreclosures and associated fees, $1B writedown lead to $821M loss

(Newser) - Rising delinquencies and a still-skidding home market combined to make Freddie Mac’s second quarter losses three times worse than analysts predicted, reports Bloomberg. The government-backed mortgage enterprise lost $821 million, or $1.63, in the quarter, prompting it to also announce a third quarter slash in dividends from 25...

Study: Homeless Numbers Drop
 Study: Homeless Numbers Drop
Jul 30, 2008 7:43 AM CDT

Study: Homeless Numbers Drop

First study to count homeless over a full year finds numbers down 15% in '07

(Newser) - The number of chronically homeless Americans fell by 15% last year, a study has found. The survey is the first to track homelessness over a full year, the Los Angeles Times reports. Homeless advocates argue that the promising numbers may in part be due to different counting methods—and that...

Home Prices Fall Again; Rate of Decline Sets Record

Consumer confidence numbers offer ray of hope

(Newser) - Home prices continued to nosedive in May, a signal that the housing crisis may be worsening and a red flag for the credit markets and Wall Street, reports the New York Times. Every region covered by the S&P/Case-Schiller home-price index showed a drop compared to May 2007, with the...

Senate Passes Massive Housing Relief Bill

Bush is expected to quickly sign the measure into law

(Newser) - Congress has passed a housing rescue bill aimed at sparing 400,000 struggling homeowners from foreclosure. President Bush is expected to sign the measure quickly. The Senate passed the legislation by a 72-13 vote in a rare Saturday session. The measure lets homeowners who cannot afford their monthly payments refinance...

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