Foreclosure Listings

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Source: foreclosurepulse.com

Fed Calls Another Running Play at Fourth and Goal

Looking at fourth down and goal with time running out, and having resorted to every trick in the playbook, including lending billions to help out the nation s and the world s struggling financial systems, Ben Bernanke and his team over at the Federal Open Market Committee tried a run up the middle one more time Wednesday, lowering the ever-popular federal funds rate by half a percent to 1 percent.

A huge rally on Wall Street the day before (almost 900 points) anticipated the cut, although some analysts were hoping for more than 50 basis points. More importantly, many are looking for this move to signal the lowering of mortgage rates to help out struggling homeowners trying desperately to stay in their homes.

In its official statement, the Federal Open Market Committee for the first time in many months did not cite the nation s continuing housing contraction as one of the primary reasons for the cut.

This time the committee is citing a decline in consumer spending, slow economic activity overseas and the intensification of financial market turmoil as key concerns. AND, the committee seems to be patting itself on the back this time for all of its recent policy decisions, although it still admitted that downside risks to growth remain.

As The New York Times is reporting, the Commerce Dept. released its report on consumer spending this morning and the news is not good. Personal consumption for Q3 2008 fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1980, when the economy was in a deep recession.

Jobs are being cut all over the country, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and credit card debt is out of control. All told, many analysts are already declaring that the American economy is now officially in a recession.

According to figures provided by the Federal Reserve, consumers in this country have charged up $900 billion in credit card debt. The Associated Press reported in BusinessWeek this week that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined forces in asking federal regulators to do something to reduce consumer credit card debt by as much as 40 percent.

Between credit card debt and a full-blown mortgage crisis on its hands, the Fed is less worried about inflation at this juncture and more focused on the reluctance of banks to loan money, according to the Times.

Whether this is the Fed s last hurrah before a new administration takes office in January or not remains to be seen. Still, the next president is going to inherit many problems, and a glut of foreclosures appears to be one of them.

Potential homebuyers and real estate investors looking for bargain properties will probably have at least all of 2009 and maybe even 2010 to shop around. There is obviously more pain to come before we see daylight at the end of this tunnel.

What do you think about the Fed s latest move? Will it make a difference where you live in terms of reducing foreclosure activity? We d like to hear your opinion.

Source: foreclosurepulse.com

No Quick Fix for Calif. Housing, Economists Predict

Three prominent California economists painted a rocky road ahead for the California housing market. Speaking at the California Association of Realtors convention in Long Beach, Calif., Nancy Dayton Sidhu, Stuart Gabriel and Richard K. Green said the nation and California are in a recession that could last until the end of 2009.

We have a very severe credit crunch going on, said Sidhu, vice president and senior economist at the Kyser Center for Economic Research. About 85 percent of banks have tightened their lending standards. This is an issue. That s where the problems are in the economy.

Sidhu forecasted that the recession would last through 2009, followed by a moderate recovery thereafter and economic expansion by 2010 or 2011.

Gabriel, a professor of finance and director of the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, predicted that we re not going to have a Great Depression, but we are going to have a recession. The labor market will contract, causing consumer spending to contract.

Gabriel predicted that California will be the first to emerge from the economic downturn. California will see the up turn in housing before any other state, Gabriel said.

The federal government s rescue efforts could ease the financial markets, making it easier for borrowers to find loans, according to Richard K. Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate Development at the University of Southern California.

Banks don t trust each other right now, said Green. They just don t know what s on their balance sheets. But I m still very bullish on California. I m far more optimistic this week than last week.

Will the housing sector lead the nation and California out of the recession? What are your thoughts?

Source: foreclosurepulse.com

, the Federal Open Market Committee for the first time in many months did not cite the nation s continuing housing contraction as one of the primary reasons for the cut.

This time the committee is citing a decline in consumer spending, slow economic activity overseas and the intensification of financial market turmoil as key concerns. AND, the committee seems to be patting itself on the back this time for all of its recent policy decisions, although it still admitted that downside risks to growth remain.

As The New York Times is reporting, the Commerce Dept. released its report on consumer spending this morning and the news is not good. Personal consumption for Q3 2008 fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1980, when the economy was in a deep recession.

Jobs are being cut all over the country, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and credit card debt is out of control. All told, many analysts are already declaring that the American economy is now officially in a recession.

According to figures provided by the Federal Reserve, consumers in this country have charged up $900 billion in credit card debt. The Associated Press reported in BusinessWeek this week that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined forces in asking federal regulators to do something to reduce consumer credit card debt by as much as 40 percent.

Between credit card debt and a full-blown mortgage crisis on its hands, the Fed is less worried about inflation at this juncture and more focused on the reluctance of banks to loan money, according to the Times.

Whether this is the Fed s last hurrah before a new administration takes office in January or not remains to be seen. Still, the next president is going to inherit many problems, and a glut of foreclosures appears to be one of them.

Potential homebuyers and real estate investors looking for bargain properties will probably have at least all of 2009 and maybe even 2010 to shop around. There is obviously more pain to come before we see daylight at the end of this tunnel.

What do you think about the Fed s latest move? Will it make a difference where you live in terms of reducing foreclosure activity? We d like to hear your opinion.

Source: foreclosurepulse.com

Fed, World s Banks Pull Off Global Rate Reduction
In an unprecedented move aimed at quelling the mounting tidal wave of unrest affecting the world s economies and investors, the Federal Reserve, in partnership with other central banks around the world, pulled off a coordinated reduction of short-term interest rates Wednesday….(read more)
Source: foreclosurepulse.com

As Home Prices Plummet, When Will You Buy?

Home prices in 20 of the nation’s major metro areas in July were collectively down 16.3 percent from a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index released today. Prices in those metro areas were down 19.5 percent from their peak in July 2006.

“There are signs of a slow down in the rate of decline across the metro areas, but no evidence of a bottom,” said David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s, in a press release issued to announce the numbers. “Little positive news can be found when cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix report annual declines as large as -29.9% and -29.3%, respectively, and all 20 cities are still in negative territory on a year-over-year basis.”

Las Vegas and Phoenix posted the two biggest annual declines in home prices of the 20 metro areas tracked in the report, followed by Miami with a 28.2 percent decline and Los Angeles with a 26.2 percent decline. Charlotte, N.C., home prices were down 1.8 percent from July 2007, the smallest annual decline among the 20 cities tracked in the report, followed by Dallas, which reported a 2.5 percent annual decline.

Does this make it a good time to buy real estate? June Fletcher of The Wall Street Journal sagely advises that the answer is “For some people, yes. If you …

• have access to credit
• have fat cash reserves
• aren’t already over-exposed in real estate
• have a secure job or income stream
• expect to hold the property for at least two years”

But be forewarned, prices are expected to fall further, and will take awhile to rebound, according to many economists.

“I think this time residential housing is in the 100-year flood, and I think it’s going to take a long time to recover,” said David Shulman, senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast, at the Zelman & Associates Housing Summit in Dallas on Sept. 17.

Shulman said he expects home prices nationwide to go down 25 percent from peak to trough, although he acknowledged that prices could “overshoot to the downside.” And while modest appreciation could resume in late 2009, prices won’t be back to their 2006 peak until at least 2016, possibly as late as 2020 in some markets, according to Shulman.

(More from Shulman and several other leading economists in the October issue of the Foreclosure News Report, scheduled to be available in mid October.)

We’d like to hear from you when and if you plan to step in and start buying. Now, in 2009, or will you wait until 2020 when everyone has forgotten about this housing slump and is raving about skyrocketing home prices?

Source: foreclosurepulse.com

) pre foreclosure

Desperate times call for more effective measures. Treasury Department Secretary Henry Paulson s appeals for the private sector to willingly adjust loans of homeowners facing foreclosure only succeeded in modifying a little over 4 percent of troubled loans each month. Instead, billions of dollars are being showered on financial institutions instead of helping homeowners in a [...] pre foreclosure

Looking at fourth down and goal with time running out, and having resorted to every trick in the playbook, including lending billions to help out the nation s and the world s struggling financial systems, Ben Bernanke and his team over at the Federal Open Market Committee tried a run up the middle one more time Wednesday, lowering the ever-popular federal funds rate by half a percent to 1 percent.

A huge rally on Wall Street the day before (almost 900 points) anticipated the cut, although some analysts were hoping for more than 50 basis points. More importantly, many are looking for this move to signal the lowering of mortgage rates to help out struggling homeowners trying desperately to stay in their homes.

In its official statement, the Federal Open Market Committee for the first time in many months did not cite the nation s continuing housing contraction as one of the primary reasons for the cut.

This time the committee is citing a decline in consumer spending, slow economic activity overseas and the intensification of financial market turmoil as key concerns. AND, the committee seems to be patting itself on the back this time for all of its recent policy decisions, although it still admitted that downside risks to growth remain.

As The New York Times is reporting, the Commerce Dept. released its report on consumer spending this morning and the news is not good. Personal consumption for Q3 2008 fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1980, when the economy was in a deep recession.

Jobs are being cut all over the country, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and credit card debt is out of control. All told, many analysts are already declaring that the American economy is now officially in a recession.

According to figures provided by the Federal Reserve, consumers in this country have charged up $900 billion in credit card debt. The Associated Press reported in BusinessWeek this week that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined forces in asking federal regulators to do something to reduce consumer credit card debt by as much as 40 percent.

Between credit card debt and a full-blown mortgage crisis on its hands, the Fed is less worried about inflation at this juncture and more focused on the reluctance of banks to loan money, according to the Times.

Whether this is the Fed s last hurrah before a new administration takes office in January or not remains to be seen. Still, the next president is going to inherit many problems, and a glut of foreclosures appears to be one of them.

Potential homebuyers and real estate investors looking for bargain properties will probably have at least all of 2009 and maybe even 2010 to shop around. There is obviously more pain to come before we see daylight at the end of this tunnel.

What do you think about the Fed s latest move? Will it make a difference where you live in terms of reducing foreclosure activity? We d like to hear your opinion.

pre foreclosure

) foreclosure listings

Looking at fourth down and goal with time running out, and having resorted to every trick in the playbook, including lending billions to help out the nation s and the world s struggling financial systems, Ben Bernanke and his team over at the Federal Open Market Committee tried a run up the middle one more time Wednesday, lowering the ever-popular federal funds rate by half a percent to 1 percent.

A huge rally on Wall Street the day before (almost 900 points) anticipated the cut, although some analysts were hoping for more than 50 basis points. More importantly, many are looking for this move to signal the lowering of mortgage rates to help out struggling homeowners trying desperately to stay in their homes.

In its official statement, the Federal Open Market Committee for the first time in many months did not cite the nation s continuing housing contraction as one of the primary reasons for the cut.

This time the committee is citing a decline in consumer spending, slow economic activity overseas and the intensification of financial market turmoil as key concerns. AND, the committee seems to be patting itself on the back this time for all of its recent policy decisions, although it still admitted that downside risks to growth remain.

As The New York Times is reporting, the Commerce Dept. released its report on consumer spending this morning and the news is not good. Personal consumption for Q3 2008 fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1980, when the economy was in a deep recession.

Jobs are being cut all over the country, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and credit card debt is out of control. All told, many analysts are already declaring that the American economy is now officially in a recession.

According to figures provided by the Federal Reserve, consumers in this country have charged up $900 billion in credit card debt. The Associated Press reported in BusinessWeek this week that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined forces in asking federal regulators to do something to reduce consumer credit card debt by as much as 40 percent.

Between credit card debt and a full-blown mortgage crisis on its hands, the Fed is less worried about inflation at this juncture and more focused on the reluctance of banks to loan money, according to the Times.

Whether this is the Fed s last hurrah before a new administration takes office in January or not remains to be seen. Still, the next president is going to inherit many problems, and a glut of foreclosures appears to be one of them.

Potential homebuyers and real estate investors looking for bargain properties will probably have at least all of 2009 and maybe even 2010 to shop around. There is obviously more pain to come before we see daylight at the end of this tunnel.

What do you think about the Fed s latest move? Will it make a difference where you live in terms of reducing foreclosure activity? We d like to hear your opinion.

foreclosure listings

, the Federal Open Market Committee for the first time in many months did not cite the nation s continuing housing contraction as one of the primary reasons for the cut.

This time the committee is citing a decline in consumer spending, slow economic activity overseas and the intensification of financial market turmoil as key concerns. AND, the committee seems to be patting itself on the back this time for all of its recent policy decisions, although it still admitted that downside risks to growth remain.

As The New York Times is reporting, the Commerce Dept. released its report on consumer spending this morning and the news is not good. Personal consumption for Q3 2008 fell at an annual rate of 3.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1980, when the economy was in a deep recession.

Jobs are being cut all over the country, people are losing their homes to foreclosure and credit card debt is out of control. All told, many analysts are already declaring that the American economy is now officially in a recession.

According to figures provided by the Federal Reserve, consumers in this country have charged up $900 billion in credit card debt. The Associated Press reported in BusinessWeek this week that the Financial Services Roundtable, a financial industry alliance, and the Consumer Federation of America have joined forces in asking federal regulators to do something to reduce consumer credit card debt by as much as 40 percent.

Between credit card debt and a full-blown mortgage crisis on its hands, the Fed is less worried about inflation at this juncture and more focused on the reluctance of banks to loan money, according to the Times.

Whether this is the Fed s last hurrah before a new administration takes office in January or not remains to be seen. Still, the next president is going to inherit many problems, and a glut of foreclosures appears to be one of them.

Potential homebuyers and real estate investors looking for bargain properties will probably have at least all of 2009 and maybe even 2010 to shop around. There is obviously more pain to come before we see daylight at the end of this tunnel.

What do you think about the Fed s latest move? Will it make a difference where you live in terms of reducing foreclosure activity? We d like to hear your opinion.

Source: foreclosurepulse.com

Realtors Optimistic in CA for 2009 so long as
Speaking before a packed house at the California Association of Realtors Expo 2009 in Long Beach, Calif., Wednesday, chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young seemed a bit uneasy as she delivered her 2009 California Housing Market Forecast….(read more)
Source: foreclosurepulse.com

A Recovering Market without Govt Intervention
Free-market purists have to love the lead in The Washington Post story Friday about the real estate market in Prince William County, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C….(read more)
Source: foreclosurepulse.com