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Killer Bees and the Housing Crisis
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2008 Comment (5)The national foreclosure crisis has slashed home values, put families on the street, and now, it seems, played a key role in a fatal bee attack on a helpless Chihuahua.
The 3-year old Chihuahua, named Stubby—which was born with only three legs—was killed Tuesday by an angry swarm of bees that had nested in a vacant property located near the dog owner's home, according to the Tucson Citizen.
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Fresh Distractions for Housing Daydreamers
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2008 Comment (1)Are you a real estate day dreamer? If so, Trulia.com has new distraction for you.
You can check it out here.
From the press release:
Trulia Snapshot is therapy for home buyers, real estate enthusiasts, college-age dreamers, ready-to-upgrade home owners, your mom, my mom and everyone from the interested to real-estate-obsessed. It satisfies our universal need to gander real estate photos, prices and locations online.
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Housing Starts
Tweet Share on Facebook May 30, 2008 Comment (1)Associated Press: "Rates on 30-year mortgages jumped this week to the highest level since mid-March as investors began to worry about what the Federal Reserve will do to combat growing inflation pressures."
The Wall Street Journal: "The home-mortgage industry takes advantage of consumers' confusion to charge some people much higher fees than others, according to a study prepared for the Department of Housing and Urban Development."
The New York Times: "The F.D.I.C. said the combined profit of the financial institutions it regulates plunged 46 percent, to $19.3 billion, during the first three months of the year."
Reuters: "In some areas of California, so many foreclosed homes are available to buy on the cheap that real estate agents are discouraging prospective sellers from even putting their houses on the market."
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Forget That Condo—Buy This Jail
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2008 CommentFirst-time home buyers looking to terrify unsuspecting dinner guests should get moving on this delightful county jail in Skowhegan, Maine, before some exiled dictator or evil supervillain snaps it up.
That's right, the 14,000-square-foot lockup will be emptied later this year when a nearby facility opens for business, according to the Associated Press, providing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for creative buyers.
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Next Housing Market to Crash? Seattle
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2008 Comment (45)Few American cities have weathered the national housing crisis better than Seattle. According to the recently released S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, home values in the drizzly gem of the Pacific Northwest have fallen a modest 4.4 percent over the past year—a cakewalk compared with former housing boom hot spots like Las Vegas (-25.9 percent), Miami (-24.6 percent), and Phoenix (-23 percent).
But that may soon change. In a recent interview with U.S. News, ZipRealty CEO Pat Lashinsky predicted that Seattle's so-far resilient housing market would suffer big losses relatively soon. Excerpts:
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Housing Starts
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2008 CommentThe Wall Street Journal: "Before we replace angst about housing, mortgages, and credit markets with anxiety about rising oil prices, consider what we've learned in the past several months. We had a housing bubble; that's now obvious. But how did it happen?"
The New York Times: "America's home-buying season, when for-sale signs sprout like dandelions, is shaping up to be even worse than expected this year, with prices falling, sales slowing, and few signs of a turnaround emerging."
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A New Foreclosure TV Show!
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2008 Comment (7)No matter what you think about the controversial housing legislation moving through Congress, at least we can all agree there just hasn’t been enough TV coverage of the nation's foreclosure epidemic.
So, for all of you begging for a closer look at a process that's now shattering communities, gutting home values, and threatening to drag the entire country into a recession, meet real estate agent Tom Bruzzesi, the star of The Foreclosure Shoppe—a new realty/reality TV show focusing on Florida's treacherous real estate market.
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Home Prices: Worst of the Worst
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2008 Comment (2)Not long ago, Zillow Blog ran a post listing the areas of the country where home prices had appreciated the most from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008.
Now, Zillow is turning the tables and looking at the markets that saw the steepest declines.
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Kenny Rogers's Home for Sale
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2008 Comment (6)Why listen to his albums when you can buy his whole house? That’s what serious Kenny Rogers fans should be asking themselves these days, in light of the news that the country music sensation has put his Atlanta home on the market.
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The busy singer/actor/photographer/businessman/designer has put the Buckhead home he has lived in with his family for the past 17 months on the market for $7.95 million. Heather Steiner, an agent with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby's International Realty, is handling the sale.
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Housing Starts
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2008 CommentThe San Jose Mercury News: "Online real estate brokers will be guaranteed full access to listings of homes for sale under an agreement announced by federal officials Tuesday."
Bloomberg: "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in March by the most in at least seven years, pointing to weakness in the housing market that will constrain economic growth."
The Wall Street Journal: "The Minnesota legislature's passage of a housing bill has created a dilemma for the man who could veto it: Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican seen as a potential running mate for John McCain."
The Los Angeles Times: "Obama, in the midst of a three-day swing of potential Western battleground states, used the struggles of a Las Vegas family facing foreclosure over skyrocketing mortgage payments to illustrate what has emerged as a key theme of his campaign—the nation's sputtering economy."
The New York Times: "But at the same time, new criticisms have surfaced that Mr. Bernanke has fanned inflation and contributed to the decline of the dollar by aggressively cutting interest rates. Some say he has put at risk billions in public funds by accepting devalued assets like mortgages and auto loans as collateral for loans to financial institutions."
