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County Wants Prisoners to Primp Foreclosures
Tweet Share on Facebook August 15, 2008 CommentYou think living next to that abandoned house with waist-high grass is unsettling? Just wait until the prisoners start showing up...
From The Suncoast News, in Florida:
Pasco County officials will ask for permission to use county jail inmates to help clean and mow lots of foreclosed homes that have fallen into disrepair.
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'WSJ': Economists See Good Chance of GSE Bailout
Tweet Share on Facebook August 15, 2008 CommentThe Treasury Department has said it hopes to never use its recently acquired authority to stabilize troubled mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But a Wall Street Journal survey found that economists think there is a good chance that the government will indeed have to jump in with cash.
From the Wall Street Journal, via the Big Picture website:
On average, the 53 economists polled in the survey put the probability at 59% that the Treasury Department will have to step in to bail out Fannie or Freddie.
"Blank checks almost always get filled in and cashed," said Stuart Hoffman of PNC Financial Services Group.
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Buyer to Pay $1 for House in Detroit
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 Comment (3)Tip the pizza guy or buy a house? In Detroit, it's a tossup.
From the Detroit News:
The fact that a home on the city's east side was listed for $1 recently shows how depressed the real estate market has become in one of America's poorest big cities.
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July’s 7 'Magnificent' Articles for Consumers
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 CommentLarry Cragun, over at RealEstateUndressed.com, has posted the nominees for this month's "Magnificent 7" consumer articles.
Check them out, from RealEstateUndressed.com:
This month still produced more than 7 worthy consumer articles. Here are July's Magnificent 7 nominees: Enjoy.
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Housing Themes to Watch For
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 Comment (1)Interesting post today over at Calculated Risk on the future of the housing crisis:
From Calculated Risk:
And on house prices: In general—on a national basis—I think nominal house prices have probably fallen more than half way from the peak to the trough. There are some areas where prices are probably closer to the eventual nominal bottom than others; these are low end areas with high foreclosure rates and high demand for housing—or areas that saw little appreciation during the boom years. But in other areas, prices have really just begun to fall.
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Subprime-Triggered Tab Tops $500 billion
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 CommentSubprime-related bank losses have hit a new, painful milestone:
From Bloomberg:
Banks' losses from the U.S. subprime crisis and the ensuing credit crunch crossed the $500 billion mark as writedowns spread to more asset types...The International Monetary Fund in an April report estimated banks' losses at $510 billion, about half its forecast of $1 trillion for all companies. Predictions have crept up since then, with New York University economist Nouriel Roubini predicting losses to reach $2 trillion...
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45 Percent of 2006 Home Buyers Underwater
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 Comment (3)Zillow is out with its second quarter Real Estate Market Reports. Here are the ugly details:
U.S. home values in the second quarter posted the largest year-over-year decline in the past 12 years, dropping 9.9 percent from the year-ago quarter and 1.7 percent from the first quarter...
Nationwide, for those who purchased their home since the beginning of 2003, nearly one in three (29.1%) now have negative equity.
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101 Tips for Underwater Homeowners
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 CommentIn light of the Zillow report, which shows that nearly a third of those who bought homes since 2003 have negative equity, I thought this article might be helpful.
From International Listings, via patrick.net:
Are you upside down in your home ownership? If you are, then you know that you can't borrow from your home equity for emergencies because you don't have equity to borrow against. You may not be able sell your home unless you come up with the money to cover the shortfall between your home's value and your loan. In this case, either your house has lost value, or the loan balance has risen, or both.
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Home Stager or Professional Escort?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 Comment (1)Don't look now, but the housing crisis appears to have tipped the sex industry into utter turmoil.
First, cops begin using foreclosed homes for prostitution stings. Now, an Atlanta news team is reporting that a home stager—who was hired to help sell the property—was actually using the empty house to further her career as an escort.
Do yourself a favor and watch this video.
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Agent Gets Yearlong Ban for Defamation
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2008 Comment (1)Cheer up, Kent. If she actually was involved with the Russian mob, things would have turned out much worse for you.
From the Green Bay Press-Gazette:
A local real estate agent charged with defamation for Internet postings that claimed an area businesswoman was connected to the Russian mafia was ordered Thursday not to work in real estate for a year.
