SOME GOOD NEWS IS ON THE WAY, AT LEAST WITH RESPECT TO STIMULATING HOME SALES. As reported in the New York Ties, the president signed legislation last week that extended the tax credit for first-time home buyers and added a new credit for some existing homeowners. Here’s a primer on the details….
1st TIME HOMEBUYER >> […]

Many say that housing is the key to our financial recovery and it is certainly central to the Real Esate market. So let us read the tea leaves, both past, present and future.
According to the leading real estate website Zillow.com’s first-quarter 2009 Real Estate Market Reports, which encompass 161 metropolitan areas and cover the value […]

A report on Home Prices expected out Tuesday, December 30, 2008, is likely to prompt the push for additional relief for the housing sector.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices is expected to reflect the continuing toll exacted by the deflating housing bubble. Along these lines, here is a rather remarkable list of factors — all errupting within the last […]

Near record low mortgage rates spurred a 62 percent spike in refinance activity, while purchase applications increased 10 percent. Refinance activity continues to surge as mortgage rates neared record lows. Here is all the lastest detail …….

Refiances Dominate: According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey, the refinance share of mortgage activity […]

More bad news. The Architecture Billings Index, which is compiled from a monthly survey of architecture firms around the U.S., is at its lowest level since the American Institute of Architects survey began in 1995.
A Leading Economic Indicator: Since the index reflects an approximate nine- to twelve-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending, […]

Read Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s statement, unedited …addressing the root cause of the credit crisis.

September 19, 2008: 10:24 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — Statement by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson.
Last night, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, SEC Chairman Chris Cox and I had a lengthy and productive working session with Congressional leaders. We began a substantive discussion on […]

Gerald Baker of the TimesOnline puts a very interesting spin on the recent financial events, which have dominoed. In Bakers article, Crisis may prove cathartic in the long run, but the worst is not over, he states that: 
Yesterday a couple of the world’s most famous financial institutions sank without a  trace, one of the world’s […]

Here is a great piece, from the Christian Science Monitor and staff writer Mark Trumbull, which puts the take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into perspective.

As Secretary of Treasury Paulson correctly concludes, the housing correction poses the biggest risk to our economy. Clearly the government has had enough and opted to take […]

SeekingAlpha just posted a very intriguing opinion piece by John Preston entitled, The Reality of Real Estate and the Economy.

Is this the problem? the solution?

According to many, the thesis (and problem) is simple: Housing health and the economy are linked arm-in-arm.  

Preston traces  this theory back to Robert Shiller, of Case-Shiller Home Price Index fame, who reflects back on a 2004 […]

Much of the news over the summer of 2008 has been negative, somewhat depressing, and duplicative. Unfortunately, our post today is much of the same, but there comes a time when there is just no way to avoid the news. The truth is that we need to know how to set our course in the days to come.
As reported […]