Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
2010’s Worst-Selling Housing Markets (Forbes.com)
Miami-area home sellers looking to unload their properties might want to make sure they have comfortable couches.
It looks like they’re going to be there a while.
That’s because Miami tops our list of the nation’s most sedentary housing markets. These 10 spots feature a potent mix of dropping prices and sluggish sales rates. Also on the list: Denver; San Diego; Baltimore; Washington, [...]
Fed’s Mortage Purchase Program Ends. What Now? (Los Angeles Times)
The government’s $1.25-trillion program to prop up the housing market by purchasing mortgages came to an end Wednesday — in a small, messy room at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with four desks and a Nerf basketball hoop.
For the last year, a small team of traders has worked here to buy massive amounts [...]
Obama Tries To Rescue Failing Foreclosure Program. New Aid To Homeowners (New York Times)
The Obama administration on Friday will announce broad new initiatives to help troubled homeowners, potentially refinancing several million of them into fresh government-backed mortgages with lower payments.
Another element of the new program is meant to temporarily reduce the payments of borrowers who are unemployed and seeking a job. Additionally, the government will encourage lenders to [...]
Tips For First-Time Home Buyers – 2010 (US News and World Report
2010 First-Time Home Buyers’ Guide – US News and World Report.
OBAMANOMICS IN ACTION: Home Buyer Tax Credit Likely To Cost Taxpayers $100K Per Home (Huffington Post/Calculated Risk)
Recent indications that demand for housing is lagging, Calculated Risk writes, are “no surprise and suggests that the extension and expansion of the home buyer tax credit will probably cost taxpayers over $100,000 for each additional home sold.
Just about every economist opposed the tax credit as expensive and ineffective. Here are some quotes from a [...]
MORTGAGE WOES: 67% Of California Home Sellers Could Not Pay Their Mortgages (The Orange County Register)
Most California homesellers — a whopping 67% – who sold their homes last year couldn’t pay their mortgages, a survey by the California Association of Realtors shows.
“For the most part, the bottom line was, ‘I’m being squeezed out of my home because I couldn’t make my mortgage payments,’ ” said Leslie Appleton-Young, the association’s chief economist.
In response to another question on specific [...]
RECESSION NOT OVER YET! – Home Sales Fall To A Record Low In January (CNN)
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Sales of new homes plunged in January to the lowest level on record, government figures showed Wednesday.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new home sales plummeted 11.2% to 309,000 last month, compared with a revised rate of 348,000 in December, the Census Bureau said. That’s a decline 6.1% from January 2009.
It [...]
The 10 Cheapest U.S. Cities To Buy Real Estate (US World News)
10 Cities for Real Estate Steals – US News and World Report.
HOME BUYERS BEWARE: 10 MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN PURCHASING A HOUSE (US News and World Report
10 Rookie Home Buyer Mistakes to Avoid – US News and World Report.
How To Buy Foreclosed Properties At Auction (Bankrate.com)
Home foreclosure filings declined steadily from August through November 2009, but were still significantly higher than they were a year ago, according to RealtyTrac, a leading online marketplace for foreclosure properties.
Home foreclosure filings For November 2009 — including default notices, scheduled foreclosure auctions and bank repossessions — numbered 306,627, a decrease of nearly 8 percent [...]
