submits: Buried in 2,300-word tale of Christopher Hall’s foreclosure woes is a gem of a program in Philadelphia: Under the rules adopted by Philadelphia’s primary civil court, no owner-occupied house may be foreclosed on and sold by the sheriff’s office...

The end of moratorium programs is contributing to an anticipated increase in distressed properties.

On the MBA conference call concerning the "Q3 2009 National Delinquency Survey", MBA Chief Economist Jay Brinkmann said this morning: The problem is moving to prime loans, including fixed rate prime loans, and also FHA loans. "We are seeing...

Pimco’s Bill Gross and other investment advisors are returning to recommendations that investors hunker down and move assets to the most defensive sectors as the economy sends more signals that its growth may be tepid and sluggish at best.

The index of leading economic indicators rise for the seventh consecutive month in October, showing that a recovery is "unfolding" in the U.S. economy, the private Conference Board said.

A second-appraisal requirement that had been issued by the Federal Housing Administration at the height of the housing crisis has been repealed for loans that exceed $417,000 in declining markets and for cash-out refinances. A second-appraisal requirement...

While you may think the economy is improving a bit -- and that government assistance has had an impact -- the foreclosure crisis is not.

by Phil Spool, ASA This article is about common mistakes in appraisal reports, whether the appraisal is for a mortgage transaction or other intended use. Most mistakes are not violations of USPAP but errors caused by a lack of common sense, trying to...

The DOL reports on weekly : In the week ending Nov. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 505,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 505,000. [Revised from 502,000] The 4-week moving average was 514,000...

Why aren’t we listening more to this font of common sense and logic? “A proposal to give banking regulators authority to block accounting standards is “a terrible idea,” Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said Monday. Mr...

submits: Mr. Toll is a complex man to say the least… Today’s was easily one of the more interesting (though slightly odd towards the end) that I have listened to in recent years. The following is an interesting excerpt concerning FHA as well as an odd...

This is a recurring theme: a bank fails, the Inspector General reviews the failure and discovers that the field examiners saw problems starting around 2002, and ... nothing happened for years. We saw this with the Federal Reserve and the , and with the...

"It's déjà vu all over again". Yogi Berra From the NY Times (edit): About one million laid-off workers will see their unemployment benefits end in January ... The [recently] added federal benefits were built on a series of previous extensions...

Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic effort Wednesday to immediately freeze increases in credit card interest rates, fees and finance charges. Shortly after Democrats passed credit card reform legislation in May, the card companies began jacking up...

After optimists talked up rising housing starts for several months as green shoots, improving conditions, etc., reality came knocking in full force with the . BUILDING PERMITS Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in October were...

How can the stock market hit new highs at the same time unemployment is hitting new highs? Simple. The market is up because corporate earnings are up. Corporate earnings are up because companies are cutting costs. And the biggest single cost they’re cutting...

After reading some of the commentary regarding the housing starts report this morning, it might be useful to reiterate these three points: Residential investment is the best leading indicator for the economy. Residential investment will not recover rapidly...

The Federal Housing Authority, which insures home purchases with as little as 3.5 percent down payments, may create another crisis in the lending industry, Toll Brothers Inc. Chief Executive Officer Robert Toll said. “Yesterday’s subprime is today’s FHA,” Toll said today at a New York conference for builders sponsored by UBS AG. “It’s a definite train wreck and the flag will go up in the next couple of months: Bail us out. Give us more money.” Toll Brothers is largest U.S. luxury homes builder.., ...

here’s another cool interactive map, via the : > click for ginormous graphic

From the BLS report on the this morning: The rent index decreased 0.1 percent, the index for owners' equivalent rent [OER] was unchanged ... The rent index decreased at a -1.3% annualized rate, and OER declined in three of four ranges (only the Northeast...