Today the National Association of Realtors reported an unexpected 7.6 percent monthly drop in its Pending Homes Sales Index in January.

From the Financial Times: Mr Papandreou said that the latest austerity package ... fulfilled Greece’s commitment to its eurozone partners ... “We are waiting for European support – the other side of the agreement,” Mr Papandreou said ... he told ministers that Greece could turn to the IMF for an emergency loan if its EU partners were unable to deliver adequate assistance ... excepted with permission And from Bloomberg: “We have fulfilled to the utmost all that we must from our side; now it’s Europe’s turn,” Papandreou told his ministers yesterday, according to an e-mailed transcript. “It is a historic moment for the European Union.” ... “I expressly want to say that Friday isn’t about aid commitments, but about good relations between Germany and Greece,” [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] said yesterday in an interview with N-TV ... The story remains fluid, and a key date is March 16th when the euro-zone finance ministers meet.

The retirement of Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Don Kohn has the Obama administration searching for economists to fill one or more of the three openings of the seven-member Fed board. Among the possibilities for the vice chairman slot are a couple of alumni of the Greenspan Fed board: , who has been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco since 2004, and , a private, Washington-based Fed watcher. You may have to take a pay cut, but you get to work in the Fed building in Washington. (Getty Images) Among other names surfacing: , a Princeton University labor economist who is now assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy, and , a Harvard University finance professor who did a brief turn in the Obama administration last year. Yellen and Krueger both did stints in the Clinton administration: Yellen as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and Krueger as the chief Labor Department economist. , the Obama appointee to the Fed board, seems to prefer being the Fed’s banking czar to the vice chairman’s duties. And word is that , the economic historian on leave from Berkeley to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, isn’t interested in a move to the Fed. Kohn’s retirement, at age 67, leaves Chairman Ben Bernanke the only economist on the Fed board. Elevating a Fed staffer to the Board is an option. Among the possibilities: , chief of the Fed’s Division of Monetary Affairs, a post Kohn once held; , research director at the San Francisco Fed who would be a contender for Yellen’s job if she left; and , the Boston Fed’s research director. One rub for some potential candidates: The pay cut. The law sets the salary of members of the Federal Reserve Board — and the vice chairman — at $179,700 a year, which sounds like a nice wage to the typical American worker, but is lower than many potential nominees currently earn. That could pose a problem in recruiting for the three openings on the seven-member board. Salaries for presidents of the...

Re-Blogged from the Appraisal Institute's : New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed Senate into law March 1. S.B. 138 will require that appraisal management companies post a surety bond or equivalent means of security with the Regulation and Licensing Department in order to operate in the state. The legislation will also require AMC employees who review appraisals be geographically competent to complete the review. See references to this bill on Appraisal Scoop - S.B. 138 also adopts fee disclosure requirements that are very similar to those adopted by the Federal Housing Administration in late 2009. Furthermore, it prohibits AMCs from including “hold harmless” provisions in their contracts with appraisers, or from requiring appraisers to indemnify the AMC against liability. Minda McGonagle, lobbyist for the Rio Grande Chapter in Santa Fe, said, “This is a big step forward in requiring that AMCs are more responsible to consumers for the product they play a huge role in producing. Hopefully, the AMCs and the lenders that use them will be answering tougher questions from consumers. We could not have been successful if not for the support of New Mexico’s real estate sales professionals, mortgage bankers, credit unions and community banks.” The provisions of the new law will become effective on July 1. A final version is not yet available, but previous versions of the legislation can be viewed at . Re-Blogged from the Appraisal Institute's

ATHENS/BERLIN (Reuters) - Debt-burdened Greece drew strong demand for a crucial bond issue on Thursday but paid a steep risk premium that underscored its plea to Germany and other EU partners for support to help lower its borrowing costs.

The BLS the annual average state unemployment rates today. Here is a scatter graph comparing the delinquency rate for mortgage loans (including all loans in foreclosure) vs. unemployment rate for all states as of Q4 2009. Click on graph for larger image in new window. There definitely is a relationship between delinquency rates and the unemployment rate, although some states stand out (like Florida), because of state specific foreclosure laws. Arizona and Nevada also have higher than expected foreclosure rates - possibly because of high investor activity during the housing bubble. This does suggest that a large part of the delinquency problem is related to the unemployment problem. Imagine if there were no unemployment benefits. As Mark Thoma noted yesterday, , but one benefit he didn't mention is that it keeps households in place. Even though there is a relationship between the unemployment rate and the delinquency rate, I suspect the trend line would be steeper without unemployment benefits (so there would be even more delinquencies as the unemployment rate rises without benefits). Here is a sortable table to find the data for each state (use scroll bar to see all data).

submits: This headline on the front of the Wall Street Journal Wednesday caught my eye: "Borrowers Pass Up Mortgage Windfall." Interestingly, the digital edition ran the with a different headline: "Borrowers Miss Out on Billions in Savings." These two very different headlines for the same story tell an interesting tale. There's a big difference between "pass up" and "miss out." The first suggests that borrowers are rejecting the opportunity to refinance; the second suggests they simply can't qualify for refinancing. That the Journal ran both reveals the current debate about whether banks or borrowers are to blame for the current dearth of credit creation. It's important to try to distinguish between the two because many are accusing the banking industry for the lack of credit creation when there is ample evidence that borrowers simply don't want to borrow any more. If banks are really the problem then there are many ways that Washington and the Fed can give them incentive to lend to help stimulate the economy. But if borrowers simply don't want or need any more debt then there are massive implications for the economy.