Texas Counties Denied Class Status in Merscorp Fee Suit Bloomberg A federal judge denied a request by Texas counties to proceed as a class in a lawsuit accusing mortgage registry Merscorp Inc. of shortchanging them on filing fees. Merscorp contended "that Texas law does not permit a class consisting of all Texas counties" ...

Jason Bram. To Buy or Not to Buy? The Changing Relationship between Manhattan Rents and Home Prices. Federal Reserve Bank of New York Current Issues in Economics and Finance, Volume 18, Number 9, October 2012.

U.S. Must Reset Housing Expectations Moynihan Says Bloomberg Brian T. Moynihan, Bank of America Corp.'s chief executive officer, said the U.S. government, lenders and borrowers need to reset their expectation that everyone can own a home. "We need to look hard at some of the old assumptions and ask the question is ...

California November Home Sales December 13, 2012 An estimated 37,481 new and resale houses and condos sold statewide last month, down 4.5 percent from 39,254 in October, and up 14.7 percent from 32,669 sales in November 2011, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. A decline in sales from October to November is normal for the season. November sales in California have varied from a low of 25,578 in 2007 to a high of 60,326 in 2004. Last month's sales were 5.3 percent below the average of 39,594 sales for all months of November since 1988, when DataQuick's statistics begin. The median price paid for a home in California last month was $291,000, up 2.1 percent from $285,000 in October and up 19.3 percent from $244,000 in November 2011. November was the ninth consecutive month in which the state's median sale price rose year-over-year. For the current cycle, the median hit bottom at $221,000 in April 2009, while it peaked at $484,000 in early 2007. Of the existing homes sold in October, 16.6 percent were properties that had been foreclosed on during the past year. That was down from a revised 17.1 percent in October and down from 32.9 percent a year earlier. Last month's figure was the lowest for any month since foreclosure resales made up 16.0 percent of the resale market in October 2007. Foreclosure resales peaked at 58.5 percent in February 2009. Short sales - transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property - made up an estimated 26.3 percent of the homes that resold last month. That was down from an estimated 27.1 percent the month before and up from 24.9 percent a year earlier. The typical mortgage payment that home buyers committed themselves to paying last month was $1,026. That was up from $1,009 in October and up from $955 a year earlier. Adjusted for inflation, last month's typical payment was 55.2 percent below the 1989 peak of the prior real estate cycle, and 63.7 percent below the 2006 peak of the current cycle...

(Reuters) - Bank of America Corp has sued bond insurer MBIA Inc in a New York state court for allegedly interfering with a tender offer to buy MBIA's bonds.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank, poised to take over supervision of the region's banks, said on Friday there was no room for complacency following early signs of easing strains on financial markets.

The U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy actions risk stoking inflation and stray into fiscal policy territory, Richmond Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Lacker said.