Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Thursday July 3 Housing and Economic stories


Bubble Sign: FAA?: Lost a home to foreclosure? Just buy another one - (www.cnbc.com) Linda Van Doren works at a Tampa, Florida, area housing counseling center, but back in 2007 the center was unable to keep paying its counselors a full salary. She continued to work there, but, unable to pay her bills, ironically she lost her own home, agreeing to a short sale. Despite the stress, anger and damaged credit, Van Doren never soured on homeownership. "In the back of my mind I knew what I was going to do; I was going to purchase another home when I could, and I did exactly that," she said with pride. After renting for three years, Van Doren bought a home last summer, using a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Since the housing crash began, 7.2 million homes have been lost to foreclosure or short sale, according to Black Knight Financial Services. Most of those former owners became renters and still are, but some are slowly, carefully moving back into homeownership. A new government program is making that happen faster than ever before.

Subprime Trading Like It’s ’07 in Car-Loan Bonds: Credit Markets - (www.bloomberg.com) In response to rising default rates on subprime U.S. auto loans, bond investors are deciding the best thing to do is pile into securities backed by the debt. In the market where auto loans to people with spotty credit are bundled into bonds, the difference in yield between the lowest-rated securities and the safest has narrowed to the least since August 2007, according to Wells Fargo & Co. data. Demand for the bonds is translating into cheap funding for lenders, allowing them to make even more loans though payments more than 60 days late are on the increase. Investors are turning to riskier debt to boost returns as stimulus measures from central banks around the world suppress interest rates. The European Central Bank last week became the first to take one of its main rates below zero, underscoring the lengths to which policy makers are willing to go to jumpstart growth more than five years after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Athens: Riot police sends photo-reporter and two protesting cleaners to hospital - (www.keeptalkinggreece.com) Two protesting cleaners and photo-reporter Tatiania Boliari were taken to the hospital after they were injured during clashes with riot police outside the Finance Ministry in downtown Athens. It was three riot police squads in full uniform and equipment against 50 unarmed protesting cleaners. Pushes from both sides had the effect that many women, mostly over 45 years old, fell on the ground. Bolari was covering the cleaners’ protest when tension rose between riot police and protesters, the crowd started to run and Bolari fell down. According to eye-witnesses, a group of riot policemen took advantage of her situation and started to kick her. She was taken to the hospital, when she is undergoing medical tests. Both Bolari and Lolos were beaten by riot police during anti-austerity protests in 2011 and 2012. PS I’m not sure whether riot police is following orders of the old Minister for public Order Dendias or the new Minister Kikilias is still trying to find out how the public order towards unarmed protesters works.

Iraq disintegrating as insurgents advance toward capital; Kurds seize Kirkuk - (www.washingtonpost.com) Iraq was on the brink of falling apart Thursday as al-Qaeda renegades asserted their authority over Sunni areas in the north, Kurds seized control of the city of Kirkuk and the Shiite-led government appealed for volunteers to help defend its shrinking domain. The discredited Iraqi army scrambled to recover after the humiliating rout of the past three days, dispatching elite troops to confront the militants in the central town of Samarra and claiming that it had recaptured Tikrit, the home town of the late Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, whose regime was toppled by U.S. troops sweeping north from Kuwait in 2003.

Why jobless millennials are killing housing - (www.cnbc.com) The one constituency housing needs most is the one struggling the hardest in the jobs market. Employment among those age 25-34 fell in May to 75.3 percent; this compares to pre-recession rates of 78 to 80 percent employment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Having a job matters for housing," noted Trulia's chief economist, Jed Kolko. "Just 12 percent of employed 25-34 year-olds live with their parents, versus 20 percent of 25-34 year-olds without jobs." First-time homebuyers have been markedly absent from the housing recovery. In April they accounted for just 29 percent of existing homebuyers, according to the National Association of Realtors. Historically, their share hovers around 40 percent.





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