Friday June 6 Housing and Economic stories

Top Stories:

Holyfield's Estate Under Foreclosure - (www.11alive.com) - A legal notice that appeared in a local newspaper showed his Fayette County estate is under foreclosure. The home worth an estimated $10 million is set to be auctioned by a bank on July 1. The mother of one of Holyfield's nine children said he has missed two child-support payments. Toi Irvin, who lives in Clayton County, filed a petition for contempt in Fayette County Superior Court on behalf of her 10-year-old son. Irvin said she was told by Holyfield's representatives not to expect the payment for May and June totaling $6,000.
Ed McMahon Loses Home - (and Blames Britney Spears) - (www.clusterstock.com) - "In the midst of trying to sell this property, there were a lot of distractions," Davis said, citing paparazzi who have converged around the nearby home of Britney Spears. "When we were trying to sell the house one time, there were about 100 paparazzi there," he said. Where's that mortgage bailout when you need it?
Home foreclosures set record in first quarter - (www.ml-implode.com) - "Home foreclosures and late payments set records over the first three months of the year and are expected to keep rising, stark signs of the housing crisis' mounting damage to homeowners and the economy. The latest snapshot of the mortgage market, released Thursday, showed that the proportion of mortgages that fell into foreclosure soared to 0.99 percent in the January-through-March period. That surpassed the previous high of 0.83 percent over the last three months in 2007.
Luxury houses in Napa Valley falling into foreclosure - (www.latimes.com) - Napa County saw 112 homes repossessed in the first quarter, up from 23 a year earlier, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Most of those foreclosures have been in lower-priced areas, where new-home construction and sub-prime lending were widespread during the housing boom. But the top end is now starting to tumble.
Builder sees 'depression' in housing market - (money.cnn.com) - The chief executive of Toll Brothers Inc., the nation's largest luxury-home builder, said Wednesday the housing industry is in a "depression" and any recovery could be two or three years away.
$5 Trillion Hidden Off Bank Balance Sheets - (Mish at globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com) The absurdity is not $5 trillion coming back on bank balance sheets. Rather the absurdity is with accounting rules that let banks hold this much stuff off balance sheets in the first place. It makes a mockery of stated leverage, value at risk, and capitalization ratios. Banks claim to be well capitalized but the ratio is a mere 6% and that 6% does not include the effects of hiding $5 trillion off balance sheets.
Jeff Lacker, Suddenly Uncomfortable With These Fed Lending Facility Things - (www.ml-implode.com) - Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, in a speech — and later, an interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip — says the acronym soup the Fed has created (TSLF, TAF, et al) to combat the credit crisis is distorting asset values and encouraging risky behavior. In essence, he has thrown the “moral hazard” flag on the various creative efforts undertaken by Mr. Bernanke & Co. to help markets that are frozen.''
Tax Those Vacant Properties Away! - (www.ml-implode.com) - The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to double the tax rate on vacant properties and make permanent some of the tighter enforcement rules the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has been practicing since early last year. Starting Oct. 1, the vacant property rate will be $10 per $100 of assessed value, up from $5, once approved by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and Congress. The new rate is more than five times the $1.85 charged to the majority of commercial properties and the 85 cents charged for residential properties.
Countrywide’s Mozilo Hushes Homeowner With an Unaffordable Loan Modification - (www.ml-implode.com) - it is interesting that Mr. Dan Bailey was given a pretty decent loan modification. But what was VERY interesting was the fact that Dan still can’t afford the loan offered and gave to him by Countrywide.



Other Stories:

Fixed Mortgage Rates Hold Steady; Adjustable Rates Fall Sharply - (www.ml-implode.com) - "During a week when mortgage applications took a nose dive, average mortgage rates tended to hold tight as inflation concerns do...
Toll Bros. CEO: Housing in 'depression'; recovery years away - (www.ml-implode.com) - The chief executive of Toll Brothers Inc., the nation's largest luxury-home builder, said Wednesday that the housing industry i...
Home Equity Loans Losing Value - (www.ml-implode.com)
REO Tech Provider Sees Historic Growth as Bank-Owned Properties Swell - (www.ml-implode.com)
BofA's Ken Lewis moving forward with Countrywide Toxic Mortgage - (www.ml-implode.com)
Court OKs Fieldstone Mortgage Chapter 11 BK plan - (www.ml-implode.com)
Subprime Debacle May Spark 2-Year Credit Crisis - (www.ml-implode.com)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Conspire to Put Real Estate Investors In Harm's Way... - (www.ml-implode.com)

Mortgaging America: America For Sale - (www.latimes.com)Lawrence Lindsay: It Is Only Going to Get Worse - (www.aei.org)Return of the Credit Crisis: Did It Ever Leave? - (www.financialsense.com)Wall Street to Shed Up To 25,000 Jobs - (www.thestar.com)Airline Industry Faces 'Worst Crisis Since 9/11' - (www.marketwatch.com)

Bernanke "warns" of danger of weak dollar - (www.guardian.co.uk)
Downsizing the American house - (money.cnn.com)
Subprime debacle may spark 2-year credit recession - (news.yahoo.com)
Prices are falling. Wait. - (patrick.net)
MBIA, Ambac Credit Ratings Under Threat - (www.bloomberg.com)
Sliced, Diced Mortgages More Likely to Default - (www.bloomberg.com)
Buying debt at deep discount - (www.dailybusinessreview.com)
MBIA, Ambac Hammered on News of Likely Downgrades - (www.housingwire.com)
In South Florida, Eviction Spares Few - (www.nytimes.com)
The Golden Collapse - (www.reason.com)

Treasuries Decline as Policy Makers Stoke Inflation Concern - (www.bloomberg.com)
Oil Rebounds From a 3-Week Low After Dollar Drops Against Euro - (www.bloomberg.com)
Euro Rises After Trichet Says July Rate Increase Is `Possible' - (www.bloomberg.com)
U.S. Stocks Rise Most in Month on Retail Sales, Jobless Claims - (www.bloomberg.com)

Lacker Says Fed Loans to Wall Street Risk More Crises - (www.bloomberg.com)
Even with bad economy, job number could be good - (www.nypost.com)
Bernanke to Grads: No Repeat of '70s - (www.washingtonpost.com)
Summer airfares double, triple, quadruple - (www.usatoday.com)
Jobless claims show unexpected improvement - (www.ap.com)
Atlanta may charge street vendors rent - (www.ajc.com)
Large lot inventory hangs over Tuscon market - (www.azbiz.com)
Airfares from Bush Intercontinental leaping skyward - (www.chron.com)

S&P in warning over leveraged loans - (www.ft.com)
Food Is Gold, and Investors Pour Billions Into Farming - (www.nytimes.com)
As layoffs bite Wall St, New York real estate hit - (www.ap.com)
Number of Wall Street IPOs pulled - (www.ft.com)
Small businesses turn to alternative lenders - (www.dallasnews.com)
Ed McMahon fights foreclosure on Beverly Hills home - (www.reuters.com)
Santa Maria house bought with no money down goes into foreclosure - (www.latimes.com)

MBIA, Ambac May Quit Aaa Battle on Moody's Likely Cut - (www.bloomberg.com)
Parts suppliers crushed by auto plant closings, cuts - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Chrysler may be next to announce production cuts - (www.chicagotribune.com)
Betting against Lehman at record levels - (www.ft.com)
Detroit wakes up to need for new vehicle mix - (www.ft.com)
Neiman Marcus plans to add discounts - (www.dallasnews.com)
Fidelity in new round of layoffs - (www.boston.com)
Electric Retailer's Default Pushes Texas Into Action - (online.wsj.com)
More fliers are cashing in their miles - (www.startribune.com)
Continental to cut 3,000 jobs, slash domestic flights - (www.chron.com)
Airlines raise nonstop fares sharply for summer - (www.azcentral.com)

Upturn in costs fuels higher pay deals - (www.ft.com)
ECB, Bank of England leave key rates unchanged - (www.ap.com)
Britain faces deepest slump since 1990s - (www.telegraph.co.uk)
Producers lose taste for going overseas - (www.ft.com)
U.K. House Prices Decline Most in 15 Years, HBOS Says - (www.bloomberg.com)
Indonesia, Philippines Raise Rates to Fight Inflation - (www.bloomberg.com)
Russian Inflation Accelerated to 15.1% in May on Food - (www.bloomberg.com)
Fuel price rise may only power inflation - (www.ft.com)
China's trade surplus 'to shrink' for first time in five years - (news.yahoo.com/s/afp)
Bollard Says New Zealand May Cut Interest Rate; Currency Slumps - (www.bloomberg.com)
Time to Put Investment Banking Back in Its Box: Mark Gilbert - (www.bloomberg.com)
Climate change will add to food, utility bills - (www.reuters.com)