KeNosHousingPortal.blogspot.com
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Home Market Takes a Tumble - (online.wsj.com) Home values posted the largest decline in the first quarter since late 2008, prompting many economists to push back their estimates of when the housing market will hit a bottom. Home values fell 3% in the first quarter from the previous quarter and 1.1% in March from the previous month, pushed down by an abundance of foreclosed homes on the market, according to data to be released Monday by real-estate website Zillow.com. Prices have now fallen for 57 consecutive months, according to Zillow. Last year, the housing market showed signs of improving as price depreciation slowed in some markets and stabilized in others. In response, a number of economists began forecasting that housing would hit a bottom in late 2011, then begin to recover. But the improvements, spurred by federal programs that gave buyers up to $8,000 in tax credits, proved fleeting. Sales collapsed when the credits expired last summer, and prices in many markets have been falling ever since.
Two Indiana cities symbolize both sides of uneven jobs recovery - (www.usatoday.com) Kokomo, Ind., is only 55 miles from Muncie, Ind., but the two former auto manufacturing strongholds are on opposite sides of the U.S. job market recovery. Job growth in Kokomo is surging amid a U.S. manufacturing revival that's lifting much of the Rust Belt. Muncie so far has struggled to recover the thousands of jobs it lost in the recession as it transitions to a service-oriented economy and recruits new types of manufacturers. The disparity between the two Hoosier cities underscores a job market recovery that remains uneven. The number of full- and part-time workers increased in 260 metropolitan areas in March vs. the year-ago period, and decreased in 101 areas, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest figures for metro areas. Nationwide, unemployment was 9.0% in April, down from 9.8% in November, and the economy added an average 233,000 jobs in each of the last three months. "Clearly, the recovery is broadening out geographically, but it hasn't found its way into many parts of the country, at least not yet," says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics.
Vacation-home market faces long road to recovery - (www.usatoday.com) The buyers' market for vacation homes is likely to continue for years, with activity largely limited to buyers with enough cash to circumvent a tighter, post-recession lending environment. Thirty-six percent of all vacation-home buyers in 2010 did not use a mortgage — versus 29 percent the year before — while more than half of them financed less that 70 percent of the purchase price, according to the National Association of Realtors. Of those who bought a second home as a rental investment, 59 percent paid cash. "Mortgage lending in the past three years has been pretty rough, with much higher underwriting standards," says Paul Bishop, NAR's vice president for research. "People drawn into the market at this point are buyers with substantial cash, or people not dealing with a mortgage. If your credit is strong and you put down a sizeable down payment, lenders are more interested."
Seeking Business, States Loosen Insurance Rules - (www.nytimes.com) Companies looking to do business in secret once had to travel to places like the Cayman Islands or Bermuda. Today, all it takes is a trip to Vermont. Vermont, and a handful of other states including Utah, South Carolina, Delaware and Hawaii, are aggressively remaking themselves as destinations of choice for the kind of complex private insurance transactions once done almost exclusively offshore. Roughly 30 states have passed some type of law to allow companies to set up special insurance subsidiaries called captives, which can conduct Bermuda-style financial wizardry right in a policyholder’s own backyard. Captives provide insurance to their parent companies, and the term originally referred to subsidiaries set up by any large company to insure the company’s own risks. Oil companies, for example, used them for years to gird for environmental claims related to infrequent but potentially high-cost events. They did so in overseas locations that offered light regulation amid little concern since the parent company was the only one at risk.
Why I Won't Support More Bailouts - (by Timo Soini of the True Finn Party at - online.wsj.com) When I had the honor of leading the True Finn Party to electoral victory in April, we made a solemn promise to oppose the so-called bailouts of euro-zone member states. These bailouts are patently bad for Europe, bad for Finland and bad for the countries that have been forced to accept them. Europe is suffering from the economic gangrene of insolvency—both public and private. And unless we amputate that which cannot be saved, we risk poisoning the whole body. At the risk of being accused of populism, we'll begin with the obvious: It is not the little guy that benefits. He is being milked and lied to in order to keep the insolvent system running. He is paid less and taxed more to provide the money needed to keep this Ponzi scheme going. Meanwhile, a kind of deadly symbiosis has developed between politicians and banks: Our political leaders borrow ever more money to pay off the banks, which return the favor by lending ever-more money back to our governments, keeping the scheme afloat. In a true market economy, bad choices get penalized. Not here. When the inevitable failure of over-indebted euro-zone countries came to light, a secret pact was made. Instead of accepting losses on unsound investments—which would have led to the probable collapse and national bailout of some banks—it was decided to transfer the losses to taxpayers via loans, guarantees and opaque constructs such as the European Financial Stability Fund, Ireland's NAMA and a lineup of special-purpose vehicles that make Enron look simple. Some politicians understood this; others just panicked and did as they were told. The money did not go to help indebted economies. It flowed through the European Central Bank and recipient states to the coffers of big banks and investment funds.
OTHER STORIES:
Greek Debt Rating Cut to B by S&P on Restructuring Concerns - (www.bloomberg.com)
Greece Joins Belarus as Europe’s Lowest-Rated as S&P Cuts - (www.bloomberg.com)
Treasury Volatility Approaching Four-Year Low as Bonds Rally at End of QE2 - (www.bloomberg.com)
German Exports Surged to Record in March, Boosting Growth - (www.bloomberg.com)
China's Rising Wages Propel U.S. Prices - (online.wsj.com)
Morgan Stanley Trading Gains Exceeded $100 Million on 10 Days Last Quarter - (www.bloomberg.com)
FDIC’s Bair Will Leave July 8 After Finishing ’Living-Will’ Rule - (www.bloomberg.com)
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