Archive for November 18th, 2008
Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and FDIC Chairwoman Shelia Bair battled it out on Capitol Hill today over competing plans for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Plan funds.
House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D. Mass.) bashed Paulson for shifting his plan for the bailout funds, investing the money in healthy banks rather than buying the troubled mortgages he originally said he would. “The fundamental policy issue is our disappointment that funds are not being used to supplement mortgage foreclosure reduction,” Frank said.
Bair, meanwhile, told lawmakers the money should be used to prevent foreclosures. Her plan is to use some of the money to encourage banks to renegotiate loans by guaranteging that lenders get some money back if the loans later fail. Bair says her plan could prevent 1.5 million foreclosures.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he supports Bair’s approach. Paulson defended his strategy saying the direct investments were needed to shore up the financial system and the best way to support housing prices is for banks to now use that federal money to provide low cost loans.
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Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
Homebuilders’ confidence in the housing market again plunged to a record low, dragged down by poor financial market conditions, rising unemployment and consumer anxiety, a trade group said Tuesday.
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Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
National home prices, driven lower by a flood of foreclosures, plummeted by a record year-over-year 9% in the third quarter, according to a report issued Tuesday.
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Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
CB Richard Ellis has promoted Sacha Zarba, Doug Lehman, Andrew Sussman and Bill Mooney to senior vice president. They were previously first vice presidents. Read more »
Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
Many weird stories have popped up at a result of the real estate bust, but none stranger than this recent item from California’s Riverside Press-Enterprise.
A character named King Solomon II is filing deeds of sale on foreclosed homes and then renting them out to other people. This is a big problem when the actual owners want to move in. They’ve got to evict the renters from their house.
King Solomon II, meanwhile, is claiming through his niece that he lives in a sovereign nation (Nevada) and refuses to pay taxes or homeowner’s association fees.
The case illustrates how relatively easy it is to file a claim of ownership.
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Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced that four projects totaling more than $75 million in private investment have received approvals from the Boston redevelopment authority’s board of directors. Read more »
Continue Reading November 18th, 2008
Two New York City office properties are back on the market, as a deal under which George Comfort & Sons would have acquired the assets–1540 Broadway and Worldwide Plaza–for some $2 billion has fallen through. Read more »