Home-Price Declines in 20 U.S. Cities Eased in April

Home-Price Declines in 20 U.S. Cities Eased in April
Bloomberg

Home prices in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas fell in April at a slower pace than forecast, a sign the plunge in real-estate values is abating. The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index decreased 18.1 percent from a year earlier following an 18.7 percent drop in March. The measure declined 19 percent in January, the most since the data began in 2001. Price declines are likely to keep moderating as demand steadies and distressed properties account for a smaller share of transactions. Still, the highest jobless rate in 25 years is contributing to record foreclosures, which are likely to keep depressing values for months to come even as home sales steady.

California Bills Seek to Lift Home Sales
Wall Street Journal

Even as California lawmakers slash services and lay off workers to help close the state's $21 billion budget deficit, there is one area where they want to increase funding: a home-buyer tax-credit program meant to help revive the local real-estate market. California lawmakers introduced two bills to boost the cap for the tax-credit program by at least $200 million and to extend the length of the program by at least a year. One of the bills has been marked urgent by its sponsor, and a vote is expected in late July. If passed, the bills would expand the state's home-buyer tax-credit program, which was designed to help clear out newly built homes and to spark new construction. Under the program, which was approved in February as part of the state budget, home buyers who purchase a new, previously unoccupied home can get a credit valued at up to $10,000 per buyer. The program was originally capped at $100 million and was set to run until March 2010.

Housing in Peril as Obama Fails to Get Breakthrough
Bloomberg

Driving through Riverside, California, Bruce Norris pointed to a half-dozen empty houses with “For Sale” signs stuck in untended lawns that he said investors might buy if banks would just extend some credit. “People today look at us as the enemy,” said Norris, 57, head of Riverside-based Norris Group, which purchases and renovates homes to rent or sell. “That’s a big problem for housing because if we can’t get the financing we need, a lot of these properties are going to sit vacant.” Four months after President Barack Obama pledged $275 billion to shore up home sales, the engine that powered every U.S. recovery since 1960 is stalled. Bankers’ reluctance to finance buyers who won’t live in properties is one barrier to a turnaround. Stricter qualifying rules and a rise in the cost of residential loans to 5.42 percent have impeded new mortgage lending, which is at a 13-year low. An inventory of 2.1 million unoccupied houses on the market, created by the fastest foreclosure pace in history, may be a drag on a revival.

Wells Fargo Wants Baltimore Subprime Suit Dismissed
Reuters

Lawyers for U.S. mortgage lender Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) urged a federal judge on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit by the City of Baltimore claiming the bank preyed on the city's black community with subprime loans that led to a flood of foreclosures. U.S. District Judge Benson Legg said he would rule in coming days on whether to hold a trial on the first suit to be filed by a major American city alleging a mortgage lender violated the federal Fair Housing Act with predatory lending practices that exacerbated the U.S. housing market crash.