Housing Plan Helps 20 Pct in Calif, Nev., Ariz.
November 10, 2009, Associated Press

The Obama administration's plan to combat the foreclosure crisis has reached about 20 percent of troubled homeowners in the states most affected by the housing meltdown, according to data being released Tuesday. n California, about 130,000 homeowners have been enrolled in the "Making Home Affordable" loan modification plan, which President Barack Obama unveiled in February. That works out to about 19 percent of homeowners who were either two payments behind or in foreclosure at the end of last month, according to Treasury Department data.

Jobless Rate to Hit 10.5%, Keeping Fed in Box: Poll
November 10, 2009, CNBC.com

Unemployment in the United States will shoot to 10.5 percent by the middle of next year, constraining the Federal Reserve's ability to raise interest rates, according to economists surveyed by Reuters. The survey's findings, drawn from a sample of around 50 economists across the U.S. and Europe, come on the heels of a government report on Friday showing that the nation's jobless rate jumped to a 26-1/2-year high of 10.2 percent in October.

Obama To Sign Bill Friday Extending Homebuyers Credit
Associated Press

The White House says President Barack Obama on Friday morning will sign a bill that expands a popular homebuyers tax credit and extends unemployment benefits.

Congress on Thursday completed work on the $24 billion economic package that seeks to help out the millions who have lost jobs and have been unable to rejoin the workforce. The White House announced Obama's intention to sign the bill shortly after Congress finished the legislation.

FHA delays new condo rules
Inman News

The Federal Housing Administration is delaying implementation of new rules for condo approvals until Dec. 7 and will reportedly pull back from some changes that critics said would have delayed or derailed many condominium sales.

In a June 12 letter to lenders, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced FHA would implement a new approval process for condominium projects on Oct. 1.

U.S. Unemployment Rate Hits 10.2%, Highest in 26 Years
The New York Times

For Americans who wake up each morning thinking about their job hunt, Friday’s unemployment report offered little reassurance that their search would soon pay off, even as the broader economy showed signs of strengthening.

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September, the Department of Labor said Friday in its monthly economic appraisal.

Hit by huge loss, Fannie Mae seeks more federal aid
The Washington Post

Fannie Mae, the federally controlled mortgage finance giant, said Thursday it lost $19 billion in the third quarter and had submitted a request to the Treasury Department for $15 billion in more aid to stay afloat.

District-based Fannie Mae and its McLean sibling, Freddie Mac, were seized in early September 2008 by the federal government. Since then, Fannie Mae has lost $111 billion. The $15 billion in aid it has requested comes on top of $45 billion it already received. Freddie Mac has received $51 billion in aid.

Commercial property market to hit bottom in 2010, report says
Los Angeles Times

After spending more than a year in suspended animation, the commercial real estate industry is expected to hit bottom in 2010 with a wrenching thud.

Owners of business properties such as office buildings, warehouses and malls will suffer a surge of painful defaults, write-downs and workouts with their lenders as the market finally faces up to the reality of its diminished conditions, according to a report set for release today.

Massive amounts of foreclosures clogging county's civil courts
Miami Herald

Most everyone involved in a foreclosure says they never wanted to go through the process in the first place: Not the homeowners at risk of losing their houses, not the banks that loaned them the money, not the judges who must rule on the cases.

Still, court clerks say more than 135,000 foreclosures could be filed in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties this year -- compared to a tri-county total of about 17,500 in 2006.

FHA Digging Out After Loans Sour
The Wall Street Journal

Last fall, as the financial system was teetering and the biggest banks were tightening credit, Karen DeForte couldn't find a lender to refinance the two mortgages on her New York home, until she received a phone call from Lend America.

Most banks rejected Ms. DeForte because her debt level was too high and her credit score too low. But Lend America put Ms. DeForte into a $402,000 loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration, a New Deal-era agency that Washington and Wall Street were relying upon to pick up the slack in the mortgage market as private lenders pulled back. Ms. DeForte fell behind on payments six months later and is seeking a loan modification. Taking the loan was "a stupid mistake," the 46-year-old office manager said.

Congress Poised to Keep Homebuyers’ Tax Credit
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Senate and House are poised to agree on a compromise measure to extend unemployment benefits that also would expand a popular $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers, despite a recent government report on extensive mistakes and suspected fraud in the program.

The Senate might pass its version as early as Wednesday, and aides to Congressional leaders say the House could accept it this week, sending the bill to President Obama to sign into law. After weeks of partisan delay in the Senate, Democrats are eager to show progress before Friday, when the October jobless report is again expected to show high unemployment.

Foreclosures double in Washington area
The Washington Post

The number of Washington area homeowners in foreclosure has more that doubled in the past year, according to a report to be released Wednesday that shows the problem remains most acute in a few counties and could get worse as more borrowers fall behind on their payments.

About 2.7 percent of local borrowers are in the foreclosure process, meaning that the bank has started the legal process to take back the property, according to the report by the Urban Institute, a nonprofit policy research group based in Washington. That was slightly below the national average of 2.9 percent.

Homestead deals with aftermath of boom
Miami Herald

Alexandra and Waldo Cruz moved from their Kendall apartment to Homestead, seduced by a yellow house with white trim, three bedrooms, two baths and a small yard in the back.

Four years later, their house, their first home together, is in foreclosure. They have until April to find another place to live with their four children, aged three months to 15 years old.

It’s OK to Walk Away, A Law Professor Argues
The Wall Street Journal

Many Americans are enraged by the thought that some people are simply “walking away” from their homes—in other words, ceasing to make monthly loan payments and waiting for the lender to foreclose. How irresponsible! How unfair to those of us who do pay our bills!

Brent T. White, an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona, has a different perspective: “Homeowners should be walking away in droves,” he writes in a new discussion paper entitled “Underwater and Not Walking Away: Shame, Fear and the Social Management of the Housing Crisis.”

Small Banks Move In as Giants Falter
The New York Times

The Texas banker Edward Speed wants his fellow Texans to think small.

Sensing an opportunity to capitalize on public outrage over big national banks rescued by taxpayer bailouts, Mr. Speed has started a campaign urging Texans to take their cash out of banks like Wells Fargo and turn it over to small homegrown institutions like his, the Texas Dow Employees Credit Union in Lake Jackson near the Gulf Coast.

Foreign investors dominate in South Florida real estate purchases
Miami Herald

In order to help his clients close on units at the luxury St. Tropez condominium in Sunny Isles Beach, developer Joe Milton recently put up $100 million of his company's cash to set up a mortgage company to fund loans.

That's because foreign buyers -- a key factor in the recent surge in home sales in South Florida -- are often locked out of the market if they don't have cash in hand.

Regulators Close Down Nine More Institutions
DSNews

Collapses of regional community banks continue to pad the FDIC’s failed bank list. The agency stepped in to close down nine on Friday – three in California, three in Texas, two in Illinois, and one in Arizona.

With these latest closures, the number of institutions to go under in 2009 now totals 115 – the highest number of failures in a single year since the savings & loan crisis.

Congress Passes Higher Loan Limit Extension for Federally-Backed Mortgages
DSNews

Legislation was approved by both the House and Senate Thursday that extends the higher loan limits currently in place for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Lawmakers temporarily raised the limits for these federally-funded home loans back in 2008 as part of a national economic stimulus package, to $729,750 for high-cost areas. But that increase was set to expire at the end of this year, dropping the size of loans eligible for GSE and FHA funding to $625,500. The new measure stretches the run for the higher loan limit through December 31, 2010.