From Low-Ball to Multiple Bidders: Realtors See a Turn
By Kenneth R. Harney, Washington Post, April 19, 2012

It’s not something that economists routinely track, but it provides a rough sense of what’s happening in local real estate markets. Call it the low-ball index.

Raines: Don’t Blame Homeowners
By Alan Zibel, Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2012

The former chief executive of Fannie Mae, in a rare public appearance Friday, argued that government policies weren’t the main cause of the housing bust, and that the government shouldn’t stop pushing to expand home ownership.

Miami Home Prices Increase for a Fourth Straight Month
By Dan Levy, Bloomberg, April 20, 2012

Home prices in the Miami area rose for a fourth straight month in March as fewer condominiums and houses came to market and distressed properties accounted for a smaller share of deals. Condo prices in Miami-Dade County jumped 46 percent from a year earlier to a median $141,700, the Miami Association of Realtors said yesterday in a statement. Single-family home prices gained 13 percent to $180,000.

O.C. Homebuilder Randall Presley Dead at 93
Jeff Collins, Orange County Register, April 21, 2012

Orange County homebuilding pioneer Randall E. Presley died April 12 at Hoag Hospital from complications arising from pneumonia, his family announced last week. He was 93.

NY Foreclosures Are Likely to Jump
By John Byrne, New York Post, April 21, 2012

New Yorkers are starting to feel remarkably positive about real estate, pollsters say, despite dire predictions of a shocking new wave of local foreclosures. “Although it appears the housing market is improving, in the second and third quarters of 2012, the hard numbers will reflect a spike in foreclosures,” warned Jon Maddux, CEO of YouWalkAway.com, a California outfit that counsels homeowners on mortgage default

Report estimates 8 million children hurt by foreclosures
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY, April 19, 2012

Five years into the foreclosure crisis, an estimated 2.3 million children have lived in homes lost to foreclosure, according to a report from First Focus, a Washington, D.C-based bipartisan advocacy group focused on families.

INLAND: Blacks especially hit by foreclosure crisis
By David Olson, The Press-Enterprise, April 18, 2012

Newly released census statistics show how the Inland area’s foreclosure crisis has hit African-Americans especially hard, wiping out years of increases in black homeownership rates.

Can short sales save the day? Promises, promises
By Jessica Huseman, HousingWire, April 18, 2012

Short sales seem to be the talk of the town lately. With the announcement that Fannie and Freddie will require servicers to comply to new timelines, and recent commentary buzzing about short sales being the housing market’s knight in shining armor, it’s hard to miss them.

The White House and Mortgage Fraud: So Far It's All Talk, No Action
By Richard Eskow, Huffington Post, April 19, 2012

The Obama Administration worked for months on a deal that would have let America's biggest banks off the hook for a crime wave of runaway mortgage fraud. All they had to do in return was pledge a negligible sum of money, to be paid by their shareholders and not themselves, and which they would dispense themselves. In return, crooked bankers received immunity from prosecution - and even from investigation.

U.S. Previously Owned Home Sales Unexpectedly Fell in March
By Lorraine Woellert, Bloomberg, April 19, 2012

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes in March unexpectedly fell for the third time in the last four months, showing an uneven recovery in the housing market.

Democrats delay California mortgage overhaul amid business opposition
By Jon Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee, April 17, 2012

Amid raucous boos and hisses from a packed hearing room gallery, an Assembly committee on Monday suddenly pulled two mortgage reform bills sponsored by Attorney General Kamala Harris – just before she was supposed to testify.

Short Sales Surpass Foreclosures as Banks Agree to Deals
By John Gittelsohn, Bloomberg, April 17, 2012

The number of U.S. home short sales surpassed foreclosure deals for the first time as banks became more agreeable to selling houses for less than the amount owed on their mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS).

New Md. laws affecting property tax credits, foreclosures, ground rent (and possibly you)
By Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun, April 16, 2012

A grab bag of housing-related legislation passed in the Maryland General Assembly's recently completed session. Here are the highlights:

Coakley pushes for law offering mortgage aid
By Jenifer B. McKim, The Boston Globe, April 17, 2012

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Monday a new federal study showing more troubled homeowners are staying in their homes after their mortgages are adjusted demonstrates that Massachusetts should require lenders to consider such workouts before seizing a residence.

Foreclosures' power may be ebbing
By Purva Patel, The Houston Chronicle, April 16, 2012

Foreclosures weighed on the housing market last year, dragging down prices in some neighborhoods.

March housing starts fall, new permits surge
By Jason Lange, Reuters, April 17, 2012

Groundbreaking on homes fell unexpectedly in March but permits for future construction rose to their highest level in 3-1/2 years, giving a mixed message for one of the economy's weaker sectors.

Some Observations on the Second Lien Problem
By Matt Stoller, Naked Capitalism, April 12, 2012

Over the past three years, the big four servicers have been keeping hundreds of billions of dollars of second mortgages on their books (mostly in the form of Home Equity Lines of Credit, or HELOCs).  Many of these mortgages would seem effectively worthless, because a home equity line of credit or second mortgage on top of an already deeply underwater first mortgage has no value.  You can’t use it to foreclose, because you’d get nothing out of the foreclosure – all of that would go to the first mortgage holder (usually some investor in a pension fund somewhere).

California Declares War on Suburbia
By Wendell Cox, Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2012

It's no secret that California's regulatory and tax climate is driving business investment to other states. California's high cost of living also is driving people away. Since 2000 more than 1.6 million people have fled, and my own research as well as that of others points to high housing prices as the principal factor. The exodus is likely to accelerate. California has declared war on the most popular housing choice, the single family, detached home—all in the name of saving the planet.

Flood of Foreclosures to Hit the Housing Market
By Les Christie, CNNMoney, April 13, 2012

The golden age for foreclosure squatters may soon be coming to an end now that the $26 billion mortgage settlement has been approved. The settlement, agreed to by the nation's five largest mortgage lenders, is expected to speed up the foreclosure process by providing stricter guidelines for the banks to follow when repossessing homes.

IMF Chief Lagarde Calls for U.S. Mortgage Relief
By Howard Schneider, Washington Post, April 12, 2012

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde called on the U.S. government to reduce the mortgage debt owed by homeowners as a way help to revive the nation’s economy and stimulate growth in the wider industrialized world. Speaking Thursday at the Brookings Institution, Lagarde urged that this relief be extended to loans held by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The issue of whether to reduce mortgages held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, representing more than half of U.S. home loans, has become contentious in Washington in recent months.

Is Wells Fargo Doing Enough To Maintain Foreclosures?
By Alan Zibel, Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2012

Wells Fargo & Co. has made progress in cleaning up its finances since the housing market went bust. But is the banking giant doing enough to clean up the foreclosed homes it owns? A housing-advocacy group — National Fair Housing Alliance — filed a complaint with the U.S. government on Tuesday alleging that Wells Fargo did a shoddy job of maintaining foreclosed homes in low-income, minority neighborhoods while keeping properties in affluent areas in better shape. The group evaluated 218 foreclosed properties owned by Wells Fargo in eight cities as part of a study released earlier this month.

Look To U.S. In The 1930s For Housing Policy, IMF Says
By Sudeep Reddy, Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2012

The International Monetary Fund offered some friendly advice Tuesday to U.S. policymakers continuing to grapple with housing-sector trouble: Look to the Great Depression. The IMF, in a section of its World Economic Outlook released Tuesday, called for “bold” policies around the world to cut household mortgage debt in the wake of falling home prices

US Gov't To Propose New Mortgage Lending Rules
By Derek Kravitz, Associated Press, April 11, 2012

The federal government proposed new rules on Tuesday that will give homeowners more ways to avoid foreclosure and get an accurate accounting of their monthly mortgage payments. Congress mandated changes in the rules covering the mortgage servicing industry in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposed rules would require mortgage servicers to give all borrowers standardized monthly statements and warn borrowers about interest rate or insurance change.

DeMarco Says Principal Writedowns May Save FHFA $1.7 Billion
By Clea Benson and Cheyenne Hopkins, Bloomberg, April 10, 2012

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could save $1.7 billion if they forgave principal on some troubled mortgages, the companies’ regulator said today in Washington. The Federal Housing Finance Agency may make a decision “in the next few weeks” about whether to change its policy barring the two taxpayer-owned companies from performing such loan modifications, Edward J. DeMarco, the agency’s acting director, said in a speech at the Brookings Institution