Peter Viles of the L.A. Times blogs on Dataquick’s announcement that foreclosures are running 261% ahead of year ago levels.  If we just consider Notices of Default, the first stage in the foreclosure process, the volume is up a mere 124.9% from year-ago levels.
Although Dataquick is stating that we might be nearing a plateau, I [...]

George W. Bush believes “I’m not an economist, but I do believe we’re growing,” he said later, adding that the economy is “not growing the way it should.” from WaPo
Yet, Bernanke, who is an economist says “Weak retail sales and a rise in producer prices at their highest annual rate in 27 years provided further [...]

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announces:
“Many of today’s unusually high number of foreclosures are not preventable,” he said in prepared remarks to a mortgage-lending forum meeting in Arlington, Va. “There is little public policymakers can, or should, do to compensate for untenable financial decisions.”
from CNN
I applaud the decision to speak clearly about the foreclosure crisis and [...]

“Consumers and economists strongly disagree about which direction the economy is going.
Many economists are looking for at least a modest rebound in the second half of this year. That’s a key part of the reason the Federal Reserve is expected to end its nine-month course of rate cuts and keep rates steady Wednesday.
But 5,000 consumers [...]

From Business Week “Wachovia officials say the bank has hired Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs Group for advice on the bank’s loan portfolio.
Wachovia Corp. spokeswoman Christy Phillips-Brown said Tuesday the firm was hired to analyze the Charlotte-based bank’s loan portfolio and evaluate various alternatives. Phillips-Brown declined to comment further.
Wachovia is in the midst of [...]

We arrived in the Bay area and are staying with family in the area.  What I find hugely amusing is the property next door that is a listed bank owned property.  I haven’t looked at any comparable sales or historical sales for the property, I just find it interesting how close foreclosures strike to home.

I took a little trip in Southern California to visit some friends and we talked about real estate which is a topic often discussed since the turning of the market.  First friend had three bank owned properties listed in their neighborhood with one more on the way.  That’s out of a total of three listed [...]

When I included the “celebrity foreclosure” section, I thought it might have maybe one post a month in that section.  But now, Evander Holyfield’s $10 million dollar home appears to be headed for the auction block.  Story from CBS News This comes just one day after the news of Ed McMahon’s foreclosure, which kind of [...]

From the L.A. Times
The is the first installment in what is proposed as a four part series, and I think it will provide a needed insight into how foreclosure can occur to almost anyone.  There’s no whining about the big bad lenders, or complaints the homeowners just needed the market to hang on a little [...]

There’s quite a bit of information on the internet talking about how the whole real estate market is on it’s way to a total collapse.  Well, maybe nobody says it’s a total collapse, but the implication is that if you buy you’ll lose everything, your children will be homeless and you’ll never recover anything you’ve [...]