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Posted
Jan 17 2008, 11:29 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Paul Navone is one of those quiet millionaires next door. His friends had no idea he had money until he started giving it away -- $1 million to a college and another $1 million to a prep school. The 78-year-old retiree never made more than $11 an hour while working in the New Jersey mills, according to a story by Joe Logan in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and to this day Navone buys his clothing at thrift stores, and doesn't have a TV or a phone.
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Posted
May 20 2009, 03:35 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The housing market and housing starts are still facing deep and intractable problems. Mortgage rates may be low, but bank standards for home loans are higher. No financial firm wants to be stuck owning more houses that have been foreclosed upon. Developers won’t build what they cannot sell.
Homes are also less likely to sell in the future as unemployment rises toward 10%. If joblessness goes into the double digits and stays there for several quarters, a recovery of the housing market will be nearly impossible.
The only group that seems to have confidence in a recovery in housing prices is vulture investors who are taking advantage of home values that have dropped 50% to 60% in some markets. According to The Wall Street Journal, the vultures often go house-to-house looking for the best prospects. The paper writes that “some are spending their days looking for deals in far-flung suburbs and staking out courthouse auctions.”
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Posted
Jun 30 2009, 12:25 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's official: California is broke.
For months, the most populous U.S. state has been in the throes of a historic budget crisis, as lawmakers have repeatedly failed to agree on how to resolve a $24 billion deficit.
What was once the country's richest state is preparing to issue IOUs to a host of creditors, according to the Financial Times. Among the dubious recipients of these IOUs: contractors, information-technology companies and food-service groups that cater to prisons. Funding for education and interest payments on its bonds are guaranteed by state law.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking a hard line with legislators, accusing them of offering up a piecemeal solution to the state's woes: "I will veto any majority tax increase bill that punishes taxpayers for Sacramento's failure to live within its means. It's time for the Legislature to send me a budget that solves our entire deficit without raising taxes," the Governator said Monday.
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Posted
Dec 15 2008, 05:05 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
What's the best route as you near retirement: Use extra money to pay off the mortgage or pad your investments? That question deserves a new look in light of the economic events of 2008, argues Mr. GoTo, a baby boomer and blogger who comes down on the side of paying off the house. The No. 1 reason: A guaranteed rate of return of 6% (or whatever your mortgage rate is) tax-free. "Compare that to what we have experienced in the markets recently," Mr. GoTo says.
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Posted
Nov 14 2008, 05:12 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
"Miss M" at M is for Money has a sense of humor about her predicament. She called her post "If my house is underwater, where is my ocean view?" This post will help people who live where housing prices are reasonable and stable -- yes, these places exist -- to understand how others could owe more on their homes than they're worth. For those of you who have firsthand experience with this problem, maybe you won't feel so all alone.
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Posted
Apr 16 2009, 02:00 PM
by
Andrew Horowitz
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 It appears we are on an unstoppable journey toward higher foreclosures and delinquency levels than we have seen in decades. The change over the last few months has been startling, and the East Coast states are holding many of the top positions, with Rhode Island leading the list during the past few months.
We have seen the 90+ day delinquency rate for properties go from a weighted average of 0.09% in May of 2007 to 0.25% in May 2008. Now it's edging toward 1%. But the problem is really with the worst areas, seen below.
Commercial Real Estate Delinquencies as of 4/2009
- Rhode Island 3.58%
- Montana 2.65%
- Florida 2.48%
- Indiana 2.45%
- South Carolina 2.38%
- Arizona 2.32%
- Michigan 2.10%
- Nevada 2.04%
- Tennessee 2.02%
- Hawaii 1.78%
Foreclosure rates are also moving higher as such states as Michigan, Nevada and Georgia all approach 1% this month. It is getting so bad that
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Posted
Jun 10 2009, 04:00 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Housing inventory came down a bit in May, but not enough to put a real foundation on faltering home prices. ZipRealty reported “the supply of homes available for sale in 28 major metropolitan areas at the end of May was down 3.9% from a month earlier.”
ZipRealty figures do not include many houses in foreclosure because banks have not put all of them on the market.
The slight improvement in home inventory is misleading. There is no evidence that home prices have stopped falling. Government figures show that even homeowners who renegotiate mortgage payments to lower amount end up defaulting in record numbers. Unemployment is likely to hit 10% by Labor Day and many economists expect it to stay at that level into next year. Rising joblessness almost certainly means more abandonment of homes.
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Posted
Jul 16 2008, 04:20 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. If you are in the market to buy your first or next home, a HUD home could potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars on the purchase price. But there are some things to watch out for. In this article, we'll cover the basics of buying a HUD foreclosure home and some tips on getting the lowest possible price.
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Posted
Mar 06 2009, 01:50 PM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The housing market is a mess, and I have a feeling that we'll be seeing criminal fallout from shady deals coming to light for a long time. For investigators it will be like playing real estate Whac-A-Mole -- if all the moles popped up at the same time. One area that seems like it will be ripe with ne'er-do-wells is the real estate appraisal industry. Though I imagine most appraisers stuck with the conventions of the industry (even though I'm not sure I agree with those conventions), many mortgage fraud schemes wouldn't have gotten off the ground in the first place without an appraiser that would play along. Why do I bring this up? Even with all the other shenanigans going on out there -- Citigroup, Bank of America, John Thain, Bernie Madoff -- the story of this convicted appraiser jumped out at me. Read More...
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Posted
Jul 20 2008, 10:47 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Do you want to purchase a Cape Cod with an asphalt front yard and an abundance of broken beer bottles and cigarette butts all about? Please, please buy this house and become the new neighbor of "Brainy Smurf," the blogger at Pants in a Can. You can't be any worse than the people who have the house up for sale. You'd think the very existence of these people would be enough to drive property values down (although, due to other factors, Brainy's property taxes have gone up).
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