News archive about rentals and rent to own in Columbus, Ohio at sunskitehomes.com

* More investment bubbles forming? – NJ Record & Herald News
12/31/2009 It doesn't seem to matter to many hedge fund traders and other professional investors that the Standard & Poor's 500 index has turned in its first losing performance over the course of a decade, having fallen 23 percent from 1,469.25 at the start of 2000 to its current 1,126.20.

* New bailout in housing aims for stability – Columbus Dispatch
12/31/2009 The government's Christmas Eve pledge of unlimited financial aid to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is aimed at making sure the housing market doesn't take another turn for the worse and cause the economic recovery to unravel. This insurance policy taken out by the Treasury Department will help keep mortgage rates low.

* Time line: The slow collapse of Fannie, Freddie – San Francisco Chronicle
12/30/2009 Key events in the government's rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:

* Boost for Fannie, Freddie may pump housing – Columbus Dispatch
12/29/2009 The government's decision to provide unlimited support to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac probably presages more aggressive action to prop up the U.S. housing market. The government may put a mortgage-modification effort, called the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, into overdrive in coming years, pushing for reductions in the principal outstanding on home loans overseen by Fannie and Freddie, according to a note that Bose George, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, wrote yesterday to investors.

* Commercial real estate foreclosures more than double in Austin area – Austin American-Statesman
12/28/2009 Commercial real estate foreclosures more than doubled in the Austin metropolitan area in 2009, outpacing the rates of several other major Texas cities. A study of foreclosure postings by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. indicated a 108 percent increase from 2008 in commercial real estate foreclosures in the Austin area.

* Military Personnel Receive Federal Help on Short Sales – realestate.yahoo.com
12/27/2009 Members of the military who find themselves in a short-sale situation now have a new tool via the Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) through the Department of Defense (DoD). Congress expanded HAP when they passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009; and now nearly every military personnel involved in a short sale can get financial help through HAP if they find themselves upside down when they must sell because of a mandatory permanent transfer.

* Banking industry in for another rough year – Richmond Times-Dispatch
12/27/2009 This month, Virginia saw its first bank go belly up since the financial markets turned upside down a year ago -- and more failures are likely. Greater Atlantic Bank, a federally chartered thrift institution in Reston, was taken over by regulators Dec. 4 because of rising losses on commercial real estate loans, a scenario that could be replayed over and over this coming year.

* County program fights off foreclosures – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
12/26/2009 Fighting off foreclosure can be difficult, but Sheets and 644 other Allegheny County residents have been able to do it this year with the help of the county courts and sheriff. They started a program to slow the foreclosure process, forcing lenders to better communicate with borrowers and their advocates, leading to hundreds of renegotiations.

* Homeownership may fall – Buffalo News
12/25/2009 The rate of homeownership in the United States might fall in coming years as households rebuild equity wiped out by the worst slump since the Great Depression, according to a study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

* Hard-working mother, daughters get Habitat house in Hanover – Richmond Times-Dispatch
12/25/2009 Jill Tribble has put a big red bow on the arch where her front door's going to be. Soon after Christmas, the hard-working mother of two is getting a present thanks to Hanover Habitat for Humanity and the U.S. Department of Agriculture: her own home.

* Wells Fargo, Citigroup complete TARP repayment – Denver Post
12/24/2009 Wells Fargo & Co. and Citi group Inc. unwrapped their Christmas presents to themselves Wednesday: They both repaid their government aid, escaping heightened regulatory and public scrutiny. Wells Fargo said it completed its $25 billion repayment, and Citi followed with its announcement that it wired $20 billion and tore up guarantees it received from the U.S. government for losses stemming from securities tied to soured mortgages.

* Rents rising, vacancy rates falling in R.I. – Providence Journal
12/23/2009 Apartment rents in Rhode Island have risen in the last year and vacancy rates have fallen, according to federal tabulations. The apparent strength of the rental market is the result of the foreclosure and mortgage crises that have rocked the housing market, according to experts.

* Fund Boss Made $7 Billion in the Panic – Wall Street Journal
12/22/2009 In this comeback year for investors, David Tepper may have scored one of the biggest paydays of all. Mr. Tepper's hedge-fund firm has racked up about $7 billion of profit so far this year—with Mr. Tepper on track to earn more than $2.5 billion for himself, according to people familiar with the matter. That is among the largest one-year takes in recent years. Behind the wins: a bet worth billions of dollars that America would avoid a repeat of the Great Depression.

* November home sales soar 7.4% – LA Times
12/22/2009 Home resales surged last month to the highest level in nearly three years, reflecting an extraordinary level of federal support that has pulled the housing market back from the worst downturn since the Great Depression. Buyers were racing to complete their sales before the original expiration date of a tax credit for first-time buyers that was scheduled to expire Nov. 30. Last month, Congress decided to extend and expand the credit to ensure the housing market could sustain its recovery.

* Move-Down Buyers Can Be Eligible For Tax Credit Too – realestate.yahoo.com
12/21/2009 Move up, move down, move sideways; it just doesn't matter. Whichever direction you move, financially, you may still qualify for the new tax credit available to current homeowners. It is unfortunate that the credit has too often been characterized as a credit for "move-up" homeowners. The phrase carries the implication that the new home must cost more than the sale price of the former one. Indeed, even the November 6 White House Press Release said that the credit would be available to qualified homeowners who "wish to step up to a new home." Same implication. So, it is worth emphasizing that the credit is equally available to homeowners who are moving down, cost-wise.

* Commercial real estate on shaky foundation – San Francisco Chronicle
12/20/2009 Fears of a commercial real estate mortgage meltdown are bolstered by persistent unemployment, which has led to office and retail vacancies, rising commercial loan default rates and hundreds of bank failures - including two in the Bay Area in recent months. A wave of commercial mortgage foreclosures would probably translate to more empty storefronts and offices, decreased municipal property tax revenue and fewer bank loans available to start and expand businesses.

* Successful Investing: Tread lightly in 2010; plan an emergency fund – Richmond Times-Dispatch
12/20/2009 The good news of the past year was that the global economic system did not crumble altogether and a hundred new Bernie Madoffs did not suddenly surface. Stocks finally give investors something to grin about as the average U.S. diversified stock fund rose more than 25 percent. The bad news was high unem ployment, an uncertain economy, home foreclosures and a citizenry apprehensive about all things financial. Those negatives will linger into 2010, making it a year to tread lightly but carry a big emergency account.

* Real-estate bottom is not when things appear to be better – Miami Herald
12/20/2009 We look back at the end of 2009 and see a fractured South Florida real-estate market. Last year it was all one market, one trend. A strong downturn in volumes and prices throughout 2008 and very early 2009 impacted all types of properties in practically all locations. Then things started to get more interesting. The lower end, single-family market -- breaming with foreclosures and short sales -- began to attract investors. A number of federal and local stimulus efforts began to attract first-time home buyers. As the year is drawing to a close, that segment of the market is showing signs of frothiness once again. Flips are common, practically all financing is done by or with the assistance of federal money, and no-money-down deals are, again, the norm. Seller contributions are part of almost all transactions.

* The Nation’s Housing: Agency would protect homeowners, borrowers – Richmond Times-Dispatch
12/19/2009 Had there been a federal watchdog consumer-protection agency on duty during the early years of this decade, could it have prevented the housing boom and bust that put millions of homeowners into foreclosure and sucked trillions of dollars of equity wealth from just about everybody else? Nobody can answer that question. But when the House passed the massive Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on Dec. 11, Congress took the first step toward creating a national watchdog for homebuyers and mortgage borrowers for any future boom cycles.

* 'Shadow inventory' looms for housing – Columbus Dispatch
12/18/2009 About 1.7 million homeowners were on the verge of foreclosure in the fall, a looming "shadow inventory" of homes that will be put up for sale in the coming years and will weigh down prices, a report said yesterday. The number, up from 1.1 million a year earlier, is likely to keep rising at least through the middle of next year, said Mark Fleming, chief economist of First American CoreLogic, the real-estate research firm that released the study.

* Federal government 'Realtors'?: Feds want to sell you a home – Palm Beach Post
12/17/2009 Sales are brisk for South Florida homes hawked by the federal government in the wake of the Great Recession. Uncle Sam and two government-sponsored companies are unloading property, from waterside mansions to burned-out shells, often at fire-sale prices 10 percent to 20 percent below market value. The wave of foreclosed property in distressed regions like South Florida has forced the government, along with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, to become major movers of real estate to clear a growing inventory of empty homes.

* Refinancing still eludes many – Columbus Dispatch
12/16/2009 Mortgage rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels since the 1940s, thanks to a trillion-dollar intervention by the federal government. Yet the banks that once handed out home loans freely are imposing such stringent requirements that many homeowners who might want to refinance are effectively locked out.

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Last updated Jan. 15 2010.