_Economy and Finance

Houston Makes Top 5 as Boom Lures Foreigners: Real Estate By Dan Levy - Mar 26, 2013 International real estate investors are falling in love with Houston, a fast-expanding energy hub that’s luring buyers from Toronto to Tel Aviv seeking properties with lower costs and higher returns than buildings in the priciest U.S. cities. Firms from outside the U.S. acquired $2.83 billion of Houston (OFCRAHOU) office buildings in the past three years, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc. They were the largest net buyers of any investor class, spending four times more than U.S. real estate investment trusts, which ranked second. Last year, Houston for the first time was among the top five global cities in an annual survey by the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate that dates back to 1994. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-26/houston-makes-top-5-as-boom-lures-foreigners-real-estate.html

Home Short Sales Increase as Banks ‘More Realistic’ on Market By Dan Levy - Aug 24, 2011 08:01 PM U.S. homes nearing foreclosure accounted for 12 percent of total sales in the second quarter as banks agreed to more transactions at prices below the outstanding mortgage balance, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

Homeowner Associations in Need of Cash Sue to Force Foreclosures By John Gittelsohn - Aug 23, 2011 08:01 PM Members of the Vintage East Condominium Association in Miami Beach got tired of waiting for JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to foreclose on unit 9, so they sued the bank in February to take control of the property.

Baby Boomers Selling Shares May Depress Stocks for Decades, Fed Paper Says By Vivien Lou Chen - Aug 22, 2011 12:20 PM Aging baby boomers may hold down U.S. stock values for the next two decades as they sell their investments to finance retirement, according to researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Mortgage Payments One Month Late Jump as Economy Weakens By Kathleen M. Howley - Aug 22, 2011 07:20 AM The percentage of U.S. mortgages overdue by one month rose to the highest level in a year in the second quarter as homeowners who lost jobs were unable to make their payments.

Related News: Bloomberg, Real Estate, U.S., Personal Finance Mortgage Rates in U.S. Tumble to Lowest in More Than 50 Years By Prashant Gopal - Aug 18, 2011 08:00 AM U.S. mortgage rates fell to the lowest in more than half a century as concern that the global economic recovery is faltering spurred demand for bonds that guide home loans, according to Freddie Mac.

Related News: Bloomberg, Finance, Real Estate, US, Personal Finance Bank Delays May Push 1 Million U.S. Foreclosure Filings to 2012 By Dan Levy - Jul 14, 2011 1:00 PM GMT+0900 Lender delays in processing home- loan defaults will push as many as 1 million U.S. foreclosure filings from this year to 2012 or beyond, casting an “ominous shadow” on the housing market, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

Fed Data Cruncher Finding No New Normal Unemployment Nationwide By Vivien Lou Chen - Jul 11, 2011 8:01 AM GMT+0900 Mary Daly holds up two charts containing 33 bars that all point down. They show eight industries getting hit equally hard after the 18-month recession ended in June 2009, suggesting that much of the past two years’ high unemployment is broad-based and should dissipate as the economy improves.

Related News: Finance · Real Estate · U.S. · Personal Finance Banks Say Simpler Mortgage Form Could ‘Stifle’ New Products By Carter Dougherty - May 18, 2011 1:00 PM GMT+0900 For Elizabeth Warren, the Obama administration adviser setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, simpler mortgage paperwork is a “regulatory sweet spot” that will cut lender costs and borrower confusion.

MONEY |MARCH 1, 2011, 3:37 P.M. ET Bernanke: Fed Ready to Tackle Inflation if Necessary Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday the U.S. central bank is ready to respond as necessary to a surge in global commodity prices caused in part by unrest in the Middle East, though he said inflation expectations remain low.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS |AUGUST 21, 2010 Rethinking Gold: What if It Isn't a Commodity After All? This won't sit well with some people: Gold isn't a commodity. There. I've said it.