Deadline Newsroom Feed 11/2/07

Compiled by Broderick Perkins
© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

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Deadline Newsroom Feed – DeadlineNews.Com offers a look at all the news that really hit home last week, as well as coverage outside the Deadline Newsroom. More media bashing. Daylight saving time alert. Quake alert. More vacant homes. Fewer homeowners. Fewer jumbos. More home price declines. Phones ringing off the hook at the foreclosure prevention hotlines. Only renters get relief, but not much. Whew. Another rough week. A single pinpoint of brightness: mortgage rates are lower than they been since the spring -- provided you can qualify.

FROM THE DEADLINE NEWSROOM

Media Still Not Responsible For Housing WoesDeadline Newsroom – Implications the media is somehow to blame for the state of the housing market generates the mental image of a blind weasel doing the Shuffle.

Renters Get A Breather
Deadline Newsroom – Renters who signed contracts in the third quarter may have made out better than those who moved in earlier this year.

Goodbye Daylight Saving Time
Deadline Newsroom – Daylight Saving Time for Dummies.

Quake Alert: Secure Household Items
Deadline Newsroom – Even moderate quakes can turn household items into deadly missiles. Here's how to reduce the chance your stuff will turn against you in a quake.

Wildfire!
• SoCal Wildfire Victims Get Tax Relief
Deadline Newsroom – Southern California's wildfire victims now have some tax relief in the form of extensions on their federal tax return filing and payment deadlines and waivers of certain penalties and fees.

• California Fire Victims Obtain Fast Housing, Disaster AssistanceDeadline Newsroom – The new National Housing Locator got its first test under fire just weeks after it was launched to solve past shortcomings in disaster-related housing relief.

Deadline Newsroom's Haunted House Series
• Spooky Season For Under-Insured Homeowners
• Ghosts Have To Live Somewhere
• Do You See Dead People? Disclose It!

© 2007 DeadlineNews.Com

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property - Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime

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News from elsewhere...

CONSUMER

60,000 Calls To One Foreclosure Hotline
A national foreclosure prevention awareness campaign answered 60,000 calls in the third quarter of this year. This is double the amount received in the previous quarter and ten times the amount answered in the same quarter of 2006.

Can't Get Enough Subprime News?
The Subprime Newsroom provides the latest news and information about the federal and state policy issues aimed at addressing the growing number of subprime borrowers facing foreclosure.

A Lasting Simulated Life
Deadline Newsroom – Before there were avatars and Second Life and other sorted virtual realty realities, The Sims lived, loved and sometimes loathed in homes and communities you developed.

FINANCE

Jumbo Loans Still Scarce In High-Cost Areas
California prices could plunge 35 percent, costing $2.6 trillion in lost wealth due to buyers with the very best credit having a difficult time getting jumbos.

Mortgage Rates Near Six Month Low
Freddie Mac said the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.26 percent for the week ending November 1, 2007. The 30-year FRM has not been this low since the week ending May 17, 2007, when it averaged 6.21 percent.

Safeguarding Your Mortgage Application Takes Commonsense
Resist the urge to going go on a buying spree. Your credit will thank you.

US Home Foreclosures Doubled in the Third Quarter
Adjustable-rate mortgages to subprime borrowers accounted for 7.3 percent of all home loans and 44 percent of all new foreclosures, the Mortgage Bankers said.

Subprime Blame Game
Mueller says a rule that would more closely match the interests of those who facilitate home loans with those who take them is a good thing.

MARKET MELTDOWN

Starkest Signs Yet Of Severe Housing Market Meltdown
More vacant homes and fewer homeowners are the starkest signs yet of the severity of the damage in the housing market caused by speculation, overbuilding and rising foreclosures.

Further Weakening in Home Prices According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
Data through August 2007, released today by Standard & Poor's for its S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show further declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States, marking the 8th consecutive month of negative annual returns and the 21st consecutive month of decelerating returns.


Bubbles Seen as Good for Economy
Hang in there, business columnist Daniel Gross tells the Urban Land Institute's annual fall meeting in Las Vegas. The recovery may not be in sight, he says, but it will come and the net result could be good for everyone. Lew Sichelman has the details.

Record California Foreclosure Activity
Lenders started formal foreclosure proceedings on a record number of California homeowners last quarter, the result of declining home prices, sluggish sales and subprime mortgage distress, a real estate information service reported.

Haunted Housing Market: Be Afraid
Which brings us to our main point: The housing bust has NOT hit bottom. The nightmare scenario has come true. This is the worst real estate slump since ...

DeadlineNews.Com: 'Best Repurposing Of A Realty Journalist'
"Fun, credible, astute and up to date."

TRENDS/COMMENTARY

NIMBY Nation
Recent polls show that anti-development sentiment is stronger than ever, with 75 percent of Americans opposing new development in their communities.

The Most Sedentary Cities In America
Americans across the country suffer from unhealthy diets and too little exercise, but these cities' residents are the worst offenders.

Think About Site And Climate Before Approving Projects
In response to the latest Southern California wildfires, site locations and climate must be more carefully considered by the people who build and approve subdivisions.

BUSINESS/COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

Who's In Your Pocket Now? The Foxtons' Bankruptcy
After blowing through approximately $62 million in private investors' money, plus another $40 million from Foxtons' CEO Jon Hunt, New Jersey-based "full-service discount" broker Foxtons declared bankruptcy on October 5, 2007.

The Holidays Are Upon Us. Is Your Housing Client, Professional or Friend On The List? St. Joseph The Home Seller kits. Clock houses. Monopoly. House warming gifts. Come 'n' get 'em.

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Broderick Perkins, an award-winning consumer journalist of 30 years, is publisher and executive editor of San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews.Com, a real estate news and consulting service, and the new Deadline Newsroom, DeadlineNews.Com's new backshop. In both cases, it's where all the news really hits home.

DeadlineNews.Com's Editorial Content Is Intellectual Property - Unauthorized Use Is A Federal Crime