| Check out our NEW service - www.REDNRADIO.Com
|
| REDN Internet Radio is where we provide editorial commentary with streaming audio to the Real Estate Daily News. We are just starting the service so your comments are REALLY appreciated. Click the SCHEDULE LINK. You can either TWEET us back, or if you have more to say than 140 characters, please email Earl J. Niemoth / or, call us back - 941/966-9746. Thanks.
|
|
| Click here for yesterday's / today's market indices
|
|
| Wave of home defaults wanes in region
|
| The steady stream of foreclosures in the region eased from February to March in Manatee and Charlotte counties, while Sarasota's foreclosure rate rose 14 percent, but only to a level nearly even with the same time last year.
|
| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0201 EDST
|
| Evidence of life in Sarasota County home sales
|
| In a potential preview of next week's existing home sales, Sarasota Realtors say they sold 353 single-family homes and 128 condominiums. Sales were up 33 percent from February and at the highest level of the year. In another good sign, pending sales -- those under contract but not yet consummated -- numbered 817 last month. The last time pending sales in the Sarasota market climbed to that level was March 2006. The 817 was 21 percent higher than this time last year. The pending-sales level has risen above 500 homes for the 15th consecutive month.
|
| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0400 EDST
|
| Foreclosures continue to rise in South Florida
|
| Foreclosure filings in Miami-Dade and Broward counties rose last month, as lenders lifted moratoriums after learning the details of new homeowner rescue initiatives announced by the federal government. Filings were up 15 percent over last year, but jumped 50 percent from February. In all, one in every 182 homes in the county were affected by the foreclosure process.
|
| @ Miami Herald | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0415 EDST
|
| Illinois jobless rate rises to 9.1%
|
| A worsening U.S. economy pushed Illinois joblessness half a percentage point higher in March, to 9.1 percent—a rate the state hasn't seen since November 1985. Illinois employers chopped 39,300 workers from their payrolls last month, and the result was the sixth consecutive monthly increase in the state's unemployment rate. The state's unemployment rate surpasses the nation's 8.5 percent , but Illinois remains below the levels of Michigan (at 12.0 percent) and a handful of others.
|
| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0315 EDST
|
| Backlog causes Cook County (Chicago) to delay some foreclosure actions
|
| Cook County Circuit Court is delaying foreclosure actions against some homeowners as it tries to work through an ever-growing backlog of cases. Chancery Division Presiding Judge Dorothy Kirie Kinnaird notified judges and attorneys April 1 that all mortgage default calls ? those first court appearances made by a lender when a borrower has not responded to a foreclosure action ? would be canceled for July and August
|
| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0320 EDST
|
| Consumer prices in Chicago area tumble again, most in 49 years
|
| Your buck went further in March. Consumer prices in the Chicago metropolitan area dropped 1.9 percent during the month from a year earlier, the biggest decline in more than 49 years, the U.S. Labor Department said Wednesday. "Energy prices were the big player," said department spokesman Paul LaPorte. Gas prices were down 37.9 percent year-over-year, and utility-piped gas service was down 33.1 percent, he said. Those declines helped offset a 3.7 percent rise in food and beverages. That category saw a 6 percent spike in prices paid for restaurant food and a 2.1 percent rise in grocery prices.
|
| @ Chicago Sun Times | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0330 EDST
|
| General Growth blames credit crisis, not shopping slowdown
|
| The meltdown in financial markets, not the deep slump in the retail industry, brought General Growth Properties Inc. to its knees Thursday. Unlike many struggling corporations that have been battered by a collapse in sales, the Chicago-based real estate investment trust continues to oversee a relatively stable business collecting rents at its roughly 200 shopping malls, including Water Tower Place on Michigan Avenue and Northbrook Court in north suburban Northbrook.
|
| @ Crain's Chicago Real Estate Daily | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0345 EDST
|
| Building permit issuance down substantially in March.
|
| Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 513,000. This is 9.0 percent below the revised February rate of 564,000 and is 45.0 percent below the March 2008 estimate of 932,000. Single-family authorizations in March were at a rate of 361,000; this is 7.4 percent below the revised February figure of 390,000.
|
| @ U. S. Census Bureau | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0419 EDST
|
|
|
| Costa Rican economy contracts for 5th straight month
|
| The monthly Economic Activity Index (IMAE) report for the month of March, released this week by the Central Bank (BCCR), showed a slowdown in production for the fifth month in a row. The report indicated a 5.1 percent contraction in economic activity during February compared to the same month last year. The manufacturing industry continues to be the most affected sector in the nation, registering a 17.3 percent contraction in productivity since November 2008. The sector has been shrinking for the last 15 months.
|
| @ Tico Times Costa Rica | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0646 EDST
|
| Under funding of housing program is the real problem for affordable housing in the Bahamas
|
| The government laid out planned changes to housing legislation meant to lower the threshold Bahamians must cross to achieve home ownership and to access government-guaranteed mortgages. The measures include reducing the downpayment requirement to five percent of the purchase price from the current seven; streamlining the vetting process; and increasing the assessed value cap on eligible properties to $250k. The last represents almost a 50-percent jump from the present ceiling.
|
| @ Nassau Guardian | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0652 EDST
|
| The devil finds work for idle lands... in Jamaica
|
| Any politician who claims not to have known the extent of the phenomenon of adverse possession, more popularly known as squatting, should really just go away. For this particular social issue, which has generated formidable volumes of case law and is governed by detailed legislation in jurisdictions the world over, is as old as the hills. In Jamaica, the Limitation of Actions Act, which dates back to 1881, limits to 12 years the time within which a private landowner who has left his property idle can repossess it from a squatter.
In the case of lands owned by the Crown, the cap is 60 years.
|
| @ Jamaica Observer | Posted: 04/17/09 at 0655 EDST
|
| -30- |
