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| Mixed housing signals perplex market
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| Anyone searching for the dichotomy of economic indicators these days did not have far to search Tuesday: News broke that homes fell by the sharpest rate in decades while an equally sharp spark in consumer confidence sent the stock market roaring.
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| @ Sarasota Herald Tribune | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0201 EDST
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| The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™ Increases Sharply
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| The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™, which had improved considerably in April, posted another large gain in May. The Index now stands at 54.9 (1985=100), up from 40.8 in April. The Present Situation Index increased to 28.9 from 25.5 last month. The Expectations Index rose to 72.3 from 51.0 in April.
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| @ The Conference Board | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Tampa Bay housing prices down 40.6 percent from peak and still dropping
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| Since cresting in the summer of 2006, Tampa Bay area home prices have tumbled 40.6 percent and now approximate what they were in August 2003, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller home price index. Case-Shiller's housing report from March offered little encouragement that home prices were stabilizing. Tampa housing values plunged 22.4 percent from March 2008 to March 2009. From February to March, prices dipped 2.7 percent.
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| @ St. Petersburg Times | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0320 EDST
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| Orlando new-home backlog tops among big metro areas
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| Orlando has the biggest supply of vacant new homes of any major U.S. metropolitan area, according to a Metrostudy analysis of housing data from the markets it surveys nationwide. The four-county metro area has an 11.7-month supply of finished-but-empty residential properties, compared with a normal supply of one-and-a-half to three months for most major markets.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Florida's plan for renewables was a lot of wasted energy
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| A year of work by environmentalists and green companies to create a renewable-energy standard for Florida ultimately produced nothing.
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| @ Miami Herald | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Credit cards may go charging into the past
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| New regulations signed into law by Obama could bring back the tight access and low limits of the '50s.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Use Your IRA Funds to Buy Real Estate Now
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| It sounds almost too good to be true: IRA holders can use their retirement funds to purchase real estate before the age of retirement without incurring distribution taxes or penalties. And they can realize their real-estate investment profits tax-deferred in their retirement account.
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| @ Chicago Sun Times | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Chicago home prices show record yearly drop in March
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| Chicago home prices posted a record drop in March compared with the same month in 2008, according to Standard & Poor’s. Chicago-area prices fell 18.6 % in March compared with March 2008, a record year-to-year decrease, according to S&P. But local prices fell just 3.1 % in March compared with February after falling 3.4% in February compared with January.
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| @ Crain's Chicago Real Estate Daily | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Foregone Foreclosures
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| Some redefault rates may reach 75%. Fitch Ratings looked at mortgages bundled into securities between 2005 and 2007 and managed by some 30 mortgage companies. Fitch found that a conservative projection was that between 65% and 75% of modified subprime loans will fall delinquent by 60 days or more within 12 months of having been modified to keep the borrowers in their homes. This is an even worse result than previous reports by federal regulators. Even loans whose principal was reduced by as much as 20% were still redefaulting in a range of 30% to 40% after 12 months.
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| @ Wall Street Journal | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0646 EDST
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| Housing Hitting Bottom Means Fewest Starts Since 1945
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| The slump in the U.S. housing market that caused the median value of homes to decline 24 percent since 2006 may bottom next month without any prospect of a rebound for another year, according to estimates from chief economists at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Bankers Association and national realtors and homebuilder groups. Existing home sales probably won’t reach pre-boom levels until the third quarter of 2010 and housing starts won’t surpass 1 million until 2011, a barrier last broken six decades ago, the economists said.
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| @ Bloomberg News | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Unemployment at 8 Percent Is the New Normal as Growth Slows
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Americans may have to get used to unemployment greater than 8 percent for the first time since 1983 as potential economic growth slows from 3 percent to 2 percent. Lasting shifts in consumer spending and saving may crimp profits and productivity, economists say.
Editor's Comment: This is a good read.
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| @ Bloomberg News | Posted: 05/27/09 at 0655 EDST
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