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| Homebuyers find happiness in Lee County
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| Since December 2007, the median monthly sales price has been within a minimum of 91 percent of the median monthly list price. In fact, that ratio has often been much higher, hitting 98.24 percent in March and 101.13 percent in April. The trend is being driven by the explosion of "distressed properties" - foreclosures and short-sales - on the market and the fact more sellers are pricing their homes to market levels, according to Realtors.
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| @ Ft. Myers News Press | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0201 EDST
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| Florida Keys taxable property values in sharp decline
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| Monroe County's taxable property values declined 12.6 percent in 2009 from 2008, according to estimates from the Monroe County Property Appraiser's Office. That's double the decline reported last year and a far larger drop than Miami-Dade County, which reported an overall 9 percent decline. In Broward County, where the tax rolls this year included short sales and foreclosures, values dropped by 10.7 percent. The Monroe County estimates show a $3.3 billion drop in taxable value to $22.9 billion.
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| @ Miami Herald | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0315 EDST
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| Progress Energy looks at solar incentives
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| The utility intends to pay residential customers about one-forth the cost of installing a solar-generating system that could run as high as several thousand dollars a system. Also new is a proposal by Progress to pay commercial customers for solar-generated electricity, though the rate won't be determined until later this year.
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| @ Orlando Sentinel | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0320 EDST
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| New homebuyer will need down payment despite $8,000 tax credit
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| The Obama administration has put out the official word: Starting soon, first-time homebuyers nationwide will be able to turn their $8,000 federal tax credits into cash for use at closing if they use Federal Housing Administration mortgage financing. But in its final guidelines to lenders and homebuyers issued May 29, the Department of Housing and Urban Development clarified that purchasers obtaining FHA loans through private lenders will have to invest at least some of their own funds in the form of a minimum 3.5 percent down payment.
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| @ St. Petersburg Time
| Posted: 06/05/09 at 0330 EDST
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| Bank of America's offers to modify Countrywide home loans top 100,000
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| Bank of America Corp. says it offered to modify more than 100,000 home loans in a four-month period, more than double the number required under its settlement of accusations of predatory lending that California and other states brought against Countrywide Financial Corp.
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| @ Chicago Tribune | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0345 EDST
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| Banks Put Off Plans To Sell Toxic Assets
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| The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday that it would suspend indefinitely the launch of a program to finance investor purchases of banks' troubled loans because few companies were interested in selling. A related Treasury Department program to finance purchases of mortgage-related securities remains on the drawing board months after both were announced with fanfare.
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| @ Washington Post | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0400 EDST
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| Across Low and High Ends, Retail Sales Fell in May
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| Sales were weaker than expected at 19 of the 30 retailers tracked by Thomson Reuters. Upscale chains posted some of the worst May sales at stores open at least a year.
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| @ New York Times | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0415 EDST
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| Nearly 1 in 4 homes for sale reduced price
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| Nearly one in four U.S. homes for sale on June 1 had their prices sliced at least once since landing on the market. A total of 23.6 percent of houses have seen their price cut. The average reduction was 10.6 percent of the original price, or $43,650 of a median house price.
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| @ Reuters | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0419 EDST
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| Traders push loonie higher despite BoC warning
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| The Bank of Canada provided a hint Thursday that it was beginning to get uncomfortable with the dollar's rapid ascent, suggesting it could undermine an economic recovery.
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| @ Financial Post - CA | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0646 EDST
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| GM Insolvency 'Proves America's Global Power is Waning'
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| The insolvency of General Motors shows America's weakening industrial clout and poses major risks not just for the economy but for Barack Obama, write German media commentators. If the planned restructuring of the automaker fails, his economic policy will lie in ruins, they say.
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| @ Der Spiegel | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0652 EDST
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| Costly offices: Mumbai slips to 6th, Delhi 12th
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| Tokyo's Inner Central District has supplanted London's West End as the world's most expensive office market. West End is now the second-most expensive office market followed by Moscow, Hong Kong's Central Business District or CBD and Tokyo's Outer Central District in the CBRE report, which tracks office occupancy costs in more than 170 cities around the globe.
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| @ The Times of India | Posted: 06/05/09 at 0655 EDST
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