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Articles
Madoff Son Sheds Nantucket Home, NYT
Convenient to Beaches
THE Nantucket home of Mark Madoff — a son of Bernard L. Madoff, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence for bilking investors of billions — is now for sale. The house at 51 Wanoma Way, in the Tom Nevers section of the island, has six bedrooms and sits on 3.2 acres. It is listed with Congdon & Coleman Real Estate for $7.5 million. A broker there declined to comment.
By Elizabeth Harris, June 24, 2010 NYT
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Housing: How Bad Will It Get? WSJ
Most analysts expected housing might hit a rough patch after the home-buyer tax credit expired in April. But is the plunge in demand becoming worse than expected?It’s a fair question, given Wednesday’s report that new home sales plunged 33% in May from April and were off 18% from one year ago.Moreover, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage rates fell again, down to 4.75% last week from 4.82% two weeks ago. By comparison, rates were slightly higher one year ago, at around 5.3%.Yet demand for refinancing or for taking out new loans is tepid. The index that tracks new purchase-loan activity was down 2.3% from last week and nearly 37% from one year ago.That weakness is also showing up in home sales contracts signed in May, which the National Association of Realtors estimates is down 10% to 15% from one year earlier. Those deals won’t close until later this summer, which means that we could be in for several more months of gloomy housing indicators.
By Nick Timiraos, June 23, 2010 WSJ
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Realtors, Brokers Target Home-Appraisal Rule, WSJ
National Association of Mortgage Brokers CEO Roy DeLoach contends that out-of-town appraisers hired by vendors are eating away at homeowner equity through home valuations that aren't credible: "It's basically hollowing out the equity in communities whether you intend to sell or not."
The mortgage-broker and real-estate industries are pushing to have a measure that would kill new home-appraisal rules inserted into pending legislation to overhaul financial-sector regulation.The Home Valuation Code of Conduct, adopted in May 2009 to ensure appraiser independence, bars mortgage brokers and bank loan officers from selecting appraisers. Mortgage brokers and realtors complain that the rules have produced low-ball appraisals that have blown up deals, while appraisers argue the change has harmed appraisal quality.Mortgage lenders, on the other hand, are trying to fend off the measure. Several big lenders own or have a stake in companies that have seen a surge in business as a result of the new rules. "We're going to try all we can to keep it out," said John A. Courson, the Mortgage Bankers Association's president and chief executive officer.
By Jessica Holzer, June 18, 2010 WSJ
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A Credit Crunch That Lingers - Where's the Money?, WSJ
Along the way, of course, the housing bubble burst. Banks suffering from heavily weighted real-estate portfolios compensated by reducing—and in some cases eliminating—credit lines, while raising interest penalties. What's more, the secondary markets, where many lenders bundled their SBA loans and sold them to investors, clamped shut, so banks couldn't get enough capital to make new loans.
Forget the improving economy. Entrepreneurs still find it hard to get loans. Here's why we're in this mess—and how we may get out of it.The economy is on the mend. The government has launched a boatload of programs to get small businesses financing. President Barack Obama has urged banks to give the companies a "third and fourth look" before rejecting them for loans.Yet entrepreneurs are still struggling to land credit. Only half of small businesses that tried to borrow last year got all or most of what they needed, according to a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. In the mid-2000s, 90% of businesses said they got the loans they needed.What's going on here? Why is the credit crunch alive and well when it comes to small businesses? Part of the problem is that most of the government programs created to address the problem have focused on Small Business Administration loans, which total less than 10% of overall lending to small companies. But there's a wider issue at work. Banks and the government are trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the subprime meltdown. It's a perfectly understandable goal—but it's freezing up financing.
By Emily Maltby, June 21, 2010 WSJ
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For ‘Privacy,’ L.A.’s Wealthy Buy Mansion Next Door, WSJ
It’s the lucky mansion owner who lives next-door to one of these compound builders. The L.A. Times reports that they are paying more than market value to get the neighbors to leave.
With the high-end real-estate market stumbling toward recovery, and the number of millionaires back to boom-time levels, we suppose we weren’t too surprised to read that there’s been a flurry of activity in Los Angeles’s “compound market.”In a weekend story, the L.A. Times reports that more super-rich folks, in search of “privacy,” are building mega-compounds by buying the mansion next door, particularly on L.A.’s West-Side and in Malibu. As the super-rich get super-richer they’re looking for new ways to “demonstrate their status,” reports Lauren Beale.The “hottest commodity” in L.A.’s ultra high-end market is the compound, writes Ms. Beale. The mansion next door could be used for fund raisers or big parties, says one real-estate agent quoted in the piece.“The middle class may be able to buy Louis Vuitton bags and nice holidays, but they can’t buy two mansions in Bel-Air. This is a way the global elite differentiate themselves,” Elizabeth Currid, an assistant professor at USC who studies cultural shifts among the wealthy, is quoted as saying.
June 14, 2010, WSJ
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