Category
Mortgage Crisis
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Highest Delinquency Rate Since MBA Survey Inception
By Jennifer Yousfi Managing Editor The Mortgage Bankers Association announced yesterday (Thursday) that home mortgage delinquencies reached the highest level since the survey began in 1985. For the fourth quarter of 2007, 5.82% of outstanding home loans were in delinquency on a seasonally adjusted basis. This figure represents a 23 basis-point increase from the third [...]
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Home Prices Fall Record Rate in 2007
By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor An oversupply of homes, sharp rise in foreclosures, and stricter credit regulations caused home prices to fall 8.9% in 2007, the largest ever year-over-year decline in the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. Some metropolitan areas were whacked with double-digit devaluations. Home prices fell 17.5% in Miami, 15.3% in Las [...]
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First Annual Drop in Home Prices Since the Great Depression
By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor Sales of existing homes fell more than forecast in December, bringing a somber end to the biggest annual slump in a quarter century and the first decline in prices since the Great Depression. Purchases of existing homes dropped 2.2% to annual rate of $4.89 million, the National Association of Realtors [...]
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How to Profit From a Stock Market Bubble
Booms turn to bubbles when too many investors cotton on to a good story and buy in. A special report from John Stepek at our U.K. affiliate MoneyWeek Magazine says that investors can still profit from bubbles as long as they get their timing right. Every bubble in history started with a good story. In [...]
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Three Ways to Profit From the Next Phase of the Subprime Mortgage Mess
By Keith Fitz-Gerald Contributing Editor I've been telling you for months, now, that the subprime mess isn't over. But contrary to what you might be hearing in the mainstream news, the Four Horsemen of the Financial Apocalypse aren't thundering their way to our homes right now, either. In fact, savvy investors will have the chance [...]
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Could Goldman Sachs Explode? How to Dodge the Ongoing Mortgage Mess
By Martin Hutchinson Director of Global Investing Research The $8.4 billion write-down announced by Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) last week was just the latest in a series of similar revelations by Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), The Bear Stearns Cos. (BSC) and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEH). And it underscores [...]
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U.S. Investors Look Past Mortgage, Profit Challenges to Fed Interest Rate Meeting This Week
From Staff Reports With U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers slated to review the nation’s interest-rate situation this week, investors spent last week scrutinizing corporate earnings reports in search of signs that the “mortgage challenges” facing the U.S. economy might be limited to financials and housing. With about 150 Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies having reported [...]
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The Merrill Lynch "Surprise" Fuels More Subprime Uncertainty
By Jason Simpkins Associate Editor Just one day after Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. (MER) wrote off billions in bad mortgage loans and reported its biggest quarterly loss in 93 years, Wall Street analysts yesterday (Thursday) predicted there was still more bad news to come. Although it wrote off $8.4 billion of subprime mortgages and [...]
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Housing Market Down For the Count, According to Industry Experts
By Jason Simpkins Staff Writer Housing prices will continue to decline and the downward spiral may not end until sometime in 2010, industry executives said this week. Speaking at the Mortgage Banker's Association's annual convention Monday, executives from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as the CEOs of two other major mortgage banks, said [...]
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The Three Investments to Avoid and the One Stock to Buy to Profit from the Lousy Mortgage Market
By Martin Hutchinson Director of Global Investing Research The U.S. banking trio of Citigroup Inc. (C), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) yesterday (Monday) announced that they were setting up a new fund – perhaps as large as $100 billion – to buy mortgage debt held in "Securitized Investment [...]
