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Fed: Banks Cease Tightening Standards, Loan Demand Weakens Further – Calculated Risk

…Banks reported that loan demand from both businesses and households weakened further, on net, over the survey period.

The Secret to the Home Prices in SF Bay Area – Patrick

Is no secret at all! They are highly correlated with the stock market, in general, and the prices of the leading local tech stocks, in particular. Attached is a graph of the relative prices in the greater SF Bay area to the greater LA Area (ratios of price per square foot). The relative prices in the Bay Area bottomed recently exactly in the month that the stock market bottomed, March 2009.

Fannie and Freddie Are Dead. What’s Next? – The Motley Fool

What if Frank isn’t just talking out of his rear, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are really on a path to being put out of their misery? What would happen?

Least and Most Affordable Housing in the World, By Nation and City – Mish

Congratulations go to Vancouver, Canada for being the least affordable city in the survey. Vancouver thus wins the gold medal in the individual competition.

Rising FHA default rate foreshadows a crush of foreclosures – The Washington Post

About 9.1 percent of FHA borrowers had missed at least three payments as of December, up from 6.5 percent a year ago, the agency’s figures show.

What’s a Degree Really Worth? – The Wall Street Journal

The problem stems from the common source of the estimates, a 2002 Census Bureau report titled “The Big Payoff.” The report said the average high-school graduate earns $25,900 a year, and the average college graduate earns $45,400, based on 1999 data. The difference between the two figures is $19,500; multiply it by 40 years, as the Census Bureau did, and the result is $780,000.

US Housing Bubble v2.0 – FT Alphaville

See? It’s like crystal.

The Next Move: Strategic Defaults – HousingWire

Hunt, armed with a 778 credit score and a $6,000 down payment, took out a 30-year, 6 percent fixed-rate mortgage and purchased a brand new, 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in El Mirage, a suburb 25 miles northwest of downtown Phoenix, for $138,000. “Going from a 10-minute commute, I was now at 40 to 45 minutes, but it was a beautiful house,” Hunt said.