Housing prices drop at fastest pace ever Housing prices dropped in February at the fastest rate ever, a widely watched index showed on Tuesday, reflecting that the housing slump is gaining momentum and showing no signs of letting up. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 cities fell by 12.7 percent in February versus last year, the largest decline since its inception in 2001. Seventeen of the 20 metro areas reported record annual declines. "There is no sign of a bottom in the numbers," David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P, noting that all 20 metro areas have declined for six straight months. Half of the cities saw home values plunge by double digits led by Las Vegas at 22.8 percent and Miami at 21.7 percent. Those two areas experienced the sharpest appreciation in 2004 and 2005 with annual increases above 50 percent and 30 percent.
Home foreclosure rate continues ugly climb The number of U.S. homes heading toward foreclosure more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, as weakening property values and tighter lending left many homeowners powerless to prevent homes from being auctioned to the highest bidder, a research firm said Monday. Among the hardest hit states were Nevada, Florida and, in particular, California, where Stockton led the nation with a foreclosure rate that was 6.6 times the national average, Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. said. Nationwide, 649,917 homes received at least one foreclosure-related filing in the first three months of the year, up 112 percent from 306,722 during the same period last year, RealtyTrac said.
Vacant homes for sale hit new record high The percentage of vacant homes for sale in the U.S. set a new record high in the first quarter of this year, the government said Monday. The Census Bureau report shows that shows that 2.9 percent of U.S. homes — excluding rental properties — were vacant and up for sale, compared with 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. It was the highest quarterly number in records going back to 1956. That works out to 2.28 million properties, up from 2.18 million in the same quarter last year, according to the report. The West had the biggest gain in vacancy rates among homeowners, rising to 3.2 percent in the January-March period from 2.6 percent in the same quarter a year earlier. Vacancy rates inched up in the Northeast and remained steady in the Midwest and South.
April consumer confidence falls, outlook gloomy Amid worries about jobs, the economy and gas prices, U.S. consumer confidence fell in April, perpetuating its downward slide as inflation expectations rose to match the record high reached after Hurricane Katrina, the Conference Board reported Tuesday. The April consumer confidence index declined to 62.3 from a March reading that was revised up to 65.9. Consumer confidence is at its lowest since March 2003. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an April reading of 61.0. "This continued weakening suggests that not only has the feeble level of growth in the first quarter spilled over into the second quarter, but that economic conditions may have slowed even further," said Lynn Franco, director of consumer research at the private Conference Board.
Countrywide posts $893 million first-quarter loss Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. continued to hemorrhage money in a toughening housing climate, reporting Tuesday that it lost $893 million in the first quarter compared to a profit of $434 million during the same period last year. Countrywide also said it would increase its residential loan loss provision to $1.5 billion as it struggled to get a handle on rising delinquencies and plummeting home values. Charge-offs for the nation's largest lender climbed to $606 million from $39 million. The loss could be another blow to the merger between the lender and one of the nation's largest banks: Bank of America Corp. agreed in January to acquire Countrywide in a white-knight, $4 billion all-stock deal that would make the firm the largest U.S. mortgage lender.
Emptying the Breadbasket For decades, wheat was king on the Great Plains and prices were low everywhere. Those days are over. At Stephen Fleishman's busy Bethesda shop, the era of the 95-cent bagel is coming to an end. Breaking the dollar barrier "scares me," said the Bronx-born owner of Bethesda Bagels. But with 100-pound bags of North Dakota flour now above $50 -- more than double what they were a few months ago -- he sees no alternative to a hefty increase in the price of his signature product, a bagel made by hand in the back of the store. "I've never seen anything like this in 20 years," he said. "It's a nightmare."
Truckers protest high gasoline prices Dave Gares, an independent truck driver since 1974 who hauls mostly soft drinks these days, never dreamed he'd be paying more than $4 per gallon for diesel.It takes 220 gallons to fill up his tractor-trailer rig, which gets a little over six miles per gallon on the road. It costs Gares up to $1,400 to fill up, with the added cost of fuel additives to boost his truck's mileage. He said he has to absorb the increases to stay competitive. "You can't charge it back to the shipper, so it comes out of your own wallet," said Gares of Lebanon, Pa., one of more than 100 truckers who drove to Washington on Monday to demand changes from Congress. "Now you have to start looking at how to cut back."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
RSS
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/images/quotes_7a.gif)