Real Estate Prices

Homes acrosss the nation are depreciating BIG TIME! Real estate prices are falling like a rock particularly in California. Median home prices plunged in many of California's most populous counties in February, with Southern California leading the slide with an overall drop of 17.9% compared to a year earlier, according to new housing data released Thursday. And since many people bought their homes for nothing down, they're left with a 20% negative value and falling.

The median price in a six-county area of Southern California fell to $408,000. FELL. That means prices did NOT go up. That median is 19.2 percent below the region's peak price of $505,000 last summer, and it's 1.7 percent below January's median. It could be possible to tack on another 15-20% drop this year.

Can you say FORECLOSURES? Talk about a financial disaster!

In the nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, the median price fell 11.6 percent to $548,000 compared to a year earlier and 17.6 percent from the region's peak median price of $665,000 last summer. Bay Area prices were essentially flat from January. So much for booming California.

On the other side of the United States, Florida led the nation in mortgage fraud in 2007, a dubious distinction it has had two years running. What's up with Florida? They seem to alwasy have some crisis going on. The competition to be first in fraud is getting stiffer as the housing downturn persists and agencies nationwide report more suspect mortgages, according to industry data released Thursday. What a title to have!

Nevada ranked second in mortgage fraud, up from No. 6 a year earlier in the Mortgage Asset Research Institute's annual report on fraudulent mortgage activity. It was followed by Michigan, California, Utah and Georgia. Virginia made its debut on the report's top 10 list, coming in at No. 7.

Sure, blame the mortgage industry but don't put any blame on consumers who wanted mroe than they could handle. Whatever happened to caveat emptor- buyer beware? Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday unveiled proposals for cleaning up mortgage and securities markets, including a recommendation to license mortgage brokers. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, top Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation to aid consumers in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.

The Federal government is in danger of losing it's Triple AAA rating and they're pointing fingers?

Thus, the US Federal Reserve has taken the boldest action since the 1930s, accepting $200bn of housing debt as collateral to prevent an implosion of the mortgage finance industry and head off a full-blown economic crisis. The Fed is taking on more debt from the housing industry just so our major institutions don't go bankrupt and the US$ is tanking big time. I mean BIG TIME! The stumbing stock market start is only getting worse!

Robbing Peter to pay Paul usually leaves Mary holding the debt!