Weekly Real Estate News Roundup: Week of Sep 10-16

This week's news roundup on the Real Estate markets:

Countrywide workers sue company
Sep 12: The mortgage lender's employees say the value of retirement accounts plummeted by millions as the company's stock fell.

Mortgage rates tumble
Sep 13: Fixed 30-year rate slips to 6.31% and may help home buyers looking to reset rates, says Freddie Mac. The government-sponsored loan buyer said the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan averaged 6.31 percent for the week ended Sept. 13, down from 6.46 percent last week. Last year at this time, 30-year mortgage rates averaged 6.43 percent.

Hottest housing markets
The top 10 U.S. counties ranked by housing growth rate were in Arizona and Florida, primarily. (U.S. Census Bureau/CNNMoney.com)

Greenspan: I didn't grasp subprime threat
Sep 13: Former Federal Reserve Chairman says he didn't see early on the damage that lending to those with questionable credit could do to the economy. In an upcoming interview, Greenspan said he was aware of "subprime" lending practices where home buyers got very low initial rates only to see them later jacked up, causing severe payment shock. But he said he didn't initially realize the harm they could do. (AP)

Realtors: Home price slump through '08
Sep 12: Home values and housing sales will take an even bigger hit than previously forecast and will not recover to their earlier levels throughout all of 2008, at least, according to the latest economic outlook from the National Association of Realtors released Tuesday.

Builder Hovnanian offers extreme discounts
Sep 13: The company resorts to 20-percent or six-figure discounts on some of its properties this weekend, amid the worst housing downturn in 16 years. The sales blitz involves dropping prices by more than 20 percent on some of its prime real estate.

Mortgage apps up in short week
Sep 12: Mortgage Bankers Association reports 5.5 percent increase in Memorial Day week and uptick in refinancing activity as well. Taking into account the Labor Day holiday, the industry group's seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications climbed 5.5 percent to 657.4 in the week ended Sept. 7, from 622.9 one week earlier. The four-week moving average, which smoothes out volatility in the weekly figures, fell by 0.8 percent.

Washington Mutual sees more 2007 loan losses
Sep 10: Washington Mutual Inc said on Monday that most U.S. housing markets are weakening, creating a "near perfect storm" that may force the largest U.S. savings and loan to set aside more money for bad loans. (Reuters)

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®: Mortgage Problems to Dampen Home Sales in the Short Term
09/11/2007: Tougher lending practices will continue to stall sales activity for the short term and extend recovery of existing-home sales into 2008.

Reuters: U.S. FTC warns some mortgage ads may violate law
09/11/07-The U.S. FTC is warning mortgage brokers and lenders that some TV, online, and print advertisements for home mortgages could be deceptive and possibly illegal.

Mortgage Bankers Association: Holiday-Adjusted Mortgage Applications Increase
09/12/2007 -The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that mortgage applications were up 5.5 percent for the week ending Sept. 7.

USA Today: Greenspan says he was slow to see subprime danger
09/14/2007-Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan says he didn’t anticipate a surge in subprime loans would have a negative impact on the nation’s economy.

JD Power & Associates show a increase in customer satisfaction among new home buyers. (KNX-AM, 9/12/2007)

John Caravall (ph), Real Estate Analyst with DataQuick Information Systems states that number of homes sold in August was the slowest since August 1992. Overall, price in SoCal average $500,000, up 2.7% year-over-year, but down from the peak of $505,000. The upper end market continues to go “pretty good,” while the entry market is not. When taking this into account they show a 3.5% decrease in home prices versus last year when they take a look at like-kind homes. (KNX-AM, 9/12/2007)

UCLA Anderson Forecast shows housing problems will bring SoCal economy to the brink of recession, but the hosing problems will stay mainly in that sector. The rest of the economy will get along well and continue to do so. (KNX-AM, 9/12/2007)

Sources: Associated Press, Reuters, KNX-AM Los Angeles, California Association of Realtors and CNN.