Now I'm taking it one step beyond.

- NEW -

Real Estate Investing Principles - Free and online...

This will be an on-going course based on my current class, my past experience, and my on-going investment deals. Real life stuff.

• No Bootcamps.
• Nothing to buy.
• Current and relevant to today's conditions.

Every Friday you will get a new section. 

This is structured such that you can join in at any time. The content will cycle 2 or 3 times each year.

The classes will include the following:

• Market analysis (including market cycles).
• Portfolio analysis.
• NOD/NOT/REO (foreclosures) .
• How to determine true value.
• Resources to use in your investing.
• How to start/How to grow your investing portfolio.
• Single family homes/Duplexes/Apartment buildings.
• ROI,NOI,ROE,Cap rates,and other terms.
• Commercial real estate, is it right for you?
• Finding good deals, avoiding bad deals.
• Managing properties.
• Anything else I find interesting/useful
• Anything else requested by someone who is enrolled.

To participate in this class please email the following information: ( all required )

• Name (full, real name)
• City/State where you live
• Email address
• Phone Number
• Brief introduction including investing experience. (everyone is welcome but it's good for me to know where you are starting from)

By ANDREA MOSS - NC TIMES Staff Writer | Saturday, October 11, 2008

Faced with a proliferation of dead lawns and weed-filled yards at foreclosed homes, city officials are hoping to use a new state law to force banks and mortgage companies to maintain the properties they take back.

Karl Schwarm, San Marcos' director of housing and neighborhood services, said last week that he plans to ask the City Council this month to let the city levy fines of up to $1,000 a day against owners who fail to keep up foreclosed properties.

Such fines became possible in July when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1137 into law. Formally known as the Residential Mortgage Loans Foreclosures Procedures, the law spells out the responsibilities regarding foreclosed properties of banks and mortgage companies.

San Marcos considered using the law last month after City Councilman Chris Orlando noted that foreclosed properties were creating blight in otherwise attractive neighborhoods.

"We have some areas in town that are starting to show those effects," Orlando said last week. "The city manager said it isn't a large problem yet. But that's exactly the sort of thing I want to stay on top of and make sure it doesn't become a problem."

Officials in other North County cities said they were using local zoning codes and property maintenance laws to address the problem with mixed results.

Escondido code enforcement manager Leslie Milks said her city recently created a task force to explore other ways of dealing with the issue, as well.

And last week, the Escondido City Council tentatively approved tightened maintenance rules that set the stage for the city to take more aggressive action against banks, mortgage companies and property managers that do not keep up their properties.

READ THE ENTIRE NC TIMES ARTICLE SAN MARCOS: City hopes new law will get banks to maintain foreclosed properties : North County Times - Californian

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/12/REVV13DME7.DTL&type=printable

San Francisco may be 3,000 miles from Wall Street, but the crisis that has engulfed the country's biggest financial institutions is putting even more pressure on the Bay Area's real estate market, making it increasingly difficult for home buyers to get credit.

Cheap credit played a dramatic role in fueling the housing boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in places like the Bay Area, where buyers relied heavily on unconventional loans to purchase homes that would have otherwise been unaffordable, economists said. That cheap credit also played a dramatic role in toppling financial institutions like Lehman Bros., Washington Mutual and Wachovia Corp., which were saddled with growing piles of toxic loans as borrowers who took advantage of lax lending criteria have proved unable to pay back those loans.

Now, as the federal government has agreed to spend $700 billion to shore up the country's ailing financial institutions, economists and real estate professionals say that the aid may help stabilize Wall Street. The housing markets here and in other parts of the country, on the other hand, still have a long road to recovery.

"The first step toward recovery is stabilization - prices have to stop declining," said Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody's Economy.com. "That probably won't be until next summer. In terms of actual recovery and price growth, I don't think that will be until the fall or end of 2010."

The bank failures and declining stock market are hurting the region's housing market in two ways, economists said. First, the turmoil has deepened the country's economic woes, and second, it has dried up the credit market and made it even more difficult for potential home buyers to get loans.

The Bay Area up until now had skirted a recession, said Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. But as Wall Street's troubles have made the national recession worse, it's likely that the Bay Area's economy also has slipped into a recession, bad news for the already troubled housing market, Rosen said.

"It means there is less security of employment and when that happens, fewer people are willing to go out and buy things," he said. "People are going to be more cautious about buying a house if they're afraid of losing their jobs."

Zandi agreed. "The panic of the last several weeks is going to hit the housing market hard because it's going to hit jobs hard," he said. "We're going to lose a lot of jobs, and that's just one more weight on the already-crashing housing market."

The uncertainty about the depth of the recession and when the economy will improve is also spooking potential home buyers, according to real estate industry executives.

"Buying a house is a long-term investment," said Avram Goldman, chief executive officer of Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate in San Francisco. "When there is uncertainty out there, people go on pause." As home buyers have tried to digest the news over the past two weeks, buyers and sellers have become even more cautious, said Ed Krafchow, chief executive officer and co-owner of Prudential California Realty.

"There has been some fear," Krafchow, who manages agencies in California, Nevada and Texas, said of the reaction in his Bay Area offices. "We've had some buyers slow down or stop a transaction, though that has actually been very rare."

The wait-and-see will continue as buyers watch what happens with the bailout package, said Ed Craine, vice president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers. "We have some people who are progressing along with their transactions," said Craine, who is also president of the San Francisco lender Smith-Craine Finance. "But a number of people are saying that they want to see how the dust settles before they proceed. We have partial answers now that the bailout's been passed. But people are wanting to see what impact it might have on interest rates before they go ahead with their purchase."

Beyond the psychological impact of the declining stock market, the losses have a very real effect on some Bay Area buyers, Pacific Union's Goldman said. Many home buyers sell stock in order to put together a down payment. At a time when lenders are requiring high down payments - in some cases more than 20 percent - shrinking stock portfolios mean that potential home buyers are having a hard time scraping together enough cash.

"If the purchase is going to be based on cashing in stock and if the value of that stock goes down, a buyer might not able to make that purchase," Goldman said. Home buyers seeking to take out jumbo loans - loans of more than $729,750 - are being asked to put down as much as 30 percent in some cases, according to real estate and mortgage industry experts.

That's because the investment banks and hedge funds that gobbled up those loans on the secondary market during the housing boom have slammed the door shut, limiting the capacity of banks to make loans.

"Lenders have a limited amount of money to use, and they are being much more careful about the loans they are making," said Craine, the California Association of Mortgage Brokers executive. "Down payments are creeping up, interest rates are significantly higher than they have been historically and in general it is harder to qualify."

For Bay Area home buyers, who seek out some of the largest mortgages in the state, the problem is especially pronounced, said Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors.

"The Bay Area tends to have the highest median home prices in the state," she said. "The availability of loans is really the critical issue looking at 2009."

Even as home prices have declined, the median price for a house or condo in San Francisco was still $725,000 in August, according to MDA DataQuick. The tighter lending standards for jumbo loans are taking a toll on the middle to high end of San Francisco's housing market, Goldman said.

"The market that is being most affected by all of this is not the lower end, it's the $1 million to $3 million range," he said. "There just aren't that many buyers out there willing to make the plunge."

Goldman expressed optimism that over the next six months or so, as the government begins implementing the bailout package, things will improve.

Economy.com's Zandi said he expects the credit situation to begin to ease up a little bit in the coming months.

"The availability of mortgage credit nationwide and in the Bay Area is at its low point right now," he said. "It will get better."

But even if the bailout package helps restore balance in the credit markets, it's not going to be a return to business as usual, real estate experts said.

"Investors have finally come out of their shell past the point of denial to a stage of panic," said Christopher Thornberg, an economist with the consulting firm Beacon Economics. "This is not a temporary lull in demand for these bonds, it's a permanent devaluation."

Economists and real estate professionals alike said that even with the bailout package, it will take the housing market some time to recover.

"I would guess we're into this for two to three years," said Charles Moore, president of McGuire Real Estate in San Francisco. "I hope not, but that's what I would guess."

After 15 years of a market that heavily favored sellers, Moore said he expects that even after the housing market recovers, real estate deals will be much more balanced between buyers and sellers.

In the end, though, real estate experts said that if the bailout plan does what it was intended to do and helps keep the credit market flowing, that will be good for both Bay Area buyers and sellers.

"I think most people agree that the bailout plan was a necessary chance to really stabilize the financial system," Goldman said. "Although some parts of the plan were probably onerous to some, I think it will have a positive effect."

Please don't forget the Grand Opening of the Fairfield County Real Estate Investors Association. The Reia meeting will be held at Liedles Caterers on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. This is the ultimate investors meet up.

Anyone who is anyone wants to be at our reia meeting. Our guest speaker, Attorney Gary Seymour, will be discussing how to legally stop a foreclosure. Real estate agents and mortgage brokers should want to be in the front row for this one.

We will have a cash bar on site so you can unwind and relax after a long days work. We look forward to hosting your meetings in the future.

If you know anyone who may be available, please let them know that they no longer have to drive to Cromwell, CT to go to a REIA. I know that has been a problem for many people who live in lower and middle fairfield county.

We are putting our list together for future speakers as we speak. Come on out and have a great time. Lets make some money in this great real estate market for buyers.

Until next time

Keep God 1st, Invest in People

CL

What do you think??? What do you think we should do?

What suggestions do you have for this mess?

Please join our discussions on

www.myinvestorsplace.com

Sources, U.S. News, Beyond Uncle Sam's Big Bail out, by James Pethokoukes and We Deserve a Better Bail Out, by Mortimer B Zuckerman, rewritten by Sophia Mounds.

Picture from My web search  

Let's go to the CafePress.com and make ourselves some t-shirt's that say, "I just paid a trillion buck's, to bail out wall street and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Why is the economy so bad? Because Americas financial wizards created two bubbles, one was a housing-bubble, the other was a credit bubble and both bubble's burst! Now were facing a global financial panic, we may see a complete freeze up, of the financial markets.

People who didn't have credit histories and had insufficient income were enabled to buy homes with no-money down, at over the top prices. The money for all this credit came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Both parties were protected, by allowing them to run artificially lose rules. So wall street bundled these mortgages and others, to be sold to banking institutions around the world. The bank bought them, because they thought they were highly rated by credit agency's, they didn't actually know what they were ratted. The result was the housing boom, from 2000-2006. People started defaulting, lenders foreclosed and it became impossible, for the average U.S. family to pay for an average home and house prices started falling. If they continue to fall, there will be more defaults on mortgages, mortgage securities, increased personal bankruptcies and credit card default's.

The economy's probably going to get a lot worse, before it gets any better. All we can do is hope, that we can stop the credit markets from shutting down, this could turn into the next great depression.

The housing crises; Wall-Street doesn't guarantee future returns and neither does Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's approach for one big reason. "It does nothing to solve the housing issue". Falling home prices and a deluge of foreclosures, remain squarely in the center of America's current economic problems, 2009 could well bring the son, of the mother, of all Bailouts. An idea would be to have the government, provide subsidies to struggling home owners, in return for a piece of homes future price appreciation.

There are some advantages in being a seasoned real estate agent.  Sure, I struggle much more with the techie part of today's profession.  But the experience of being in this business for several decades brings about a confidence that comes from observation.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the current crisis has many similar characteristics to the economic challenges of the 1980's.  Not only did we have a rapid 20% reduction in stock values, but the Houston/Woodlands area was suffering from an "oil-bust".  Layoffs were common among the largest sector of the area's economy AND the Savings and Loans were failing on a regular basis.

But there were a group of people who made a huge amount of money from that decade.  They were not big "wheeler and dealers" with huge sums of money already.  They were people like you and me that saw an opportunity and had the intestinal fortitude to move forward in a way that has changed their lives.

Now is the time to follow their lead and reap enormous financial rewards

Smart people (Did you notice I did not say wealthy people?) started buying homes and became landlords.  Some of the houses were bought from individuals that needed to get out from under the mortgage.  Sometimes the bank participated in this sale (Contact me if you want to know about a "Short Sale".)  Sometimes they were foreclosures.

The ones that made the most money, from what observed, were the ones that bought houses in the worst areas for immediate return on their money.  They focused on the areas where the foreclosures were so prevelant that entire communities were affected.  They bought houses that were so badly trashed that, after closing they went into the house with a garden hose to wash out all the debris.  They bought houses without appliances, even air conditioning units were sometimes missing.

They spent all their free time and much of their money to repair the house and bring it into rentable condition.  And renting the houses was not a problem at all.  After all, where were the displaced families to live?  They had lost their home to foreclosure or dire financial stress...but they weren't going to take their families and live under a bridge.  They began rebuilding their lives by renting a home.

Once these savvy investors began to amass their inventory of houses, the cash was beginning to flow on a monthly basis.  They used that cash flow to purchase additional houses - fix them up - rent them and become landlords in the true sense of the word.

A word of caution:  Remember how I told you earlier about them investing in the hard-hit, high-foreclosure neighborhoods in the area?  You should know that those communities turned into virtual rental communities in the late 80's and early 90's.  The neighborhoods had a noticeable "feel" to them that prospective buyers noticed.  Someone wanting to sell one of these homes in less than 5 years would not have made the huge profits possible with waiting.

Then, within 5 years after the recovery, these communities began to rebuild again.  Houses that were originally sold by builders in the late 70's for $80,000 - were then purchased in foreclosure for $35,000 and rented for $650-750 a month during the tough years - somewhere around 5 years later they were now selling for the original, pre-foreclosure prices and creating a nice equity position for those landlords.  As more and more landlords cashed in their investments, pride of homeownership became apparent and now those homes are selling in the range of $120,000.

A similar opportunity is available in today's market.  The numbers are close to double the ones I quoted from the 80's...but the opportunity is still present.  Imagine what it would feel like to invest 10% down payment into a house (let's say around $100,000 to have easy numbers)...with a little "sweat equity" be able to rent the house for $1,400 per month...then be able to sell the house for something in the ball-park of $150,000 in 5 years.

It is possible!  Of course, I cannot guarantee these kinds of numbers.  But conditions are right to make this kind of wise investment.  Using the scenario above and assuming you bought 10 houses.  You would turn $100,000 (the down payments) into $1.5 million in less than 5 years.  Without assuming any principal paydown, you would have mortgages to pay off in the ballpark of $900,000 and would net a cool $600,000 profit - all while experiencing a positive cash flow on the properties for virtually the entire 5 years of ownership.

Please know that the economic scenario I have described is simplified and is based on some assumptions that cannot be verified.  I am using my past experience to forecast what can be expected in the future and we both know that the future cannot be predicted.

If you would like to have a complimentary consultation about whether this kind of investment vehicle might be a good choice for you, I encourage you to contact me.  I will spend the time necessary to help you analyse your own situation.  I will also put you in contact with lending professionals that can assist you in that analysis.

Just think about it!

Kathi Frank, RE/MAX The Woodlands & Spring

Author, Trainer, Coach and Real Estate Agent

Serving the needs of buyers and sellers for more than 30 years

(281) 363-5828 direct line at RE/MAX

(936) 441-1314 home office and cell

Kathi@KathiFrank.com

This year's foreclosures mean that 10.3 of every 1,000 households has been foreclosed this year, according to ForeclosureS.com, a national leader in foreclosure and property information.

Today's poem...

Little Lyric
(Of Great Importance)
By Langston Hughes

I wish the rent
Was heaven sent.

While Mr Paulson has been working around the clock, every weekend, for five weeks to guarantee more than $1 trillion worth of American mortgages, manage the collapse of two banks, the distressed sale of two others and to secure the $850 billion bailout package, his work has barely begun.

Mr Paulson has just over a month to construct one of the biggest asset management funds in the world, a fund that will act as a financial landfill for the billions of dollars worth of toxic investments currently stagnating on the balance sheets of the world’s largest banks.

The fund – which after its three federal instalments will hold $700 billion worth of taxpayer money – is to buy up distressed mortgage-backed debt and help the banks to purge their books and, it is hoped, start lending to one another again. At the moment, the fund has no formal official to oversee it, no fund manager to run it and has no idea how it will value the assets it is about to buy.

Do you really think Paulson can pull it off??? The overnight markets are way down..Surprising the US Dollar is way up... What do you think... I want to hear your opinion!

Andrew Abraham

www.myinvestorsplace.com
capitalinvestor1836.blogspot.com

I had to explain that not much had changed since the post she'd read.  There simply are not a bunch of bank-owned properties at the resorts.  I am assuming that's what she meant, rather than a list of properties IN foreclosure.  There are distress sales, plenty of listings with language like "seller motivated" and even the cautionary "short sale subject to bank approval."   And whether in distress or bank-owned, those sales have not been not taking place at prices that are a fraction of what non-distressed sellers are asking. And certainly not less than buyers are currently offering on non-distressed listings, judging from closed sales on the MLS and an offer one of my sellers just received.  When it comes to prices, it is, pretty much, one big (not so happy for sellers) market.

There has been one significant change since May. Recent legislation passed by the Hawaii legislature, the "Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act" or Act 137 for short, makes it much more complicated for real estate agents to assist homeowners with selling their property if they are delinquent on their mortgage, or even on their Homeowners Association dues, let alone in foreclosure.  For one thing, now we cannot casually use the term "distressed property" because it has a specific legal definition.

Although the intent of the law was to protect homeowners from predatory consultants, the effect of the law will likely be that many brokerage firms will simply adopt a policy to not knowingly get involved with these situations.  Those that do will present their seller or buyer with an addendum that restricts the agent's activities so as not to fall under the scope of Act 137.  Some of the provisions of Act 137 are actually in opposition to the best practices that our Association of Realtors recommends.  In talking with the escrow company I use, some feel those transactions may have an even smaller rate of success than they currently do because of these complications.  So maybe we WILL actually start to see more properties that move along the chain from distress to foreclosure auction to lender-owned, rather than the seller being able to hook up with a buyer along the way.

Back to my caller. I suggested to her that if she could give me a better idea of what kind of property they were looking for, their price range, and so on, I'd be happy to take a look at available listings when I got back to my computer and see if there were any foreclosures or distressed properties that met her criteria.  No thanks, she said, she was just hoping there was a list she could look at.

Caller, if you are still reading, I'd love to hear from you.  There are real opportunities for the qualified buyers who can move on them. It is a great time to get back into the market if you have been renting.  I have a list of mortgage bankers hungry for your business if you aren't planning to pay cash.

Readers, let me bottom line it again.  The place to start is with defining what is important to you in the property, especially if, as in the caller's case, this is to be your home.  Then, if you are financing, see what you qualify for in today's mortgage market.  Then get your agent to show you homes that fit, regardless of the seller's apparent situation, and make your best offer based upon the comparables.

The basics will serve you well!

A hui hou,

Beth

In Los Angeles County, 24/7 mental health crisis services are available:
1-800-854-7771.

Other useful Los Angeles City and County Resources:

Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority
213-683-3333
Shelter Hotline: 1-800-548-6047 or 1-800-660-4026 (TDD)

PATH (People Assisting The Homeless) – Westside
310-996-0034
Outreach: 323-644-2216

St. Joseph’s Center in Venice
General Information: 310.396-6468

Public Safety/Public Assistance Phone Numbers

Narcotics Hotline: 1-800-662-2878
Narcotics/Substance Abuse Hotline: 1-800-252-6465
24-Hours Anonymous Hotline: 1-877-529-3855
Battered Woman Hotline: 310-392-8381
Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-540-4000
Rape Hotline: 626-793-3385
Runaway Hotline: 1-800-231-6946
Suicide Hotline: 1-877-727-4747
Terrorist Threats: 1-877-A-THREAT
Los Angeles Rape and Battering Hotline: 213-626-3393
Rosa Parks Sexual Assault Crisis Center (Spanish Available): 323-751-9245
Teen Line (6pm to 10 pm): 310-855-HOPE
Youth Crisis Hotline: 1-800-843-5200

LA DMH Website

For all of California, if you're really desperate, there's a state-wide website for the California Suicide and Crisis Hotlines.

California Suicide & Crisis

National (USA) Suicide Hotlines and Resources
Call for Help if you need it

SEE ALL AVAILABLE WATERSIDE LOFT LISTINGS

If you would like to see this, or any other Denver Loft, call us at 303-875-1401 for a showing today!

This is a good opportunity in The Waterside Lofts Building, located at 1401 Wewatta Street. The property is bank owned (foreclosure), and features a great open layout, with high ceilings and wood floors, overlooking Elitches with a panoramic western view to the mountains.

As with most foreclosure listings, this one is priced aggressively.  At a list price of $597,500 and total square footage of 1,802, this works out to $331.80 in a building where lofts have averaged over $385.00 psf since the beginning of 2007.  As with most foreclosures, expect some cosmetic improvements necessary to make this your dream loft.

If you would like a detailed sales analysis of this or any other downtown Denver loft, please feel free to contact us!

On the real economic side, all the advanced economies representing 55% of global GDP (U.S., Eurozone, UK, other smaller European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Japan) entered a recession even before the massive financial shocks that started in the late summer made the liquidity and credit crunch even more virulent and will thus cause an even more severe recession than the one that started in the spring. So we have a severe recession, a severe financial crisis and a severe banking crisis in advanced economies.

There was no decoupling among advanced economies and there is no decoupling but rather recoupling of the emerging market economies with the severe crisis of the advanced economies. By the third quarter of this year global economic growth will be in negative territory signaling a global recession. The recoupling of emerging markets was initially limited to stock markets that fell even more than those of advanced economies as foreign investors pulled out of these markets; but then it spread to credit markets and money markets and currency markets bringing to the surface the vulnerabilities of many financial systems and corporate sectors that had experienced credit booms and that had borrowed short and in foreign currencies. Countries with large current account deficits and/or large fiscal deficits and with large short-term foreign currency liabilities and borrowings have been the most fragile. But even the better performing ones – like the BRICs club of Brazil , Russia , India and China – are now at risk of a hard landing. Trade and financial and currency and confidence channels are now leading to a massive slowdown of growth in emerging markets with many of them now at risk not only of a recession but also of a severe financial crisis.

The crisis was caused by the largest leveraged asset bubble and credit bubble in the history of humanity where excessive leveraging and bubbles were not limited to housing in the U.S. but also to housing in many other countries and excessive borrowing by financial institutions and some segments of the corporate sector and of the public sector in many and different economies: an housing bubble, a mortgage bubble, an equity bubble, a bond bubble, a credit bubble, a commodity bubble, a private equity bubble, a hedge funds bubble are all now bursting at once in the biggest real sector and financial sector deleveraging since the Great Depression.

At this point the recession train has left the station; the financial and banking crisis train has left the station. The delusion that the U.S. and advanced economies contraction would be short and shallow – a V-shaped six month recession – has been replaced by the certainty that this will be a long and protracted U-shaped recession that may last at least two years in the U.S. and close to two years in most of the rest of the world. And given the rising risk of a global systemic financial meltdown, the probability that the outcome could become a decade long L-shaped recession – like the one experienced by Japan after the bursting of its real estate and equity bubble – cannot be ruled out.

And in a world where there is a glut and excess capacity of goods while aggregate demand is falling, soon enough we will start to worry about deflation, debt deflation, liquidity traps and what monetary policy makers should do to fight deflation when policy rates get dangerously close to zero.

At this point the risk of an imminent stock market crash – like the one-day collapse of 20% plus in U.S. stock prices in 1987 – cannot be ruled out as the financial system is breaking down, panic and lack of confidence in any counterparty is sharply rising and the investors have totally lost faith in the ability of policy authorities to control this meltdown.

This disconnect between more and more aggressive policy actions and easings, and greater and greater strains in the financial market is scary. When Bear Stearns’ creditors were bailed out to the tune of $30 bn in March, the rally in equity, money and credit markets lasted eight weeks; when in July the U.S. Treasury announced legislation to bail out the mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie, the rally lasted four weeks; when the actual $200 billion rescue of these firms was undertaken and their $6 trillion liabilities taken over by the U.S. government, the rally lasted one day, and by the next day the panic had moved to Lehman’s collapse; when AIG was bailed out to the tune of $85 billion, the market did not even rally for a day and instead fell 5%. Next when the $700 billion U.S. rescue package was passed by the U.S. Senate and House, markets fell another 7% in two days as there was no confidence in this flawed plan and the authorities. Next, as authorities in the U.S. and abroad took even more radical policy actions between October 6^th and October 9^th (payment of interest on reserves, doubling of the liquidity support of banks, extension of credit to the seized corporate sector, guarantees of bank deposits, plans to recapitalize banks, coordinated monetary policy easing, etc.), the stock markets and the credit markets and the money markets fell further and further and at accelerated rates day after day all week, including another 7% fall in U.S. equities today.

When in markets that are clearly way oversold, even the most radical policy actions don’t provide rallies or relief to market participants. You know that you are one step away from a market crash and a systemic financial sector and corporate sector collapse. A vicious circle of deleveraging, asset collapses, margin calls, and cascading falls in asset prices well below falling fundamentals, and panic is now underway.

At this point severe damage is done and one cannot rule out a systemic collapse and a global depression. It will take a significant change in leadership of economic policy and very radical, coordinated policy actions among all advanced and emerging market economies to avoid this economic and financial disaster. Urgent and immediate necessary actions that need to be done globally (with some variants across countries depending on the severity of the problem and the overall resources available to the sovereigns) include:

• another rapid round of policy rate cuts of the order of at least 150 basis points on average globally;
• a temporary blanket guarantee of all deposits while a triage between insolvent financial institutions that need to be shut down and distressed but solvent institutions that need to be partially nationalized with injections of public capital is made;
• a rapid reduction of the debt burden of insolvent households preceded by a temporary freeze on all foreclosures;
• massive and unlimited provision of liquidity to solvent financial institutions;
• public provision of credit to the solvent parts of the corporate sector to avoid a short-term debt refinancing crisis for solvent but illiquid corporations and small businesses;
• a massive direct government fiscal stimulus packages that includes public works, infrastructure spending, unemployment benefits, tax rebates to lower income households and provision of grants to strapped and crunched state and local government;
• a rapid resolution of the banking problems via triage, public recapitalization of financial institutions and reduction of the debt burden of distressed households and borrowers;
• an agreement between lender and creditor countries running current account surpluses and borrowing, and debtor countries running current account deficits to maintain an orderly financing of deficits and a recycling of the surpluses of creditors to avoid a disorderly adjustment of such imbalances.

At this point anything short of these radical and coordinated actions may lead to a market crash, a global systemic financial meltdown and to a global depression. The time to act is now as all the policy officials of the world are meeting this weekend in Washington at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

***

Read more of Nouriel’s views on the current economic situation on Nouriel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor at http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini.

For RGE Monitor's Complete Coverage of the Global Financial Crisis click here.

The Banks that own these homes want them sold now. If you are the creative type of person with a little vision then you can cash in the the bank owned bargains available right now.

There are excellent buys available in all areas of Orange County in all price ranges.

Get your FREE LIST OF BANK OWNED FORECLOSURES by visiting http://REOs-OC.com/reolist.html.

So who is to blame for this financial fiasco? That’s the question we’ve begun investigating. We’ve put together a list of the Ten Most Wanted: Culprits of the Collapse. This week and next week, every night, we will be adding a name to the list and telling you what they have done, and how much it’s costing you. It’s a rogues gallery of Wall Street executives, politicians, and government officials who did not do their jobs. It’s time you know their names, their faces, it’s time they be asked to account for their actions.

JOHN PRESCOTT

-BostonKayakGuy

Top Real Estate Agent for more than 14 years, serving the real estate needs of  Wellesley, South Natick, Weston, Needham, Wayland, Newton, Framingham and other MetWest communities.  www.johnprescott.net

JOHN PRESCOTT

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As the nationwide mortgage crisis puts the squeeze on homeowners, the Cook County sheriff's office is on pace to evict more people than ever from foreclosed homes.

At least it was until Wednesday, when Sheriff Tom Dart announced he wouldn't do it anymore.

Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies.

Read more at truthout.org

scott

Things keep getting better for the Anthem real estate market.  Although the press has not picked up on it yet.  For the first time in many, many, months, the average price of sold homes in Anthem increased month over month. Now, this may be an anamoly, but at least it is a positive anamoly.

For the full statistical analysis click here.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced yesterday that he would no longer be serving foreclosure related eviction notices. With the rising number of foreclosures in Chicago a new problem has surfaced. Many people who rent homes that are in foreclosure aren't aware of what's going on and wake up one day to an eviction notice on their door. This is occurring because many landlords are simply not informing their renters that their property is being foreclosed on. In addition, the bank's policy is that they do not need to inform the renter either until an eviction notice is issued. Naturally, lenders are angry with the sheriff's move, and are saying that what he's doing boils down to "martial law."

Now lets be real, it should be the responsibility of the owner of the property to inform any renters of the fact that they will have to move because the property is being foreclosed upon. However, what's happening here is that many who are being foreclosed upon seem to disappear. When they realize there is no way out and stop paying the mortgage they wash their hands of all responsibility. Due to this trend someone else needs to pick up the slack. There's no more recourse for tenants. What are they going to do, sue the landlord who is probably already headed towards bankruptcy. The banks are not stepping up and changing their policies. So in this case the sheriff stepped in. It was a bold move that could certainly have many repercussions for him, but at the same time it was the right thing to do. How many people put their own careers in jeopardy to help others these days. Those who do are usually deemed heroes and in my opinion that is the case here.

Not for nothin' but aren't we, the tax payers, the renters of the world, bailing out these banks! Don't they owe us something, at least the courtesy of informing us that we may get evicted for circumstances that are completely out of our control.

Click here for the full story.