Implode-Explode Heavy Industries news feed

Davis Homes shuts down

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:54:26 GMT

"Davis Homes joined more than 30 homebuilders nationwide that have discontinued operations since 2007. The builder said it has secured warranty insurance so Davis homeowners will be covered. It also has arranged for regular maintenance and is looking for other homebuilders to complete its neighborhoods."

Fannie, Freddie Race Banks To Bottom

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:05:19 GMT

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be unintentionally driving down prices in already depressed markets to the detriment of commercial lenders such as Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan Chase , Wells Fargo and Wachovia "

Moody’s Warns on Weakening Credit Quality

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:03:21 GMT

"The strain of increased debt and falling home prices is pushing the U.S. economy to a breaking point, setting up consumers and investors for a nasty fall later this year, according to new research published Wednesday by Moody’s Economy.com."

Builders Sue Banks That Pull Financing

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:04:12 GMT

"As lenders rush to curtail their real-estate exposure and preserve sorely needed capital, they are triggering lawsuits from builders that say the banks have unfairly cut off their construction financing, stopped their projects midstream and forced their companies to the brink of bankruptcy."

Major Condo Project In Downtown Austin Cancelled

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:24:40 GMT

"Developers have been throwing up huge condo towers in downtown Austin with a "build it and they will come attitude". It isn’t that buyers haven’t been coming- but units have been coming online faster. This has started to create problems"

FDIC Underestimated The Risks Of Falling Home Prices

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:20:30 GMT

"With so many lenders looking shaky these days, it brings up the question of how well prepared the FDIC is to deal with lender failures."

Phoenix Foreclosures: They’re Not Just For Outlying Areas Anymore

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:22:23 GMT

"We’ve been assured by many agents and analysts in Phoenix that the foreclosure pain would be pretty much limited to the outlying areas– it looks like they were wrong"

Desperate times, desperate measures for condo associations

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:42:27 GMT

As bills mounted and revenue shrank, the board of Miami Beach’s luxury Bentley Bay condo knew it had to take drastic action.

Facing a spike in delinquencies and the need to pay the bills, the Bentley’s condo association opted to take a hard line with lenders that took over units there — many from investors who went into foreclosure.

Thousands of Mortgage Originators Had Criminal Background

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:41:16 GMT

"
Between 2000 and 2007, 5,306 people with criminal backgrounds became loan originators in Florida, according to an investigation conducted by the Miami Herald.

Of that group, 2,201 had committed a financial crime such as mortgage fraud, money laundering, or worse, but still managed to enter the business with little or no opposition.

Fortress Mortgage Fund Down 30 Percent

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:37:57 GMT

"Betting on the bottom of the mortgage mess is proving to be a tough bet, even for the smart money. According to a published report Monday morning, a fund set up by the private-equity and hedge-fund giant Fortress Investment Group LLC to take advantage of turmoil in the mortgage bond market has tanked so far, to the tune of 30 percent in just three months after its formation."

Economy in Trouble

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:07:24 GMT

"Nearly 16 years after Hurricane Andrew devastated the city of Homestead, the town in South Miami-Dade is in the path of another potential storm: A deluge of residential foreclosures and accompanying economic turbulence."

Kempner doubling-down on MBA’s future?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:19:22 GMT

Option Armageddon's Rolfe Winkler takes it to the MBA's CEO Jonathan Kempner:

Like the rest of the real estate universe, the Mortgage Bankers Association is in trouble. Membership is in decline, meeting attendance is down and some of MBA’s largest conference sponsors are either out of business or cutting back. With this in mind, it seems a poorly-timed decision to double-down on real estate. But that’s precisely what CEO Jonathan Kempner did, using MBA’s reserve fund to construct brand new headquarters.

Read the rest of his hard-hitting expose!

Pyramid of Greed

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:59:05 GMT

"I’ve been reading a lot of articles on the Web these days with different groups blaming each other for the collapse of the housing market. It’s annoying. The housing collapse and credit crunch are too big and too wide-reaching for it just to be the fault of one group. There was greed at all levels of what I’m terming the Pyramid of Greed."

FDIC Faces Mortgage Mess

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:57:00 GMT

"It turns out that the U.S. government itself was one of the lenders giving out high-interest, subprime mortgages, some of them predatory, according to government documents filed in federal court."

Peter Schiff on Charles Osgood's Sunday Morning: The Economic Crisis

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:32:22 GMT

Good segment.

Phoenix Area MLS Loses 20% Of It’s Members In June

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:27:28 GMT

"A lousy housing market and changes at ARMLS (Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service) have led to a huge drop in membership"

Commercial bankruptcies soar, reflecting widening economic woes

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:49:36 GMT

Commercial filings for the first half of 2008 are up 45 percent from last year, as the national climate for commerce continues to deteriorate amid rising energy and food costs, mounting job losses, tighter credit and a reticence among consumers to part with discretionary income.

Not a surprise -- we've been expecting this for at least two years (ever since the plummeting of housing starts signaled the recession).

Canada: A Sign Of Things To Come

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:38:34 GMT

"Canadian real estate reporters have it easy these days. All they need to do is Google the "we won’t bust here" stories from the U.S., then insert their favorite northern city."

Development’s Bankruptcy May Be Largest In Nevada History

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:36:09 GMT

"In one of the potentially largest bankruptcies in Nevada history, Lake Las Vegas, a 3,592-acre residential and resort development in Henderson, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday."

Taxpayers Can Bear No More

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:44:58 GMT

"This story is from the UK but the same situation applies here: Taxpayers can bear no more, admits Alistair Darling."