Academia

The approximately $300 billion a year private home remodeling and repair market comprises most of the investment for maintaining and improving the nation’s housing stock. Yet many nonprofit organizations and public agencies also serve vital roles, both direct and supportive, in the broader home improvement and repair industry, fulfilling a need that the private sector cannot or does not meet. Indeed, major nonprofit organizations and public funding programs contribute significant support for maintaining and improving the homes of America’s most vulnerable households—including the elderly, disabled, and those with low-incomes—who might not otherwise be physically or financially able to undertake critical home remodeling and repair projects themselves.

http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/research/publications/role-nonprofit-organizations-and-public-programs-promoting-home-rehabilitation

Female mortgage applicants are less likely to have their loans originated than are male mortgage applicants, Woodstock Institute finds in a new fact sheet. The Institute also found evidence  that female-headed joint applications (a female applicant with a male co-applicant) are less likely to have mortgages originated than are male-headed joint applications (a male applicant with a female co-applicant).

“We would expect to see no significant difference in the origination rates for male-headed joint applications and female-headed joint applications, since the backgrounds of both borrowers on joint applications are considered by mortgage lenders,” said Spencer Cowan, vice president of research at Woodstock Institute. “The fact that there are such large disparities raises troubling questions about potentially discriminatory underwriting.”

http://www.woodstockinst.org/blog/blog/new-research-finds-disparities-in...

This is the second part of an article summarizing the chapter on Mortgages from a Center for Responsible Lending (CRL)research paper titled The State of Lending in America and its Impact on U.S. Households.  Part one reviewed the role of the government in housing finance and looked at major players in that market.

The authors estimate that 12 million homes went into foreclosure between January 2007 and June 2012, doubling and sometimes tripling the historic foreclosure rate during any given previous quarter.  Millions of homes that started the process have not yet completed it.  CRL estimates that 3.3 million of owner-occupied loans originated between 2004 and 2008 completed the foreclosure process as of February 2012, with an additional 3.2 million of these loans 60 days or more delinquent or in some stage of the foreclosure.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/12202012_mortgage_market_reford.asp

Who stole the American Dream? The short answer to the question in the title of Hedrick Smith's new book is: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart.

But the longer answer is one heck of a story, told by one of the great journalists of our time.

In his sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience, Smith describes the long, relentless decline of the middle class—a decline that was not by accident, but by design.

He dates it back to a private memo—in effect, a political call to arms—issued to the nation's business leaders in 1971 by Lewis F. Powell, Jr., a corporate attorney soon to become a Supreme Court justice. From that point forward, Smith writes, corporate America threw off any sense of restraint or social obligation and instead unstintingly leveraged its money and political power to pursue its own interests.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/102808/Defying-Gravity.aspx

The Face of Foreclosure Reports are a series of research based reports reflecting statistical information regarding Nevada foreclosure issues combined with the perspective of Nevadans regarding these challenging real estate concerns.  These reports have been developed and commissioned by the Nevada Association of REALTORS® and are intended to serve Nevada homeowners, real estate professionals, ancillary real estate service providers and law makers alike.

The 2012 Face of Foreclosure Report was released July 26, 2012.

http://nvar.org/FaceOfForeclosure.aspx

Despite quickening home sales and rising prices in some parts of California, the state's housing market won't begin a full-fledged recovery until next year, economists at UCLA predict.

A dearth of residential construction remains a huge drag on the state's economy, according to the quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast, while sales of distressed properties still dominate the market.

"The data is just not telling me that the market has turned or is on the verge of turning," said senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg. His report noted that "California real estate markets are either still in the trough or still declining towards it."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ucla-forecast-20120620,0,7283654.s...