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 I can't quite figure out whether Alan Greenspan is still big news. He's still capable of headlines, though: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. is 'nowhere near the bottom' of the housing slump and is 'right on the brink" of a recession.'
More, from CNBC.com: "... he also warned that 'Fannie and Freddie are a major accident waiting to happen.'
His comments came in an interview today with CNBC. I'll look for more quotes on housing from the interview and add them to this post.
-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Photo: AFP / Getty Images
 A couple of people forwarded me links to the story of "Princess Chunk," a 44-pound white cat who has been wandering the streets of New Jersey, a victim of foreclosure. At first I thought it was some sort of news hoax, the kind of thing you would read in the Onion and forward to friends.
But it's true. WNBC-TV in New York reports the cat -- real name "Powder" -- "became a local media sensation this week and was dubbed "Princess Chunk" -- since it was found on Saturday wandering the southern New Jersey suburb of Voorhees.... In a week with headlines about presidential politics, suicide bombings in Iraq and big baseball trades, the cat has also captured the nation's attention."
New York magazine: "The nationwide mortgage crisis has a new face: Powder, a.k.a. Princess Chunk, the 44-pound orphaned cat from Camden County, New Jersey. The tubby tabby's elderly owner recently contacted animal-control officials — who, in turn, told WNBC — that she can no longer take care of him because she recently lost her home to the bank."
The cat, by the way, is a male.
Now, go ahead and let me have it for jumping the shark, ruining the blog and journalism as we knew it by posting something so over-the-top irrelevant and frivolous. Go ahead, you want to.
--Peter Viles
Photo credit: John Costello / Philadelphia Inquirer
I'm test-driving a new feature: Morning links from here and there.
From Redfin via Curbed LA: A Little Tokyo Loft -- once sold for $400,000 -- lists for $245,000.
Opinion, from the New York Times: The federal bailout of Fannie Mae violates constitutional principals.
From Newsweek via Patrick.net: Our "infatuation with homeownership" has created a housing nightmare.
From Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking: An update on an alleged fraud ring in Riverside County.
From Forbes.com: West Hollywood 90038 ranks among America's "most overpiced zip codes."
Top housing-related story on Digg: Bush signs housing bill.
I'd like your feedback on this one: Tell me whether you like the list-of-links concept, feel free to suggest specific stories you'd like to see linked, or to suggest specific blogs or websites you'd like to see featured on a regular basis.
-- Peter Viles
Photo: Little Tokyo Lofts; Credit: Los Angeles Times
 That's the title of a provocative and seemingly counterintuitive study by UC Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business Center for Real Estate. It wasn't the selling of home loans to credit-risky borrowers that sparked the phenomenal run-up in prices per se, it was "the changing credit regime" beginning in 2003 that inflated the bubble -- and Fannie and Freddie seem to be have major, albeit unwitting roles.
When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pulled back from the credit markets in 2003 and significantly slowed their lending volume in response to internal accounting problems and outside political pressure, the breach was filled by aggressive securities issuers in the private mortgage market.
And helping to fuel them on was an enthusiastic administration pushing the "dream of homeownership" without a whole lot of regulatory restraint. As a result, total mortgage volume skyrocketed and pushed up home prices "with momentum characteristic of a bubble," the study says. Rather than causing the run-up in house prices, the subprime market may well have been a joint product, along with house price increases, (i.e., the "tail") of the economic, political, and regulatory environment characteristic of the early- to mid-2000’s (the "dog").
"We were quite surprised to find the intensity of subprime lending was insignificant after controlling for all the other factors including the market," says Kerry Vandell, the UCI finance professor and director of its real estate center who was the lead researcher on the study. "But we were really blown away when Fannie's and Freddie's continuing presence in the market was shown to be so important."
Co-authoring the study was doctoral student Major Coleman IV and Michael LaCour-Little, a Cal State Fullerton finance professor who theorized in a provocative 2006 research paper that prepay penalties saved borrowers money.
The latest study was partly funded by the Mortgage Bankers Assn., the National Assn. of Realtors' Subprime Crisis Research Consortium and -- drumroll please -- Freddie Mac.
--Annette Haddad, Times staff writer
Photo credit: Associated Press
Questions? Comments? Tips? E-mail annette.haddad@latimes.com
News item from the Daily News via LA Biz Observed: "The median price of a San Fernando Valley home in June fell 34 percent
from a year earlier, which was the record-high ($655,000). The price
dropped 4 percent from May, and is now nearing 2004 levels."
More data, from the Southland Regional Assn. of Realtors:
--In the San Fernando Valley, sales of existing homes fell 3.6% from June 2007 levels, and remain at the lowest levels for June in 24 years of SRAR statistics. Pending escrows are running 20.6% ahead of year-ago levels. Inventory -- 6,935 properties for sale at the end of June -- is up 1.6% from year-ago levels.
--In the Santa Clarita Valley, sales of existing single-family homes in June paced 11.2% ahead of year-ago levels, while the median price fell 25.6%, to $450,000. That's a decline of $193,000, or 30%, from the record level of $643,000 in April 2006. Inventory -- 1,940 active listings -- is down 16.4% from June 2007 levels.
Worth noting: Citing dropping inventory, SRAR officials say they believe "further steep price discounts are unlikely" in the Santa Clarita Valley: "Real estate is extremely local, with the Santa Clarita Valley far better off than other, harder-hit areas of the state, especially those that had large numbers of new home tracts aimed primarily at first-time home buyers," said Jim Link, chief executive officer of the SRAR.
Doreen Chastain-Shine, president of the SRAR's Santa Clarita Valley division, added, "No doubt that foreclosures and short sales are up and there are still current homeowners at risk of losing the property. But the pressure on prices is not nearly as great as buyers assume simply because there are not nearly enough active listings to force sellers or banks to accept steep discounts."
--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, via L.A. Times.
It would seem that still-high prices and hard-to-get loans would keep people away from Southern California's pricier areas. But they're still coming. According to a recent NorthStar Moving Corp. survey of their customers' moving requests from June '07 through May '08, nearly 2,000 of them transplanted  to Los Angeles and Orange counties. And that's just one moving company.
The top L.A. County destinations:
1) Los Angeles (city of)
2) Pasadena
3) Santa Monica
4) Marina del Rey and Woodland Hills (tied)
5) Long Beach
The top Orange County destinations:
1) Irvine
2) Huntington Beach
3) Newport Beach
4) Costa Mesa
5) Aliso Viejo
Californians moved away too. The most popular destinations:
1) Las Vegas
2) Austin, Texas
3) New York City
4) Chicago
5) Houston
-- Diane Wedner
Photo: Bob Carey / Los Angeles Times
Questions? Comments? E-mail diane.wedner@latimes.com.
 A few changes at L.A. Land, worthy of a short note.
First, as some of you noticed over the weekend, the blog has some new contributors -- reporters and editors who cover real estate and related issues for the Los Angeles Times. This is good news. It will lead to a more diverse, more interesting and more informative blog. As always, you'll still get the full dose of my grumpy take on real estate and the housing bubble. But now, for no extra charge, you'll get additional news, information and analysis from the experts in the Times newsroom.
Second, more good news: Beginning this Sunday, a "greatest hits" version of the blog will appear weekly in the print edition of The Times, in the Business section (you Web-only cheapskates had better subscribe, ASAP). The paper will "reverse-publish" the best posts from that week for those of you who missed it, or for those print readers who might not have ever come to this blog.
Third, a bit of controversy for you to chew on: The latimes.com website is in the process of tweaking its blog comment policy ever so slightly, in hopes of encouraging more thoughtful, sincere, well-reasoned discussion and debate. You can still be silly, or mean and ornery; just be silly, or mean and ornery, while making a relevant point.
My hope is that these changes will make this blog more interesting and more valuable to its readers. You have my thanks, as always, for participating in the blog. As one of the higher-ups here told me (he meant it as a compliment, but I didn't hear it that way): "Pete, the best thing about your blog is the comments."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times
 It didn't receive much notice, but Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (pictured) committed some news over the weekend when he told NBC News' Tom Brokaw, "What we need is a floor in the housing market, a, a stop to the decline in housing values." (Read the entire Obama-Brokaw exchange about housing at the bottom of this post.)
In some circles of Washington, and particularly the Democratic Party, this is not a controversial idea: that the government's goal right now should be to stop the decline in housing prices. But here in Los Angeles -- where housing prices remain high relative to income, and home ownership levels remain low relative to the rest of the country -- there are many who believe the government should stand back and let the market determine housing prices.
Example: The reader who calls himself "Home prices need to get lower," who wrote here earlier today, "My ray of hope is that home prices will continue to slide and housing will become affordable again." Another example: Reader "Manny," who wrote here today that he makes $90,000 and can't afford a decent house: "The markets are still not affordable. I hope more correction is on the way."
Will the new housing bill succeed in doing what Obama says is necessary? It's doubtful. Analyzing the bill this spring, the Congressional Budget Office predicted the housing rescue package would prevent some foreclosures but would not stop the historic decline in housing prices.
I eagerly anticipate hearing from the Obamatons on this one. Please try to stay on topic: Obama's belief that the government needs to put a floor under housing prices.
Continue reading for the entire exchange between Obama and Brokaw about federal housing policy.
Read more Obama: 'What we need is a floor in the housing market' »
Tribune Co. has picked two New York commercial real estate brokerages to market the Los Angeles  Times building downtown and Tribune Tower in Chicago to investors, the company said today.
Cushman & Wakefield will look for buyers for The Times' historic headquarters at 1st and Spring streets in Los Angeles, and Eastdil Secured will attempt to sell the landmark Tribune building overlooking the Chicago River, said Stephanie Pater, director of real estate for Tribune.
Prices for the properties have not been set, Pater said, but The Times' headquarters was valued at about $150 million, and Tribune Tower might garner around $230  million, according to industry trade publication Real Estate Alert.
Tribune announced in June it would sell the buildings to help pay down debt.
-- Roger Vincent
Photos: Getty Images
Questions? Comments? E-mail roger.vincent@latimes.com.
 Here's a wild one: The mini-mansion at right, which was built by the ABC reality show "Extreme Makeover" in 2005 as a gift to an Atlanta-area family, appears headed for foreclosure. How do you lose a house that someone gave you as a gift on national television? According to the Associated Press, the family that owns the house took a loan against its value to start a construction business.
From Access Atlanta:
"Things couldn't look
better three years ago for Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, who
giddily accepted the keys to a small castle, plus enough money to pay
taxes on it for 25 years.
"Now, the Clayton County house that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"
built is a two-story, turreted example of how things can go wrong. It's
in foreclosure.
The A.P.:
"After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a
$450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton
County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday,
but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that
failed.
"The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based
Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home
and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and
hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the
television program had yet built."
--Peter Viles
Photo Credit: A.P.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
A couple of readers argue this morning -- pretty convincingly -- that today's Case-Shiller report on home prices shows that the steepest declines in prices in Los Angeles are behind us. In other words, they argue I was incorrect to state, as I did, that price declines in Los Angeles "have accelerated dramatically in recent months." (I cited statistics showing the annual price decline in Los Angeles increasing from 16.5% in January to 24.5% in May.)
Then came this e-mail: In the local angle, you noted accelerating declines in Los Angeles using year-over-year change.
Here is the actual Case-Shiller data for LA, with the month-to-month declines to the right:
| May 2007 |
263.19 |
-0.06% |
| June 2007 |
262.12 |
-0.41% |
| July 2007 |
260.84 |
-0.49% |
| August 2007 |
258.07 |
-1.06% |
| September 2007 |
254.79 |
-1.27% |
| October 2007 |
249.50 |
-2.08% |
| November 2007 |
240.43 |
-3.64% |
| December 2007 |
233.03 |
-3.08% |
| January 2008 |
224.41 |
-3.70% |
| February 2008 |
214.83 |
-4.27% |
| March 2008 |
207.11 |
-3.59% |
| April 2008 |
202.52 |
-2.22% |
| May 2008 |
198.59 |
-1.94% |
While the year-over-year declines will continue to grow for a few more months (assuming next month is a bigger decline than .41%, the next month .49%, etc.), you can see that the monthly rate of change is actually decelerating after peaking this winter. The national rate is decelerating as well.
With funny money mortgages out of the system, and home sales picking up nicely in the harder hit areas (Sacto, the IE, low-income parts of OC), I'd guess the deceleration trend will continue, and eventually turn positive sometime in '09. The year-over-year data won't likely turn positive until 6 months or so after that.
A second e-mailer made the same points, writing, "It could therefore be argued that the decline has flattened, which could be indicative of the market bottoming out."
-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Home prices in Los Angeles continued their historic decline in May, falling 24.5% from year-earlier levels, according to the widely watched Case-Shiller index of home values.
National headline: Standard & Poor's economist David Blitzer is talking this morning (CNBC) about an increasingly clear "regional divide" in home prices, with Sun Belt cities showing severe declines while other cities show signs of a turnaround.
Overall, prices in 20 large cities continued to decline at the highest levels ever measured by Case-Shiller. From Bloomberg: "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell at a faster pace in May, indicating the three-year housing slump has not stabilized, a private survey showed today." The rate of decline on those 20 large cities was 15.8% for the year ending in May.
More on the numbers: The biggest annual price declines remain concentrated in Sun Belt cities that experienced housing bubbles. These are the cities with the largest annual declines in prices:
Las Vegas -28.4%
Miami -28.3%
Phoenix -26.5%
L.A. -24.5%
San Diego -23.2%
Ray of hope: Seven cities experienced slight increases in prices from April to May, though Case-Shiller numbers are not seasonally adjusted, which makes monthly fluctuations somewhat suspect. These are the gainers: Atlanta; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Minneapolis; and Portland, Ore.
Local angle: Case-Shiller data show home price declines in Los Angeles have accelerated dramatically in recent months. (Update: A number of readers complained about the previous sentence, arguing that price declines are not accelerating at all, but actually decelerating. Read their arguments here.)
Month Annual decline in Los Angeles
Sept. 07 7.0%
Oct. 07 8.8%
Nov. 07 11.9%
Dec. 07 13.7%
Jan. 08 16.5%
Feb. 08 19.4%
March 08 21.7%
April 08 23.1%
May 08 24.5%
Note: The Case-Shiller report is an index, and does not translate into a dollar value for home prices, which is why this report does not mention the average, or median price for a home in Los Angeles.
--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Median listing prices in Los Angeles County slipped another $4,000 over the past week, falling to $420,000 -- a decline of $159,000 since asking prices peaked in April of 2006, according to Housing Tracker's weekly analysis of MLS listings.
Inventory of houses and condos for sale continued to decline, and is now trailing year-ago levels by 1.4%.
Numbers: At $420,000, median listing prices are down 20.8% from year-ago levels -- the steepest decline yet measured in this slump -- and are 27.6% below their peak level of $579,666. The inventory of homes and condos for sale dropped by nearly 500 units, to 43,086.
Date Median listing price Inventory
4/06 $579,666 27,251
4/07 $545,000 35,489
5/07 $545,000 38,297
6/07 $540,000 40,766 (up 20.4% y/y)
7/07 $535,000 42,685 (up 14.5% y/y)
8/07 $529,000 44,483 (up 13.6% y/y)
9/07 $520,000 46,414 (up 16.9% y/y)
10/07 $510,000 46,603 (up 15.6% y/y)
11/07 $499,900 46,503 (up 19.0% y/y)
12/07 $495,000 (down 10.0% y/y) 43,174 (up 28.2% y/y)
1/08 $479,900 (down 12.6%) 40,850 (up 33.3% y/y)
2/08 $475,000 (down 13.5%) 43,625 (up 38.3%)
3/08 $464,900 (down 15.5%) 42,098 (up 31.4%)
4/08 $450,000 (down 17.4%) 42,430 (up 16.7%)
5/08 $449,900 (down 17.4%) 42,532 (up 11.1%)
6/08 $440,000 (down 18.5%) 42,398 (up 4.0%)
7/7/08 $425,000 (down 20.6%) 44,726 (up 5.2%)
7/14/08 $425,000 (down 20.6%) 44,636 (up 4.6%)
7/21/08 $424,000 (down 20.7%) 43,584 (up 0.8%)
7/28/08 $420,000 (down 20.8%) 43,086 (down 1.4%)
--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Over the weekend, Congress approved the housing rescue bill -- which was designed to help thousands of homeowners avert foreclosure and extend a lifeline to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if they need it. 
Today, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled another piece of the government's plan to help shore up the housing market: greenlighting banks' use of so-called covered bonds to pump more money into the U.S. mortgage market. "I believe covered bonds have the potential to increase mortgage financing, improve underwriting standards and strengthen U.S. financial institutions by providing a new funding source that will diversify their overall portfolio," Paulson said in a statement.
Maybe. Wall Street was less-than-enamored with the idea, as markets columnist Tom Petruno explains on his blog Money & Co. He also explains how these bonds work, noting that they are big in Europe.
In a commentary today entitled "Will the 2008 housing bill save the housing market?," William Wheaton, (registration required) a MIT economics professor and a principal at Torto Wheaton Research, sees the Fannie and Freddie safety net as the key -- and perhaps only -- worthwhile provision of the housing bill. He sums up the situation thusly: "What the current housing market needs is more sales, more transactions and a return to liquidity with normal moving/mobility. This, coupled with continued low new construction, will reduce the inventory of unsold units and allow prices to stabilize and then recover."
-- Annette Haddad
Photo: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, center, gestures during a news conference today, flanked by FDIC Chair Shelia Bair, left, and Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh.
Credit: Associated Press
Questions? Comments? Email: annette.haddad@latimes.com
Whether expensive homes in prestigious areas will escape the housing crash remains a hotly debated topic. I hear from many readers (and see some examples where I live) of houses still selling, sometimes quickly, and sometimes for prices higher than the owners paid just a couple of years ago.
Yet economists I interview contend prices at the high end are just sticky -- they take longer to fall,  but do so eventually. Holdout sellers at some point cave in, raising supply, and trade-up buyers from other areas don't have as much money to buy in the pricier neighborhoods, squeezing demand.
John Karevoll at DataQuick Information Systems has provided a breakdown of Southern California June home sales that shows the top end is falling as well.
The median price for the top tenth of homes sold in June was $900,000, down from $1,129,500 the same month a year ago. That's a 20% drop. Last June was the price peak for that market segment, according to DataQuick.
The bottom tenth of homes sold fared worse, with a 41% drop in the median sales price.
But the June decline in the top tenth shows a reversal from last summer. In June 2007, the median sales price for that tier was UP 3%. Last June, prices in the bottom tenth had fallen 11% from the previous year.
So the top is sliding. Or is it ? The June median sales price was actually UP from the May median for the tier of $875,000, with roughly the same number of transactions. A one-month bump may not mean much, of course. A few more months of data will give us a better picture.
--Peter Y. Hong, Times staff writer
Photo: Bob Grieser / Los Angeles Times
Comments? Questions? Email peter.hong@latimes.com
What's worth a million? The market seems to be struggling now with that question.  A few listings:
South Pasadena: 1908 Mission St. Listed at $899,000, sold in 2005 for $1.2 million.
Irvine: 5 Villager. Listed at $999,888, sold in 2007 for $1.15 million.
Laguna Niguel: 28791 Riki Ct. Listed at $990,000, sold in 2005 for $1.125 million.
Long Beach: 4141 Pine Ave. Listed at $865,000, sold in 2005 for $1 million.
Pasadena: 1930 Kaweah Drive. Listed at $939,000, sold in 2007 for $1.04 million.
Are these properties quirks, or signs of more price cuts to come in the upper end?
--Peter Y. Hong, Times staff writer
Photo: Associated Press
Comments? Questions? Email peter.hong@latimes.com
Bali, or horse country? Dubai, or Park Avenue?
While many Americans are chewing over how to make their mortgage payments, 305 high-end owners (their primary residences and investment assets are each worth at least $1 million, except Californians, whose homes must be worth $2 million-plus) recently ruminated over where they'd like to land their dream homes.
The 2008 Coldwell Banker Previews International Luxury Survey reported last week that 27% of those surveyed named as their top location an island; 22% said they want a country home; and 18% prefer an  international destination. There are plenty -- 17% -- who want a dream house based on a particular address or ZIP Code; 13% want a high-rise with amenities (can't live without a doorman); and 8% confessed to picking a location based simply on keeping up with their friends....wherever the Joneses are living these days.
And what do the well-heeled want inside these must-have mansions? Designer kitchens, customized home entertainment centers, indoor gyms and wine cellars. Outdoors: formal landscaping, water view, pool, hot tub (of course), boat dock, golf course, tennis court and that must-have --- a basketball court.
--Diane Wedner, Times staff writer
Photo: Associated Press
Questions? Comments? Email diane.wedner@latimes.com
 In case you missed the announcement today in Real Estate, because of reductions in staff and space, the Sunday Real Estate section has printed its final edition.
Real estate coverage will continue to appear online throughout the week. Hot Property, Neighborly Advice and the occasional Pardon Our Dust remodeling tale will appear in print as part of the new Saturday Home section. Home of the Week, Southland home-price charts and other features will appear in Sunday Business. Real estate articles will appear in both sections.
There's a journalism term for finishing an edition's work: You put the section to bed. When I started as a part-timer in this department 28 1/2 years ago under then-editor Dick Turpin, I never dreamed that one day I'd be putting the section to bed for good.
It has been an honor and a joy to serve readers for the last eight years as editor of a section that started in 1901, according to The Times official chronology. Under the headline, "A Good Steady Market," the tone then was optimistic: "While there is nothing that could even by courtesy be called a boom in real estate just now, yet 10 years ago we should certainly have characterized the present condition of the market by that name."
Ah, for a good, steady market.
If you'd like to share your views, contact readers.rep@latimes.com; call (877) 554-4000 or fax (213) 237-3535.
-- Lauren Beale, Real Estate editor
Photo: Real Estate editor Dick Turpin oversees fledgling reporter Lauren Beale, the current Times Real Estate editor, in 1982. At right, the late Lou Desser, news and makeup editor.
 Good morning. It's a bright, clear and cool one in Bend, Ore., where I'm vacationing and sneaking in 15 minutes of blogging. Pieter Severynen's "Tree of the Week" is back, celebrating the unique urban forest of Los Angeles.
The mayten tree -– Maytenus boaria
Sometimes a garden design calls for a certain experience, such as the green curtains of hanging branches that come with a weeping willow, but the garden just isn’t big enough to accommodate a full-size willow. Luckily we have so many trees at our disposal here in the Southland that we can find smaller-scale substitutes to create the desired look of relaxation and informality. The mayten tree is one of them.
The mayten tree grows at a medium pace until it becomes an attractive round-headed to spreading tree. It easily reaches 30 feet tall by 15 feet wide or more. It looks like a dainty weeping willow, but unlike the willow, it is evergreen (a rare cold snap in the 20s would make it lose its leaves). The small, elliptical, 1- to 2-inch-long light green leaves have serrated edges and sit close together along the long pendulous branchlets that hang down from the branches. The tiny yellow green flowers are inconspicuous; seeds are small. Bark is dark gray and finely textured; the trunk does not become stout till the tree is middle aged. The roots are not invasive, but will sucker if damaged; it is best not to plant anything else close by. Deep and infrequent irrigation will encourage the roots to go deep and stay there. The Mayten tree produces a lot of (unwanted) side growth, especially when young, but this is easy to remove. "Green Showers" is a selected variety of uniform, cutting grown plants.
The name "mayten" comes from its Mapuche Indian name "mantun," while "boaria" refers to cattle, which seem to like the leaves for forage. The tree is native to waterways in arid regions of Chile, Argentina and Peru.
Thanks, Pieter.
Posted by Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Pieter Severynen
A report today by the California Assn. of Realtors says sales of existing homes were up 17.5% statewide in June from a year ago: 420,550 single-family homes were sold in June at a seasonally adjusted  rate, versus 357,890 in June 2007. A big reason for the increase: bargain hunting at the lower end of the price range. "Sales were driven in part by larges shares of deeply discounted distressed sales in many parts of the state," said CAR president William E. Brown.
The counties showing the most sales strength were, not surprisingly, those hardest hit by foreclosures. Sales in Sacramento County nearly doubled, according to CAR's seasonally unadjusted data; in Riverside County, sales jumped 75%.
This is more or less in keeping with data released last week by research firm DataQuick Information Systems. For the month of June, DataQuick reported, sales were in positive territory in the Inland Empire.
Nonetheless, by all measures prices continue to decline -- according to the Realtors, the statewide median home price declined 37.7% to $368,250 -- no doubt because all these resurgent home buyers are driving hard bargains.
*Update and clarification:
The reason the C.A.R. numbers differ from the DataQuick numbers is because C.A.R. uses seasonally adjusted data. From its report today: The statewide sales figures represents what the total number of homes sold during 2008 would be if sales maintained the June pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
Posted by Annette Haddad
Photo: Associated Press
Question? Comments? Email: annette.haddad@latimes.com
For sale: A brand-new, three-bedroom contemporary Mediterranean in the north-of-Sunset area of 90210. The private hillside manor has a pool, views and 3,600 square feet. Price: 2,486,398 euros.  That’s right, euros.
Builder and co-owner Joe Folender will include the $3,895,000 price tag when he lists the house for sale in mid-August, but his goal is to also attract foreigners seeking a "bargain" (everything is relative) amid this country’s economic turbulence.
"The dollar is weaker," Folender said. "We’re capitalizing on the strength of other currencies." Whatever works!
Marketing a home in both currencies isn’t a flaming trend yet in Los Angeles, but it is being seen in New York City. "Lots of Europeans will now get what that dollar amount is in their currency," said Mark Goldsmith, a Beverly Hills Coldwell Banker agent who’s listing the home.
Can’t hurt.
-- Diane Wedner
Photo: Agence-France Presse
Questions or comments? E-mail diane.wedner@latimes.com.
Lender woes continue to mount.
Richard Schmitt reports today that a federal grand jury in L.A. has started probing three fallen hometown lenders and their subprime loan activities.
Subpoenas have been issued in recent weeks and months to Countrywide Financial Corp., which is now part of Bank of America, New Century Financial Corp., which is under Bankruptcy Court protection and IndyMac Bank, which was seized by federal regulators two weeks ago.
The question seems to be whether fraud and other crimes contributed to the national mortgage debacle. But several sources quoted by Schmitt suggest that the complexity of building cases against the companies may be very difficult for the feds to make. "What they may find is a lot of incredibly sloppy practices that are not necessarily criminal," says Bert Ely, a Virginia-based banking consultant.
A Business section feature on Newport Beach-based Downey Savings & Loan sets up the thrift's dismal news today of another quarterly loss and a growing number of bad loans on its books. The results sent the CEO and board chairman packing.
Some lenders seem to be dealing with their builder clients as they are their home-loan customers. The Times' Peter Hong talks to some local builders who say that banks are making it difficult for them to work out their  faltering loans, which could lead to defaults and bankruptcies. Many builders will go under, [Barratt American president Mick] Pattinson said, because "banks aren't supporting businesses that supported them for decades."
Maybe the building industry will need its own congressional rescue similar to the one the White House has now agreed not to veto. The House housing rescue bill approved yesterday would stave off foreclosure for hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
-- Annette Haddad
Photo credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Questions? Comments? Email annette.haddad@latimes.com
 So you tell me the high end of the L.A. market is holding up? It did not hold up well for actress Angela Bassett, who has finally sold her Hancock Park home (pictured) for $3.8 million -- more than $2 million less than she first asked for it.
Bassett first listed the house for just under $6 million last summer, as Ruth Ryon reported for the L.A. Times. That listing expired, the house came back on the market this spring for $4.99 million, the price was then dropped to $3.9 million, and it finally sold for $3.8 million, as Ann Brenoff reports.
Total discount from original asking price, by my math: 36%. That's real money.
Posted by Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments?
Photo Credit: George W. Carroll
 Breaking news, from Reuters: San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre said Wednesday that he filed a lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. and its Countrywide unit to prevent the mortgage lenders from foreclosing on homes in his city, which he aims to make a "foreclosure sanctuary."
More: "Aguirre plans to file similar lawsuits against Washington Mutual Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Wachovia Corp. in an effort to make the lenders negotiate with mortgage borrowers facing foreclosure."
Bank of America had no immediate comment on the suit.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: "In a press conference held in front of a vacant, partially burnt Skyline home that has recently been taken over by Countrywide, Aguirre said he hopes his suit will be a way to bring other lenders together to work out settlements with borrowers who are about to lose their homes or who already have been foreclosed on.
More: "'We are asking that any additional foreclosures be stopped and that the parties come together and work out a reasonable alternative based on the values of these properties today so we can stop the spread of this foreclosure disease,'" Aguirre said.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: EPA
 As your Congress rushes to write a blank check for government aid to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, this caught my eye: Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot's withering criticism of one of the meanest gangs in Washington, "The Fannie Mae Gang."
Highlights: After describing Fannie and Freddie as "perverse," "relentless," and "untouchable," Gigot writes, "Their unique clout derives from a combination of liberal ideology and private profit. Fannie has been able to purchase political immunity for decades by disguising its vast profit-making machine in the cloak of 'affordable housing.' To be more precise, Fan and Fred have been protected by an alliance of Capitol Hill and Wall Street, of Barney Frank and Angelo Mozilo."
More: "... about half of the implicit taxpayer subsidy for Fan and Fred is pocketed by shareholders and management. According to the Federal Reserve, the half that goes to homeowners adds up to a mere seven basis points on mortgages. In return for this, Fannie was able to pay no fewer than 21 of its executives more than $1 million in 2002, and in 2003 (Franklin) Raines pocketed more than $20 million. Fannie's left-wing defenders are underwriters of crony capitalism, not affordable housing."
My two cents: There is a phrase in wide circulation in America today that accurately describes the this kind of enterprise: Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: A.P.
Worth noting: The recent concern over the health of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has pushed mortgage rates higher.
From today's New York Times: "The average interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.71
percent on Tuesday, from 6.44 percent on Friday, according to HSH
Associates, a publisher of consumer rates. The average rate for
so-called jumbo loans, which cannot be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, was 7.8 percent, the highest since December 2000.
From The Wall Street Journal: "Home-mortgage rates are nearing their highest levels in a year, adding to pressures on the already weak housing market."
Posted by Peter Viles
Hat tip: It All Happens On the Margin
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
This is the graph of foreclosures in Southern California that appeared in today's L.A. Times. Not pretty. But remember: The foreclosure problem is much worse in the Central Valley. Keep scrolling down to see the graph of foreclosures in the entire state.
Now that's ugly. This is courtesy of OCRenter at Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking, who took an old L.A. Times graphic for the entire state and updated it.
The important take-away here, for me anyway, is that this graph clearly establishes that the current downturn isn't anything like the last one. It is much, much worse.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Graphics: Los Angeles Times and Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking
 Where is the rate of foreclosures rising the fastest in Southern California? So glad you asked: Our tech guys have put together this excellent chart showing ZIP Codes with the biggest percentage increase in foreclosures since last year.
A sneak peak at some neighborhoods at the top of the list:
Foreclosures
City ZIP Q2 2007 Q2 2008
Glendale 91201 1 12
Culver City 90230 1 11
Long Beach 90806 4 38
Whittier 90601 3 32
You can also use this handy widget to search for foreclosure -- and median sales price -- stats on the ZIP Code of your choice.
A note about the four ZIPS above: I chose them deliberately because they are all on the high side of median prices for greater Los Angeles (Glendale 91201 had a median sales price in June of $638,000; Culver City 90230 was $665,000; Long Beach 90806 was $570,000; Whittier 90601 was $485,000).
-- Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo: Culver City's City Hall. Credit: L.A. Times
 The efforts of the Hope Now coalition (pictured) are not translating into results in California: New statistics show that homeowners who default on their mortgages are more likely than ever to lose their homes to foreclosure.
Every three months, DataQuick measures the "escape rate" -- the percentage of the homeowners in default who manage to emerge from the foreclosure process by bringing their payments current, refinancing, or selling the home and paying off what they owe. As defaults mount, the "escape rate" (my phrase, not DQ's) has been sinking like a stone for two years:
Quarter # of defaults in Cal. "escape rate"
2Q 06 20,909 88%
3Q 06 27,218 80.9%
4Q 06 37,994 71%
1Q 07 46,760 52%
2Q 07 53,943 54.6%
3Q 07 72,571 45.9%
4Q 07 81,550 41%
1Q 08 113,809 32%
2Q 08 121,341 22%
Source: DataQuick Information Systems
Analysis: In fairness to the efforts of lenders to work out problem loans, workouts become more difficult when prices are falling rapidly, so some decline in the "escape rate" is to be expected as prices weaken. But this is a dramatic decline.
Hat tip: Cal, in the comment section.
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo: Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. announces a mortgage initiative backed by Bush administration officials and the Hope Now
industry alliance.
Credit: Associated Press
Breaking: DataQuick reports today that foreclosures in California soared 33% from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2008, and are running 261% ahead of year-ago levels.
More, from DataQuick: "Lenders started foreclosure proceedings on a record number of California homeowners last quarter, the result of declining home values and the rampant spoilage of a batch of especially risky home loans made in late 2005 and 2006."
Writing on LATimes.com, Peter Hong leads with defaults rising to record levels: "A record number of California homeowners defaulted on mortgages last quarter, a real estate information service reported today."
Numbers:
-- DataQuick counted 121,341 "notices of default" in the second quarter, up 6.6% from the first quarter and up 124.9% from year-ago levels. The relatively small increase from quarter to quarter "may indicate that we're nearing a plateau," said DataQuick President John Walsh. "We won't know until the end of the year, but it may be that some lenders are starting to prioritize workouts with homeowners instead of grinding things through the foreclosure process."
-- Trustee deeds recorded, or actual loss of a home to foreclosure, totaled 63,061 during the quarter -- up 33.5% from the first quarter and up 261% from the second quarter of last year, DataQuick reported.
More to come on this.
 From this morning's L.A. Times: "The top two floors of a Century City residential tower still under
construction have been sold for a record $47 million to Candy Spelling,
the widow of TV mogul Aaron Spelling."
How is that downsizing? Spelling, 62, is moving out of the biggest home in L.A., a 123-room, 56,000 square-foot mansion in Holmby Hills. The new place is a relatively tight squeeze, the Times' Roger Vincent reports:
"Her new home will be less than a third the size of the old one -- just
16,500 square feet -- but with a killer 360-degree view spanning the
horizon from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Catalina Island. The
condominium building called the Century is going up next door to the
Century Plaza Hotel on Avenue of the Stars and will be completed in
late 2009."
More: "There are still wealthy buyers keeping the very top end in play --
often at ever higher prices. The price of $2,848 per square foot paid
by Spelling at the Century is a record for a Los Angeles condo. The old
record of $2,700 was set in February -- at the same building."
Posted by Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments?
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
A California Court of Appeal judge whose mortgage was personally approved by former Countrywide Financial Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo later ruled in favor of Countrywide in a class-action lawsuit, Portfolio magazine reports in its latest issue.
Portfolio's Dan Golden reports that Richard Aldrich, a California Court of Appeal judge, went to Countrywide in 2004 to refinance the loan for his 8,200-square-foot house in Westlake Village; his application, assigned to loan officer Robert Feinberg, sought a $1-million loan and a $900,000 line of credit, the magazine reports.
Portfolio: "By email, Feinberg alerted Mozilo that the credit line was 'above what guidelines allow.' Mozilo responded, 'Go ahead and approve the loan, and close it as soon as possible. Don’t worry about this deal, it’s golden.' Countrywide further waived half a point, or $5,000 on the million-dollar loan."
More: "That wasn’t Aldrich’s only contact with Countrywide. At the time he refinanced, a class-action lawsuit against Countrywide was pending before the appellate court, brought by borrowers contending that the company offered an inadequate payment to settle allegations that it charged excessive fees for credit reports. That August, Aldrich was part of a three-judge panel that unanimously rejected the borrowers’ appeal."
Portfolio reports that Aldrich, in a brief telephone exchange with the magazine, denied that he had received a below-market rate on the loan and then hung up. The magazine reports he did not disclose his relationship with Countrywide to plaintiffs in the class-action suit.
The entire article is worth a look, it sheds new light on the "friends of Angelo" connections, and names a few more beneficiaries of Mozilo's personal attention, including CNN commentator Paul Begala. In one internal exchange, a Countrywide executive urges special treatment for a congressional staff lawyer on a committee overseeing housing issues. The internal guidance on handling the lawyer's loan includes the phrase, "No garbage fees."
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.
Hat tip: Patrick.net
Two headlines duel in this week's analysis of MLS listings from Housing Tracker: Median listing prices dropped another $1,000 over the week and are now $155,000 below their bubble peak, while inventory dipped again and is now even with year-ago levels.
At $424,000, median listing prices are down 20.7% from year-ago levels -- the steepest decline yet measured in this slump -- and are 26.9% below their peak level of $579,666. The inventory of homes and condos for sale dropped by just over 1,000 units and is now just 0.8% ahead of year-ago levels.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts and theories on this: What's going on with inventory?
Date Median listing price Inventory
4/06 $579,666 27,251
4/07 $545,000 35,489
5/07 $545,000 38,297
6/07 $540,000 40,766 (up 20.4% y/y)
7/07 $535,000 &nb | |
I can't quite figure out whether Alan Greenspan is still big news. He's still capable of headlines, though: "Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. is 'nowhere near the bottom' of the housing slump and is 'right on the brink" of a recession.'
