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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (114383)	4/3/2008 9:04:20 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

No problem. It's all priced in. Got I-Phone? --- Late Payments on Consumer Loans Highest Since 1992, ABA Says By Hugh Son April 3 (Bloomberg) -- Consumers fell behind on car, credit-card and home-equity loans at the highest level in 15 years during the fourth quarter, another sign the U.S. economy is slowing, according to an American Bankers Association survey. Payments at least 30 days past due increased across all eight categories of loans tracked, the Washington-based group said today in a statement. Late loans climbed 21 basis points to 2.65 percent of all accounts in a consumer-loan index created by the group. ``The rise in consumer credit delinquencies is consistent with a rapidly slowing economy,'' ABA chief economist James Chessen said in the statement. ``Stress in the housing market still dominates the story, but it's a broader tale.'' Lenders including American Express Co., the third-biggest credit-card network, and Capital One Financial Corp. doubled reserves for soured U.S. debt in the fourth quarter. Overdue bank-card accounts reached 4.38 percent in the quarter, according to the ABA, as the slowing economy made it harder for consumers to repay debt. The overall increase was driven by late payments for car loans, which make up two-thirds of all closed-end consumer installment loans, Chessen said. Auto loan delinquencies rose to 1.9 percent from 1.81 percent. Overdue mobile home payments rose to 2.92 percent from 2.87 percent. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke acknowledged for the first time yesterday that a U.S. recession is possible because consumer spending, employment and homebuilding will deteriorate this year. The U.S. economy grew at an annual pace of 0.6 percent from October to December. Growth probably slowed to a 0.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter, according to the median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. `Anemic' Income Growth Rising late payments will continue in the first half of this year, as ``food and gas prices remain stubbornly high and income growth is anemic,'' Chessen said. MasterCard Inc. Chief Executive Officer Robert Selander said in a March 11 interview that U.S. consumers are spending more on gasoline and food, crimping spending for luxury items. MasterCard is the second-biggest payment-card network after Visa Inc. ``What we see is a mix change in how consumers are spending,'' Selander said in the Bloomberg Radio interview. ``With the price of gasoline up approximately 30 percent from where it was a year ago, with commodities prices up and working their way into prices at the supermarkets, consumers are spending more of their money now on gas and groceries.'' To contact the reporter on this story: Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 3, 2008 08:32 EDT

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (114383)	4/3/2008 9:21:43 AM
From: ChanceIs	Respond to of 306849

>>>Bad week to have scheduled a flight<<< Just have to comment and recall some history. Immediately post 9/11, Congress wrote the airlines a $2 billion blank check. The clever analysts screamed. The airlines had way too much overcapacity and had to be pruned inevitably. Fares dropped so much that the cab ride from Manhattan to LaGuardia was less than the plane ride to Miami. And then there was weeding out. What happens with a tax credit for the homebuilders?? They will do what they feel they most need to do to survive. How about clearing out back inventory. New home price wars??? That probably won't hurt too much those communities concerned about the spread of foreclosures, house abandonment and vicious downward spirals. But it might if the higher end folks in the less desirable communities want to bail and can move up. Surely won't help home prices in general and local tax revenues. That wouldn't be a problem because Congress is authorizing more municipal debt so the municipalities can do with their local real estate what the banks did with the monoline insurers.