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

To: 10K a day who wrote (130930)	6/27/2008 10:48:15 AM
From: gregor_us	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

I have a simple solution for California. California should open up offshore drilling and take a hefty royalty from the process. Then, 100% of the royalties should go towards building out... 1. The proposed high speed rail from SD to Sacto with the SF spur. 2. More light rail in SD, LA, and SF--especially East Bay. 3. Solar and Wind power to feed the Grid. On all high speed trains, commuter trains, and inner city light rail, I would post the data in the passenger cabins on how much gross offshore oil revenues were, and the state's take from royalites. I would hammer home the idea. I would just comment that the entire discussion surrounding offshore drilling in the USA is like most conversations here an example of the false dillemma fallacy. Basically, drilling in the OCS in the USA won't do one thing for global oil prices. It's also not th environmental threat it once was, 30 years ago. But, it will indeed give that cash flow to us. And that is non-trivial. It's cash that flows toward us. I think Florida should also take up my plan. Drill, take royalites, build excellent running and looking transport. Would also make for strong job creation at all levels, from engineering, to design, to manual/skilled labor. Cheers, Gregor (posted also as a reply to zebra4o1)

To: 10K a day who wrote (130930)	6/27/2008 11:17:28 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Homes Less Affordable as Prices Fall, Rates Rise, Zillow Says bloomberg.com June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Rising mortgage rates are driving up the cost of buying a house even as prices fall, making property more expensive across the U.S., according to a new study by Zillow.com, an online provider of home valuations. Monthly payments on 30-year fixed mortgages are 6 percent to 10 percent higher in 41 of the top U.S. housing markets than they were two months ago. First-quarter prices have declined from a year earlier in 88 percent of those areas, Zillow said. ``We're going to need about a 30 percent decline in house prices if you are going to keep payments stable,'' said Morris Davis, a former senior economist with the Federal Reserve and now a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Business. Seven Federal Reserve benchmark cuts since September have failed to lower mortgage rates as banks have curtailed lending after taking writedowns or credit losses of more than $400 billion from investments in mortgages. Rates for 30-year fixed-rate home loans were about 6.3 percent when the Fed first reduced its target federal funds rate nine months ago. They're now just under 6.45 percent, data from Bankrate.com show. Zillow based its calculations on almost 25,000 mortgage offers to potential homebuyers with credit ratings of at least 680 out of a possible 850. The would-be buyers sought bids through Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace, a new service that helps consumers shop for home loans. Zillow's main business provides U.S. home valuation estimates based partly on sales data. `Unfortunate Pickle'