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

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 2:43:09 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

<In the Bay Area, about 4,000 teachers were expected to get pink slips, according to the Burlingame-based California Teachers Association. Statewide, the number approached 22,000 as California struggles with a $22 billion deficit.> mercurynews.com

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 2:44:32 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 306849

dailyfinance.com Home Foreclosure Rates Slackened in February, But Misery Remains By JONATHAN BERR Posted 12:44 PM 03/11/10 Economy, Real Estate Comments: 798 Print E-mail More Text Size A A A I have a friend who lives a development of McMansions nestled in New Jersey's Pine Barrens, and whenever I visited him, I would wonder who could afford those houses. The answer is that, mostly, they couldn't. When times were good, throngs of people snatched up these homes, which sit on more than an acre of property, using exotic interest-only mortgages. As the real estate market collapsed, so did their ability to afford their houses. My friend's next-door neighbor left in the middle of the night ahead of a bank repossession. Another family recently vacated their home under the watchful eye of the county sheriff. For-sale signs abound in the neighborhood, including one from the builder advertising a property that is available for immediate occupancy: That sign has been up for months. Though RealtyTrac reported Thursday that foreclosures in February rose only 6%, their smallest increase since 2006, the real estate market is still causing many Americans pain. Millions of homeowners have mortgages that are underwater: They owe more than their properties are worth. Many are finding that keeping their homes is just not worth the hassle. (me: wonder how much those hampsters are contributing to this) And RealtyTrac did add this caveat to its report: The overall foreclosure rate may have been depressed by the unusually heavy winter storms that beset much of the Northeast in the past two months. Mortgage Modification "May Simply Have Delayed the Inevitable" "This leveling of the foreclosure trend is not necessarily evidence that fewer homeowners are in distress and at risk for foreclosure, but rather that foreclosure prevention programs, legislation and other processing delays are in effect capping monthly foreclosure activity -- albeit at a historically high level that will likely continue for an extended period, " said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac, in a press release. Indeed, the data shows that default rates on modified loans remain high because unemployment hovers around 10%. Standard & Poors recently estimated that the redefault rates on modified loans were likely to hit an astonishing 70%. Activists have argued for years that the best way to help cash-strapped homeowners is to allow bankruptcy court judges to slash the value of mortgage loans, an idea that the banking industry has opposed for just as long. But the recent data suggests that the government's Home Affordable Modification Program "may simply have delayed the inevitable," says the S&P report. Much of the discussion about real estate these days resolves on whether people were greedy or stupid when they took on these loans. There isn't much sympathy out there for people like my friend's New Jersey neighbors who bought homes that they couldn't really afford even before the market tanked. But what is forgotten in the whole "greed versus stupidity" debate is that it takes two parties to conduct a transaction. Many mortgage companies chased short-term profits by talking people into risky, exotic mortgages instead of plain-vanilla 30-year fixed-rate loans. Victims of these sleazy practices deserve our help, not our scorn. The market will correct itself eventually. But many dream homes are still nightmares for their owners. I don't see the fortunes of the New Jersey McMansion owners improving significantly any time soon.

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 2:48:23 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Parents play a vital role -- but where they can't the State has a vital interest in helping all children to reach their full potential -- and right now we are about as far from that as you can get. You cite your good fortune in America and your educational experience is a key part of that. You might not be aware of what has happened to schools in America over the last generation, and we could argue many of the fine points. But at this point in time there is one stark and undebatable reality in public education -- it is financially bankrupt and as these schools go so goes America. California, to pick one of many states, is destined to be a place where schools take a back seat to prisons in terms of overall funding -- it is tragic. You might not mean to be part of the problem -- but you are if you want to blame it on parents and teachers without taking into account how far down the drain the whole system has already been flushed by underfunding it.

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 2:53:44 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Respond to of 306849

lololol!!! edit... that would be PUBLIC school system... eff'ing spell check indeed :)

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 3:35:14 PM
From: marcher	Respond to of 306849

the fact is that public education standards in california have increased in difficulty, since your experience. the big jump occurred in the late 90s, early 00s. the big "crisis" has been fabricated by the private sector, in order to gain rights for "exploitation". when they are adjusted for demographic variables, international comparisons will show u.s. public schools are the best in the world. yes, parent support (and lack of poverty) are very important. cheers!

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (241110)	3/16/2010 4:18:43 PM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Apparently Ben Bernanke's apprenticeship was operating the printing press for "My child is an honor role student at ......." bumper sticker corporation. Seems they can't give those away fast enough.