Home

Zillow lays off 25 percent of workforce

By Inman News, Friday, October 17, 2008.

Online valuation and listings site Zillow.com announced today it is laying off 40 people, or 25 percent of the company's workforce, in order to cut expenses in anticipation of a prolonged recession.

"Unprecedented economic events ... have made a prolonged recession likely, in our judgment," said Rich Barton, Zillow founder, chairman and chief executive officer, in a post on the company blog.  more...

Rescue sidesteps economic 'black hole'

By Lou Barnes, Friday, October 17, 2008.
Flickr image by <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/fdecomite/427241276/">fdecomite</a>.

Four weeks ago yesterday marked the turning point in the Great Run of '08: after the Lehman disaster the White House and Congress vowed to intervene as necessary.

Last Monday afternoon marked the fact of effective intervention, with authorities for the first time moving ahead of the crisis. The Treasury summoned the CEOs of the nine largest bank-survivors and broke the capital shortage by involuntary injection -- an event and scene without American precedent.  more...

DOJ adds states to 'minimum-service' list Premium Content

By Glenn Roberts Jr., Friday, October 17, 2008.

The U.S. Department of Justice has updated the Competition and Real Estate Web site maintained by its Antitrust Division, adding several states and Washington, D.C., to its list of places that require brokers to perform a specific set of services.  more...

Starts, permits fall 70% from peak

By Inman News, Friday, October 17, 2008.

Single-family housing starts and building-permit authorizations hit the lowest level since 1982 in September, with total starts and permits dipping to levels not seen since 1991, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau announced today.  more...

HUD puts out list of HOPE lenders

By Inman News, Friday, October 17, 2008.

Federal housing officials have compiled a list of lenders participating in the HOPE for Homeowners program, which they say could help as many as 400,000 homeowners avoid foreclosure by refinancing problem loans into new 30-year fixed-rate mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.  more...

Florida sues foreclosure rescue firm

By Inman News, Friday, October 17, 2008.

More than 600 Florida homeowners are believed to have signed up for a foreclosure rescue scheme offered by a company that allegedly advised them not to make mortgage payments to their lenders, but pay the company about 60 percent of their monthly payments instead.  more...

Oct

17
2008

The Path to Disaster

By Inman News, Friday, October 17, 2008.

Inman News today released a late-breaking special report titled The Path to Disaster (PDF Download); which chronicles the demise of the housing market over the last few years.

From the report's introduction:

We dug back in the Inman News archives for some forensic evidence that foretold the catastrophic demise of the boom days, for those clues — some subtle and some now painfully obvious — that this was all bound to happen.  more...