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Craig, Merlin, bulls and bears, oh my

By Inman News, Friday, July 11, 2008.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, middle, takes the stage during a Real Estate Connect event.

The Craig behind craigslist, bulls and bears, Merlin's "magic," six industry-changing ideas, the "MLS Mess," and the leader of a new nationwide real estate franchise, among many others, will take to the stage later this month during the annual Real Estate Connect event in San Francisco.  more...

Senate sends sweeping housing bill to House

By Matt Carter, Friday, July 11, 2008.

Senate lawmakers Friday signed off on a bill that would modernize the Federal Housing Administration and expand FHA loan guarantee programs by $300 billion, create a new regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and create an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.

HR 3221, the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, would also appropriate $4 billion for states to purchase and renovate abandoned and foreclosed properties, a proposal the Bush administration has threatened to veto.  more...

Feds close down IndyMac Bank

By Matt Carter, Friday, July 11, 2008.

In the biggest bank failure of the housing downturn to date, federal banking regulators today closed IndyMac Bank FSB, naming the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as conservator.

The FDIC said it will transfer insured deposits and "substantially all the assets" of IndyMac Bank, to a newly created successor, IndyMac Federal Bank, which will be operated by the FDIC.  more...

Fannie, Freddie say bailout is not imminent

By Inman News, Friday, July 11, 2008.

Federal regulators and officials at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reiterated Friday that the companies are adequately capitalized and that a government bailout is not imminent, but stockholders in the government-chartered, publicly traded companies were not entirely reassured.  more...

Fannie-Freddie: public policy mangled

By Lou Barnes, Friday, July 11, 2008.

The Fannie-Freddie panic began on Wednesday -- that is, this Fannie-Freddie panic, as opposed to the prior ones. The firms had already lost 90 percent of their stock value, and can continue to lose half of their remaining value every day forever with no trouble. It's losing the other half that's a problem.  more...

Study questions RESPA's reliance on 'sunshine' Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Friday, July 11, 2008.

Editor's note: Join the discussion about reform of the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act in the "RESPA Reform" group at the Inman Community site.

Penalties for violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) are minimal, and until recently the Department of Housing and Urban Development has done little to enforce the law's anti-kickback provisions, according to a study by a HUD researcher.  more...

Realtor learns you get out what you put in

By Inman News, Friday, July 11, 2008.
Kevin Tomlinson

Kevin Tomlinson is a Realtor in Miami who created and writes the South Beach Condos Blog.

Tomlinson is an agent with EWM Realtors, a brokerage company that has built a company-wide blogging system for agents.

Tomlinson will speak at the Internet Marketing Workshop at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, July 23-25, 2008.

He answered a set of questions posed by Inman News:  more...

Nonprofit opens vast database to public Premium Content

By Matt Carter, Friday, July 11, 2008.
Home sales in Philadelphia mapped at the block level in PolicyMap

A nonprofit organization that revitalizes communities by investing in affordable housing, schools and businesses is making the vast store of data it has amassed to guide its decisions available to the public through an online data mapping tool, PolicyMap.

PolicyMap is an outgrowth of the work of The Reinvestment Fund, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that has considerable expertise in gathering and analyzing data, including statistics on home sales, lending practices and demographics.  more...

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