Weekly News Round-Up

Arrests are finally starting to be made as a result of the mortgage fraud. Last Wednesday I reported that the FBI has been shifting agents and spending more time focusing on this issue, and lo and behold, Builderonline.com gave us some good news on this front: “FBI Arrests More Than 60 People in ‘Operation Malicious Mortgage’” However upon further research, it appears that 400+ were arrested. Still only the tip of the iceberg, it is good to know that something is being done, and action being taken against those that profited from this fraud. Keep the good news coming…..

I don’t know about you, but I have seen a real slowdown in junk mail coming my way. All those mortgage reduction and credit card offers seem to be drying up. I ignore them anyway, and shake my head in disgust at the trees wasted trying to buy my allegiance, so it isn’t painful for me. But not only are these offers drying up for all of us, some may also face a reduced limit on your credit card. Several articles that were published this week, warn that credit card companies (banks, lenders, retailers) will be trimming credit card limits in a big way over the next few quarters. Washington Mutual has already started, reducing credit lines by a total of 10%, and Wells Fargo and Target by 3%, all of which total about $15 billion this year alone. News reports say this will become a trend and it is expected that cuts will reach $1 trillion before all is said and done. And beware, you may not receive a warning about the reduction, so check your statements carefully. And should you disagree with their decision, contact your credit card company and see about renegotiating. Never hurts to ask.

Last week DataQuick released its May report on Southland home sales. In the 6 Southland counties, 16,917 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow, up from April, but still the “slowest May in over 20 years,” according to the report. This is a bit disheartening, since April had shown some promise and sales had increased over March figures. The good news is that we are still seeing a lot of foreclosed homes sell, making for a quarter of all home sales. Hate seeing vacant homes that bring down the value of a neighborhood even more than the foreclosed price already does. Median home price in the 6-county area was $370,000, down from $505,000 just one year ago.

The Union Tribune had a more specific take on the above Dataquick info, focusing on San Diego County only. In Mike Freeman’s article, “County home prices lowest since Sept. ‘03,” he talks about foreclosures, tougher lending standards, and a weak economy that have contributed to a median sale price of $380,000. A whopping 36% of the 2,979 sold homes in May were foreclosures, whereas last year at this time they only made up 8% of sales.