Money Beat

So, if things are so good for home buyers, how come I can't find the house of my dreams at a price I can afford?

Every time I make an offer, the bank owning the forclosed home answers that somebody else "made a better offer last night"...

Nice photo with the 'tagger' graffiti on the signpost. That 'tagger' must be jumping like a bean for the exposure. Way to promote vandalism!

Because they are waiting to be bailed out instead of taking a "below market" offer.

Why should American's tax dollars go to bail out bussiness that riped off American's. Great for bussiness, but the American's credit rating will be shot for years. They can and do charge people with bad credit more even for car insurance. I don't get it ?

I could not have planned this better myself.

Freddie and Fanny will be absorbed by issueing T-bills. The aggregate national debt will jump from 9 trillion to 15 trillion dollars. The interest from the national debt may soon be larger than the federal budget.

America is looking at insolvency in 2010, the outside is 2016.

Why so serious? America wanted housing for all. Now you have it.

Smart caucasion people may want to look at moving to Russia, South America, or another nation with a high number of caucausions.

This nation is doomed.

The CEO gets 20 million dollars a year salary, 20 millions dollars in bonus not including stocks and American government wants you to pay for that. Wake up American people!!!!!!

Obama is going to save us all.

Hey John, Obama is going to save you that is why he asks you to pay for the multi-million dollar CEO.

gil rivera, gang tag - can you say inland empire

They need to quit giving away our tax dollars to pay for every ones mistakes and let it go. They would not bail out most of use hard working people out here in Oklahoma.

They need to quit giving away our tax dollars to pay for every ones mistakes and let it go. They would not bail out most of use hard working people out here in Oklahoma.

Before all you left wingers get up in arms about the greed of corporate America and Republican bailouts, you should remember that, while publicly traded corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Democratic creations. Until 2003, Freddie Mac was run by David W. Glenn, a major contributor to the Democratic Party, until he was fired for allegedly falsifying company records. Until 2004, Fannie Mae was controlled by Franklin Raines, Clinton's White House Budget Director, but was forced to retire, and settled a civil suit alleging that he fraudulently misrepresented the company's earnings to increase his compensation.

Speaking for the unemployed, I can not wait to get another job so I can pay taxes that go to pay criminal CEOs ridiculous wages.

CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae higher than ever...earned Roughly $30 Million in Salary Last Year but the taxpayer has to bail out their mistakes:___check out this article:___
____http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5413172&page=1

vancav: before you get all on your right wing hypocrite high horse (many CEO's are pure right wingers)...a recent article stated (quote): "Daniel Mudd, the CEO of Fannie Mae, received $11.6 million in salary, stock and other compensation for 2007. Richard Syron, CEO of Freddie Mac, took home about $18.3 million last year....(were these not Bush people?)(continue quote):"In addition to Syron's salary, stock options and a $3.45 million bonus, Freddie Mac paid for a number of other perks for Syron, such as a car and driver, a home security system, travel costs for his wife, even $100,000 to pay his lawyer to negotiate his employment contract with the bank.
"Yes, yes," said Freddie Mac spokeswoman Sharon McHale, when asked if Syron's leadership was worth $18 million a year. "He's done a lot."

This country is in bad shape right now, and if this sort of thing continues, we all will be bankrupt. What a mess this greed has caused the nation! These guys should pay the USA taxpayer $30 Million back as restitution!

allen_osuno. Wow, that's surprising . . . considering that Raines made $20 million in compensation back in 2003. You would think with inflation they would have made more, not less. Oh yeah, Raines also received a below market rate loan with the help of Countrywide . . . you know, that friendly mortgage company that helps out underprivileged Democratic congressmen with no strings attached.

By the way, Mudd seems to be a corporate pragmatist as he contributes to the party that looks like it is going to win the general election. If you don't agree with me that Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac is a bipartisan problem stemming from big government, maybe you'll trust NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92540620

I am one of them I owe WAsh Mutal
$172,000 fora shanty Ican't sell for
$105,000. I guess it it time for the
Jane FOnda Song.... These boots are
made for walking and walk all of over
Mortgages giants who made this mess.

Sorry helen, but that's not a Jane Fonda song, it's a Nancy Sinatra song.

Oddly enough, I keep seeing commercials saying "There has never been a better time to get into the home market!" The question, better for whom? Certainly not for the home buyer.

The Fall of the Roman Empire is repeating. Pull out from the wars that we cannot afford anymore, it is not going to win anyway. Plus all the insurance claims stockpiling from casualties & injuries...the subprime insurance crisis has yet to surface. Aggravated by all these natural disasters that George Bush somehow has brought in. Has he angered the Muslim's god by any chance? Stop being a tourist, as Americans are in danger almost anywhere, and we are broke. Surrender your credit cards in good faith; walk don't drive; cook your meals instead of becoming an obeity with fast foods; no more fashion, as U no longer need it; no more entertainment & sport events, they are for afluent societies only; learn a different language (Asian/Indian/Russian), as CSL may be a pre-requisite for your new job; humble yourself wisely & listen to all those less-developed countries in the past; sell all your luxuries & collectibles on ebay to paydown your debt.....the worst has yet to come. The American Dream, Perfection of capitalism, Strong Currencies, Industrial Expansion are coming to the end. Why? The invisible hand that has created America from her cowboy era, has invisibly drifted away to other countries. Thus, the economy this time, has no real backbone, just eroded T-bills & bail-out deficits. Americans do not have a dream anymore, just the ugly survival game for the fitness.

The answer lies in a new economy. Anyone stuck in the old economy is headed for a major fall. You know you can't afford your mortgage, the gas for your car and the groceries to feed your kids. The answer lies in creating new revenue streams and getting off the grid. Read "$500 Startup" available only on the book's website written by successful entrepreneur and visionary Ben Peterson at www.500DollarStartup.com. The housing market recovering to save us in 2009 is a joke. Who can afford to buy all of these homes on the market? Its not Americans. We can't afford gas.

And, now the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear. I'll state my case, of which I am certain........
No more human rights trashing, as now U understand food can be more important than dignity;
No more free enterprises & capitalism, as they drive for profits & efficiencies only;
No more woman rights, as so many gays & lesbians are around;
No more 100% voting, as only a few are privileged to know the difference;
No more political parties & lawyers, as they all draw monies from the starving pot;
No more aids & subsidies, as we will need them soon ourselves;
No more sport/music/movie superstars,as we need bread more than entertainment;
No more plastic bags, drugs & other chemical inventions that simply pollute our environment & bring about diseases;
No more commercially-grown produces, meats & grains, as they are all genetically-altered & poisoned to make $$$s;
No more low interest rates, time to bite the real bullets;
No more fast foods, as they increase our medical bills that we can't afford anymore;
No more cover-ups & bail-outs by Politicians & Federal Reserve, as we are down to the barebones;
No more telling other nations what to do, be contented with what we do not have;
No more fooling around & enjoying life, as U may have to study real hard to get a real job in another real country;
No more space programs, as U do not have to showoff anymore;
No more borrowing & T-bills, just live within our own means;
No more CEOs, real estate/mortgage agents & stock brokers, as they all suck money & live happily thereafte;
No more wars abroad, stay home & focus on our limited resouces;
No more Superman foreign policy, to err is human;
Yes, ever wondering why Greenspan & Bill Gate has decided to retire. The real music is just too harsh to face!

These institution were formed to help the lower/middle income families afford a home, and now the lower/middle income families are having to bail the institutions out?? Did I miss something here?

Stimulus Package "Deja vu", Not really!

As the brains of our economy continue to brainstorm how to get us out of the mess the real estate market first got us in and now high gas prices and a declining economy over all, the easy way out seems to be again an economic stimulus package.

Not so fast, not again.

First- president bush opposes it.
Second- according to the experts, only 20 percent of the people who got stimulus package number one said the rebate led them to spend more and the rest, well it seems that the rest just took the money and put it into their savings account.
Economic stimulus package number one was suppose to get our slow economy going, by then president bush had not heard of a 4 dollar a gallon of gasoline.
By now that's old news and as he put it on he's own words "he's heard of it now".
Well now mr president, one gallon of gas almost hits the 5 dollar mark have you heard of it?
Anyhow, the 100 billion dollars in checks that circulated among many americans ($600.00 for singles and $1,200.00 for couples) apparently didn't help.
The money went out on time and gas prices went up just on time as well.
With gas prices, food prices also went up.

Isn't that how it usually works?
Gas prices go up and everything goes up, after all business have to make up for the extra expenses and they just pass the check onto us.
Here's an idea!
How about lowering the tax on gasoline?
Do we really know how much money we pay on gas taxes in the U.S?
Aren't this taxes imposed by our government, well maybe our government can really give a stimulus to our morale and lower the taxes we pay on gas prices.
A lower tax in gasoline prices will stimulate business and consumers, it's not rocket science!
A quote by wikipedia: "Fuel taxes in the United States vary by state. For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax is 28.6 cents per US gallon, plus 18.4 cents per US gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per US gallon"
http://hardmoneyloans.org

re: "Many economists believe that the nation’s current downturn will end when home prices stop dropping and sales start increasing."

BWAHAHAHA!

How are people supposed to be able to buy homes unless the prices drop? Housing is still so overinflated relative to wages that it has a long way yet to drop before it will be affordable for most folks -- Not to mention that lending standards have been tightened, meaning far fewer can even qualify to buy these hyperinflated homes.

Allow these financial lenders to sink or swim. They knew the risks when they signed on to see the mortgage.

As for our elected federal representatives and senators... they are a joke! They're completely impotent in this matter and all others. I guarantee they will manage to vote themselves a pay increase while the overwhelming majority of Americans cannot feed their families.

I cannot recall the last time I voted for an incumbent. American, it is time to show all these leeches the door and voted every one of them out of office.

Of course home prices are falling, its called a "market correction" for all of the overinflated prices that the housing bubble caused. No government handout is needed, this is a cyclical industry that will bounce back in time. Man, some of these supposed "analysts" really need a course in Economics 101.

If my property value is going down, why aren't my property taxes going down also?