Old Man Cap

Gavin Newsom talking about new San Francisco solar power incentives, running for governor in 2010, and marriage. The important news here is that there is going to be a San Francisco solar power rebate of $3k to build solar, $6k if you build solar from local businesses that use locally-trained employees, $10k if you build [...]

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M&I Bank conference call We have seen further deterioration in the residential land portfolio during the second quarter. … M&I has $2.3 billion in residential land loans to individuals and developers. $1.5 billion, or 66%, are located in Arizona . The bulk of the Arizona loans, nearly 70%, are in Maricopa County . … LTVs [...]

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Second-highest inflation in 26 years… The consumer price index (CPI, which measures inflation) showed a 1.1% increase in consumer good prices in June alone. Average weekly wages, adjusted for above inflation, fell 0.9% in June as well. This crunch is going to hurt. The yearly inflation rate is 5.0%! Higher inflation and/or lower wages.  You’ll [...]

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Click on these for the full % drops. They’re both down around 50% since Thursday.

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Calculated Risk – Krugman on the GSEs Gov’t Plan to bail out Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac The above are a couple good links describing the current state of affairs and the Fed’s plan to lend them cheap money. The links say it better than I can. Check them out. Especially the first one.

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IndyMac Bank fails, seized by FDIC Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac in trouble The second largest bank failure in US history happened yesterday around 5:30pm. They held a majority of junk mortgages and were technically insolvent. NY Senator Chuck Schumer publicized a few letters to regulators questioning IndyMac’s solvency. Everyone ran to take out their [...]

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Housing & Transportation Affordability Index Maps + Statistics = Happy Me. You can get a great view of the % of income people spend on housing, gasoline, transportation, mass transit, etc… What’s scary is that the majority of home owners in San Francisco spend over 45% of their income on housing + transportation costs alone. [...]

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