Job Markets: The Trends of 2010 Continue (via 24/7 Wall St.)

Yes and no. Yes unemployment, like real estate does have many local factors not the least of which include governmental regulation and taxation that can make a business viable. However unemployment is also national, affected by the same factors on a macro scale including less quantifiable concepts such as “confidence” that help individuals and businesses [...]

How did we get here? Bad campaign finance! (Bribery)

Commentary on our current national malaise by Patrick @ Patrick.net By Patrick Thu, 18 Aug 2011, 10:12am What we have now is a system of legalized bribery. Wealthy special interests and their lobbyists donate to congressional campaigns with the knowledge that the congressmen who take the money will vote for whatever they are told to. [...]

Seller Financing – a tool as old as dirt (not new)

This financing technique has been around forever & is not a new idea.  It’s only a new idea if you consider banks & mortgage companies don’t like it because they don’t make any money on it.  Don’t expect your local banker to say hey, sorry we won’t approve you for a loan why don’t you [...]

Government To Crack Down On The Sweetest Real Estate Deals? (via FortuneBuilders)

Double take! Unfortunately when we make big money through real estate investing it seems that not everyone is happy. This was highlighted in the news this week as one Michigan county pushes to change state laws which have been enabling real estate investing companies to pick up homes for as little $100 a piece. Apparently [...]

Government to crack down on sweetest deals

From the boys at Fortune Builders Government going after sweet investor deals  

Cheap Mortgages: America’s Hidden Entitlement

If you take this away especially in light of today’s tight credit market things will only get worse – no loans, no new homeowners, no confidence, no economic recovery. These programs did what they were meant to do, the problem stems from the savvy investment bankers who found the loopholes to exploit the system and [...]

Politicians – cut them off says Starbucks CEO

Well hello.  The comments by Howard Schultz are not news, at least not to anyone with a functioning brain.  So politicians seem to only care about re-election and the driving force behind that is fund raising (for their re-election campaigns)…who’d have thunk that?  However you do have to credit him for doing something about it.  [...]

BofA Sheds More Credit Card Business… Changing the Credit Sector (BAC, TD, COF, WFC, RF, C, BK, AXP, V, MA) (via 24/7 Wall St.)

Interesting move. Guess they need some cash. Favorite excerpt: It’s pretty easy to discount BofA’s claim in this morning’s announcement that “an international consumer card business under another brand is not consistent” with the company’s strategic direction. The international cards are making money for everyone else. Perhaps making money is not consistent with the bank’s [...]

10 housing markets that will collapse this year

It’s not over yet.  Here’s some interesting research buy 24/7 Wall Street. In several cities, the real estate market is about to drop even more. Home values in many of those cities, such as Las Vegas, have already collapsed as unemployment has shot higher. And with no hope of quick recovery, housing prices are expected [...]

Foreclosure filings in U.S. plunge to lowest in four years

However, it’s probably not why you think (wish) it dropped. Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) — U.S. foreclosure filings dropped 35 percent last month to the lowest level in almost four years as lenders and state and federal agencies increased efforts to keep delinquent borrowers in their homes, RealtyTrac Inc. said. A total of 212,764 properties received [...]