As several of you may already know, IndyMac is toast. I guess you had to know any spin-off of Countrywide wasn’t going to be a huge success.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banking regulators swooped in to seize mortgage lender IndyMac Bancorp Inc on Friday after withdrawals by panicked depositors led to the third-largest banking failure in U.S. history. …

IndyMac will reopen fully on Monday as IndyMac Federal Bank under Federal Deposit Insurance Corp supervision, but tensions ran high as customers at a branch at its Los Angeles-area headquarters read a notice in the window saying it was closed.

At another branch down the road, a man who said he had more than $200,000 (100,000 pounds) in an account — twice what is normally FDIC guaranteed — argued with a security guard who was closing up.

 The FDIC, which will seek a buyer for IndyMac, estimated the cost of the bank’s failure to its $53 billion insurance fund at between $4 billion and $8 billion.

The FDIC has set up a call center for those with accounts at IndyMac. Call 866-806-5919. The IndyMac Web site, which now has FDIC info on it, will be up and running Monday. The L.A. Times also posted a FAQ for customers, which is very, very helpful. Good luck!

Apparently the U.S. Senate is saying that down payment assistance programs like Ameridream Inc. and Nehemiah Corp. are now banned. A statement from Scott Syphax, CEO of Nehemiah:

“This decision turns a blind eye to the overwhelming success of these programs and their role in helping hundreds of thousands of working families become homeowners. . . . Despite what the Administration and members of the Senate falsely profess, privately funded down payment assistance is not the reason that FHA is looking at a budget imbalance in the coming years.”

I wrote about this a week ago and discussed some of the pros and cons then. Since then, I think that those people using FHA have decent credit scores and income, they just don’t have that big down payment. And really, is this any different than having a private seller drop the price $10,000 so you can buy it?

I can’t even look at any business publication without hearing about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their shares dropping like a stone. I don’t know how much interest this is to the average person, other than if those two programs go, it’s going to get a lot tougher to buy a house. Which is probably why the government is considering a bailout.

Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the beleaguered mortgage finance companies, plummeted again on Friday morning, as senior Bush administration officials consider a plan to have the government take over one or both of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems worsen, according to people briefed about the plan.

So, loads of taxes going to save these two companies while everyone else is heading to unemployment. At least there’s FHA!

I saw this story yesterday and it made me think back to the WaMu “financial planner” in May who told me I should invest in Fannie Mae bonds. Knowing the market as I do, I hedged and said I would talk to him later. Turns out I was right.

While the stock declines of Fannie and Freddie were sharp, the biggest impact from their troubles could come in the mortgage market. If the companies fall short of capital, they would have a harder time buying and guaranteeing mortgages. That would raise home buyers’ borrowing costs and likely drive down home prices further. On Monday, investors sold off the debt of the two companies, effectively making it more expensive for them to borrow.

Congress and the White House are counting on Fannie, Freddie and the Federal Housing Administration to prop up the mortgage market as other financial institutions shun what they see as a treacherous business. Fannie and Freddie “are critical to keeping the economy going,” said Frederick Cannon, chief equity strategist at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in San Francisco.

IndyMac, a mortgage lender that gave risky loans, also had a run on the bank with depositers trying to get all their money out.  “The stock, which fetched $50 in 2006, at the height of the housing boom, plunged 38 percent to 44 cents,” writes NY Times’  Eric Dash.

So investors are leery of any kind of mortgage investment, which could mean less product out there. And with fewer options there is even less of a chance for economic recovery.  It’s a scary, scary time.

Last Wednesday I wrote this story about people using nonprofit buyer assistance, usually for the Federal Housing Administration’s 3 percent down payment rule. At least one person disliked the story, saying it was biased. Other commenters said, “Living paycheck to paycheck does not qualify you to own a home,” and “And the taxpayers are left holding the bag.”  Read on:

With rising food and gas prices, saving 20 percent for a down payment on a house isn’t an option, said Ann Hamilton, a wife and mother with two small children in Tracy.

“We live paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “We couldn’t come up with a $30,000 down payment.”

Hamilton, a 33-year-old medical scheduler, and her husband, Orlando Flintroy, 48, wanted something they could afford with no surprises.

After a few years of shopping for homes and loans and refusing to use “some crazy loan with an adjustable rate,” they worked with a broker that informed them of AmeriDream Inc., a buyer assistance program approved to work with Federal Housing Administration loans where the seller can give back up to 6 percent of the purchase price usually in the form of a down payment, closing costs or both.

Not surprisingly, buyer assistance has its foes, some of whom are in Congress. Yet I’m not totally convinced having some seller incentives is the downfall of the housing market. FHA loans are based on credit scores and income. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, about a third of all FHA loans use buyer assistance in the form of a nonprofit (others use family “gifts” of cash.) HUD also asserts that those who have buyer assistance are more likely to default, something that is challenged by nonprofits. Ann Ashburn, president of AmeriDream quotes the GAO which reported it has a 94 percent success rate.

As one poster said, “This is not what created the problem.” I have to agree.

It looks like a venture into the unknown, a winding walking path leading around seasonal creeks, trees and terraced patios.  The buildings are painted with murals or art and the world seems a peaceful, attractive place to shop.

Apparently developers are now starting to include women in the development phases of shopping centers, creating new and different footprints that are rethinking the mall.

Instead of formal 40-foot-tall fountains, large pieces of abstract outdoor art and drab pedestrian walkways between parking garages and stores, they wanted “calming” water areas, Read the rest of this entry »

If you think the U.S. is alone in its Recession and scary housing market, you’re wrong! Apparently Great Britain is having a heckuva time, as is Australia and Southeast Asia. From MarketWatch:

The data come amid a steady of stream of negative news about the British housing sector. Other surveys have also shown a rapid decline in house prices over recent months, while mortgage approvals slumped to an all-time low in May.

Lenders have boosted mortgage rates and tightened lending standards in the wake of the credit crunch.
“With house-purchase transactions so far below their long-term trend, it seems unlikely that there will be any rapid turnaround in housing market fortunes in the coming month,” said Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s chief economist.

“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, Barclay’s chief equity strategist. Read the rest of this entry »

 
MSN Real Estate came out with their version of the 10 Best Bargain Real Estate markets. The list is as (yawn!) follows:

1. Wichita, Kan.
2. Omaha, Neb. — Council Bluffs, Iowa
3. Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa.
4. Madison, Wis.
5. San Antonio
6. Indianapolis
7. Pittsburgh
8. Dallas-Fort Worth
9. Tulsa, Okla.

Sense a theme? Yes, all places you would never, ever live. But they’re cheap!

Picture above is of Wichita at night. Maybe it’s not all bad?

At least that’s what at least one poster on patrick.net said. Here’s the link to foreclosurepoint.com.

Several people call and write me monthly on a listing, so here is what so many people want to see. However, I don’t know if this is a come-on or the real deal. Write and tell me if it’s really free and worth the registration!