South Bay Blogs

The feds cutting interest rates can mean only one thing: mortgage lenders are jumping at the opportunity to persuade you to refinance your loan! There’s just one catch: if you happen to be a responsible and conscientious borrower who locked in a jumbo loan at a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, your rates are probably better [...]

After my deep disappointment in the last Indian restaurant I visited, my craving for Saag Aloo remained unsatisfied. You know how sometimes a lady has the worst craving for chocolate? Well, I had a craving like that, except for saag aloo! My husband surprised me over this Memorial Day weekend by bringing home takeout dinner [...]

It’s that time of the year again… speculations abound for the coming year’s housing challenges and home prices. Yahoo News posted Reuters’ report on a record drop in home prices nationwide, predicting that 2008 will continue to see home prices but 2009 may see a rebound. Washington Times looked at who’s to blame in the current housing [...]

Wall Street Journal’s Informed Reader blog recently reported on a research citing that homeowners hurt the economy because homeowners are less mobile than renters and therefore are less willing to leave when local economy takes a dive. This lack of mobility exacerbates unemployment issues and hinders new development with zoning rules. While homeowners are more likely [...]

We got an email blast from Countrywide’s President, and it made me wonder whether Countrywide is worried about its customers leaving in droves due to recent concerns about the company’s wellbeing:

Dear Countrywide Homeowner, As the mortgage and housing industry goes through unprecedented changes, Countrywide has been taking swift steps to help ensure that our [...]

New York Times today covered a story on the myriad of fees that are hitting people who can afford it least – people who are struggling to pay their increasing mortgage or are foreclosing on their homes. In Dubious Fees Hit Borrowers in Foreclosures , 7.5% of CountryWide’s service revenues came from late fees – almost $300 [...]

From Reuters: “Sales of houses and condominiums in the most populous Southern California counties fell 29.9 percent from the previous month and 48.5 percent from a year earlier, DataQuick Information Systems said on Tuesday. The report covers the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura and showed a total of 12,455 [...]

As heard on the John & Ken show yesterday and covered in this news story , fires were raging while helicopters were grounded, delaying the help that Southern Californians needed to save their homes: As Calif. Fires Burned, Copters Grounded (where were the “spotters”?) Today’s News from John & Ken regarding reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of [...]

According to a report published by The Commerce Department, new home sales were up in July, which may make Wall Street’s investors feel a bit better after recent news of credit woes and fear of increasing foreclosures. Since mortgages are harder to get these days, August home sales are predicted by economists to slow down . What’s [...]

Attention: Toyota Truck and SUV Owners “Catalytic Converter Theft Warning” (Courtesy of a local Boeing employee)

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, something else comes along. Thieves are stealing catalytic converters off parked cars at an increasing rate. This is a trend that is happening all over the country and has recently found its [...]

Accredited Home Lenders Holding Company is laying off more than half of its employees, close 65 branches, and stops accepting new mortgage applications in its struggle to survive the currently turbulent mortgage market. According to Associated Press, which reported on this story , mortgage lenders have been “stung by decaying credit quality and a newfound fear of [...]

Uh oh… customers who hear rumors of Countrywide Bank becoming unstable are rushing to withdraw their savings, even as Countrywide Bank’s parent company, Countrywide Financial, is rushing to reassure its customers that the bank is safe. The Los Angeles times reported on this on Friday. Countrywide savings customers are afraid that a potential flood of [...]

Disappointing home sales has caused Wall Street to suffer losses today, resulting in plummeting stock prices and closing the Dow industrials at more than 300 points down.

AP news snapped pictures of numerous traders rubbing their heads on the trading floor as a result of today’s catastrophe.

On the one hand, Countrywide Financial Corp. sees its second-quarter profit affected by mortgage delinquencies and defaults even among the borrowers with good credit, and the company prepares for even more people defaulting on their mortgage payments as time goes on. On the other hand, DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla is reporting that lenders are filing [...]

Can Southern California learn from Miami’s “condo glut”? According to Bloomberg, Miami developers keep building condos and create an oversupply that will push housing prices more than 30 percent and risking the local economy into brink of recession. There is not enough demand to meet the oversupply even as developers keep on building new condos. What [...]

I’ve been asked to review a website aimed to help consumers’ moving experience, called MyMovingQuote.com. You may ask, “Why don’t I just let my fingers do the walking and go through the Yellow Pages to find a mover?” MyMovingQuote.com makes the answer obvious: you can get quotes from many different companies from one place, by specifying your moving [...]