Elizabeth Roberts's blog

US home sales up across the country, hopeful sign

WASHINGTON — Americans are buying more homes in every region of the country, the latest indication that the housing market could be on the mend.

An increasing portion of those sales are from first-time buyers, who are critical to a housing recovery.

Sales of previously occupied rose 3.4 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.62 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. That nearly matches January's pace of 4.63 million — the best in two years. It still is well below the nearly 6 million most economists equate with healthy markets.

A pickup in hiring and cheaper mortgages, combined with lower home prices in most markets, has made home buying more attractive. While many economists acknowledged that the market has a long way to go, most said the April sales report was encouraging.

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US STOCKS-Wall St ticks higher, Facebook falls again

NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday, led by financial shares after a strong read on existing home sales encouraged buying in sectors tied to economic growth.
Despite that, gains were capped a day after a huge rally as concerns persisted about the global economic outlook. Another slide by Facebook Inc pressured the Nasdaq.

Sales of existing U.S. homes rose sharply in April and a falloff in foreclosures pushed prices higher - welcome signs for investors worried about the strength of the U.S. recovery after recent weaker-than-expected economic data helped drive a pullback in stock prices.

"This is very good news for us to get on the U.S. front, especially since we haven't had much lately, but this is just a temporary change in sentiment. Europe will continue to lurch from one crisis to another," said Bernard Baumohl, managing director and chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, New Jersey.

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HSBC completes sale of New York branch network

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Global banking group HSBC has completed the sale of 195 US retail branches to First Niagara Bank, first announced in July last year. 

HSBC's wholly-owned subsidiary, HSBC Bank USA, received $0.9bn for the branches (based on figures at April 30th 2012), primarily in upstate New York. 

The sales is part of the group's strategy outlined in May 2011 to "align our US business with our global network and meet the local and international needs of domestic and overseas clients" 

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President Barack Obama urges banking reforms in the wake of JPMorgan's $2-billion loss

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says the big trading loss at JPMorgan Chase shows the need to finally put in place banking rules he signed into law two years ago. He also is calling on Congress to stop trying to weaken the regulations.

The $2-billion loss has renewed calls by Democratic lawmakers for tougher rules on major financial institutions.

"Without Wall Street reform, we could have found ourselves with the taxpayers once again on the hook for Wall Street's mistakes," Obama said in his weekly address Saturday. He added: "We've got to finish the job of implementing this reform and putting these rules in place."

Obama promoted rules that would require big banks or financial institutions to have more cash on hand to cover losses and would take away big bonuses and paydays from failed CEOs.

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Mortgage rates fall to another record low

WASHINGTON (AP) – Average rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed mortgages fell to record lows for a third straight week.

The steady decline has made home-buying and refinancing more affordable than ever for those who can qualify.Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac says the average rate on 30-year loans dipped to 3.79%.

That's down from 3.83% last week and the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

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U.S. Stock-Index Futures Rise as Housing Report Beats Forecasts

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures advanced, following a three-day decline for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, as a better-than-estimated housing starts report bolstered confidence in the world's largest economy.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. rallied at least 1.5 percent to pace gains in financial companies. General Motors Co. climbed 3.9 percent as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed a stake. General Electric Co. rose 3.3 percent as its finance unit plans to pay a special dividend of $4.5 billion to the parent company. Target Corp., the second-largest U.S. discount retailer, added 2 percent as profit topped estimates.

S&P 500 futures expiring in June added 0.6 percent to 1,335.70 at 8:36 a.m. New York time. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 62 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,667.

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Sallie Mae Forgives Dead Student's Debt After Media Attention

Even death is not enough to shake off student loan debt. One New Jersey family learned this in the most awful way imaginable.

When Amanda Greenhalgh died at the age of 24 in 2010, her father and grandmother were on the hook for more than $100,000 in loans used to pay for her degree at Penn State University, The Star-Ledger reports (H/T The Consumerist).

Greenhalgh, who was was earning $74,000 a year, hadn't missed a payment. Her loans were with Sallie Mae, reportedly one of the few lenders that has a death and disability policy -- which allows family members to discharge student loans if they can provide a death certificate for the student.

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Recession added debt, drained families' savings

The economy may be improving but many American families are still weighed down by debt and without a safety net.

One out of five families owes more on credit cards, medical bills, student loans and other unsecured debt than they have in savings, according to a new University of Michigan report. And the number of families surveyed at the end of 2011 that have no savings at all increased to 23.4%, compared with 18.5% in 2009.

"The people who were down and out, without much money, in the recession have ended up staying there or even worse," says Frank Stafford, professor of economics at University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and co-author of the report.

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Obama official defends mortgage write-down plan

(Reuters) - The vast majority of distressed homeowners should not be punished for the behavior of the few who might try to take advantage of a government program to reduce the principal on their mortgages, a top Obama administration official said on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan said a principal-reduction program could at any rate be designed to thwart those tempted to default strategically on mortgages financed by government-run agencies Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB).

"What we shouldn't do is punish the 95 percent for the behavior of a small group," Donovan said in an interview. "The answer isn't 'Don't do principle reduction at all.' The answer is 'Design it in a way to avoid that strategic default.'"

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Former SEC head slams Green Mountain directors' borrowing practice

NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - A former top U.S. securities regulator said on Wednesday that public companies should bar top executives from borrowing against their equity stakes.

Arthur Levitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made his comment a day after Green Mountain Coffee Roasters stripped its chairman and lead director of their board titles for taking out loans against their company stock and also selling shares during a period they should not been doing so.

"The perception of management borrowing against their own holdings is so bad," said Levitt, now a senior adviser to Goldman Sachs and Carlyle Group. "I would encourage shareholders to push companies to implement such protections where they don't currently exist."

A margin call on loans taken out by founder and Chairman Robert Stiller and lead director William Davis led to a wave of forced selling in Green Mountain shares on Monday after the company released disappointing quarterly earnings.

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