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The Dallas Morning News Reported, The percentage of vacant homes for sale in the U.S. set a new record high in the first quarter of this year, the government said Monday.

The Census Bureau report shows that 2.9 percent of U.S. homes – excluding rental properties – were vacant and up for sale, compared with 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. It was the highest quarterly number in records going back to 1956.

That works out to 2.28 million properties, up from 2.18 million in the same quarter last year, according to the report.

The West had the biggest gain in vacancy rates among homeowners, rising to 3.2 percent in the January-March period from 2.6 percent in the same quarter a year earlier. Vacancy rates inched up in the Northeast and remained steady in the Midwest and South. The national vacancy rate, including new and existing homes, has been steadily rising since mid-2005.

Global Insight economist Patrick Newport called the report "worrisome."

"The inventory problem has not gotten any better," Newport said. Although glut-fighting home builders have reined in construction, "they still will have to cut back more."

The Census Bureau's report also said that the U.S. homeownership rate remained at 67.8 percent in the first quarter, down from a peak of 69.2 percent at the end of 2004.

The housing market's five-year boom is quickly becoming a faint memory, as sales and home prices have fallen dramatically over the past two years in once hot areas such as California and Nevada.

Last week, a Commerce Department report said sales of new homes plunged in March to the slowest pace in 16 1/2 years.

Centex Corp., Pulte Homes Inc., Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and other builders have been caught with unsold properties over the past year as mortgages became harder to get, sales slowed and the economy soured.

Builders have slashed prices, but the discounts have done little to lure buyers who are holding out, uncertain about when the price-drop will stop.

The National Association of Realtors reported last week that sales of existing homes also fell in March, dropping by 2 percent, with prices declining on a year-over-year basis by 7.7 percent.

San Antonio News Reported, Countrywide Financial Corp., the mortgage company being bought out by Bank of America Corp., is working with New Vista Asset Management to sell real-estate owned (REO) homes in San Antonio.

These are homes that have been foreclosed on by the lender. Countrywide is in the process of working with New Vista's network real estate professionals to sell these properties.

The two companies will work to ensure that homes are made available to qualified first-time and minority homebuyers. The companies will be hosting several community seminars for first-time buyers to teach them about buying real-estate owned homes and different financing options.

The seminars initially will be held in Los Angeles and Dallas. However, the companies are also working in the San Diego, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Atlanta markets.

"By marketing and selling REO units directly to first-time and minority home buyers, New Vista and Countrywide are advancing our mutual commitment to increase affordable housing opportunities and act as responsible contributors to the local housing market," New Vista's Chairman Gary Acosta says.

Countrywide originates, purchases, securitizes, sells and services prime and nonprime loans. The company also provides credit reports, appraisals and flood determinations. It markets property, life and casualty insurance and banking services.

New Vista is a San Diego-based national REO management and marketing company. New Vista has set up a strategy to use its clients' inventory of foreclosed homes for minority homeowners.

Dallas Morning News Reports, An influential economist who long predicted the housing market bubble cautioned Tuesday that the slump in the U.S. housing market could cause prices to fall more than they did in the Great Depression and bailouts will be needed so millions don't lose their homes.

Yale University economist Robert Shiller, pioneer of the widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, said there's a good chance housing prices will fall further than the 30 percent drop in the historic depression of the 1930s. Home prices nationwide already have dropped 15 percent since their peak in 2006, he said.

"I think there is a scenario that they could be down substantially more," Shiller said during a speech at the New Haven Lawn Club.

Shiller's Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month.

Shiller, who admitted he has a reputation for being bearish, said real estate cycles typically take years to correct.

Home prices rose about 85 percent from 1997 to 2006 adjusted for inflation, the biggest national housing boom in U.S. history, Shiller said.

"Basically we're in uncharted territory," Shiller said. "It seems we have developed a speculative culture about housing that never existed on a national basis before."

Many people became convinced that housing prices would increase 10 percent annually, a notion Shiller called crazy.

Shiller, who said it's difficult to forecast prices, endorsed legislation proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., that would allow the Federal Housing Administration to back as much as $300 billion in mortgages for struggling homeowners. Servicers would have to agree to take a loss on the existing loans, while borrowers would have to show they could afford to make new payments on their refinanced mortgages.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing homes fell in March while the median home price declined to $200,700, a decline of 7.7 percent from the median price a year ago.

Sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units.

Many analysts said they do not expect a rebound for a number of months, given the problems weighing on housing from a severe glut of unsold homes to tighter credit standards for prospective buyers and a rising tide of mortgage foreclosures.

The Dallas Morning News, Sales of existing homes fell in March while the median home price declined, compared with the price a year ago, as a severe slump in housing showed no signs of abating.

The National Association of Realtors said that sales of existing single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.93 million units.

The median price of a home sold last month dropped to $200,700, a decline of 7.7 percent from the median price a year ago. That was the second-biggest year-over-year price decline on records dating back to 1999.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, pre-owned home sales fell 25 percent in March, while median prices remained relatively unchanged – down only 1 percent during the quarter, according to statistics released earlier this month by the North Texas Real Estate Information System.

The March U.S. sales decline, which was in line with expectations, followed a 2.9 percent increase in sales in February. The February rise, which followed six straight monthly declines, had raised hopes that the steep housing correction could be hitting bottom.

However, many private analysts said they do not expect a rebound for a number of months, given the problems weighing on housing from a severe glut of unsold homes to tighter credit standards for prospective buyers and a rising tide of mortgage foreclosures.

Sales were down 19.3 percent compared with a year ago, reflecting the depth of the housing bust, which is coming after sales set records for five consecutive years.

For March, sales were down 6.5 percent in the Midwest and 3.5 percent in the South but increased by 2.2 percent in the Northeast and 2.2 percent in the West.

The Northeast was the only region of the country to experience a rise in median prices, which were up 4.6 percent compared with a year ago. Prices were down in all other regions of the country, dropping by 14.7 percent in the West, 7.1 percent in the South and 5.3 percent in the Midwest.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the Realtors, said that he expected sales would begin to show improvements in the second half of this year, helped by an improved availability of mortgage-backed insurance from the Federal Housing Administration and higher limits for jumbo mortgages, loans which are critically important in high-priced areas of the country such as California.

Dallas Morning News Reported Today, All the publicity about so-called rescue plans to help troubled homeowners isn't having an impact so far on Dallas-Fort Worth foreclosures.

The number of homes facing foreclosure in the area next month is up almost 40 percent from a year ago.
More than 4,400 homes are scheduled to be sold at foreclosure auction in the four-county area on the first Tuesday in May, according to statistics released Thursday from Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.

"All these plans and different things the government and others are talking about evidently are still in the pipeline because it certainly hasn't helped," said George Roddy, president of the firm that tracks foreclosures in almost a dozen counties.

Mr. Roddy said the number of D-FW foreclosure postings is the second-highest on record.

"Back in February, we were over 5,000," he said. "But the percentage gain this year is unbelievable when you consider that last year was unbelievable."

Almost 43,000 homes were posted for foreclosure here in 2007 – a record and up 10 percent from 2006.

The number of home foreclosure postings has risen by 24 percent from the first five months of 2007.

The biggest increases for May's foreclosure sales are in Rockwall and Denton counties. The number of homes facing forced sale by lenders in Rockwall County is double what it was a year ago. And in Denton County, foreclosure postings are up almost 50 percent from May 2007.

Dallas and Tarrant counties both have a 39 percent jump in postings.

Between 50 percent and 60 percent of the monthly foreclosure postings result in an actual forced sale of the property. In some cases, the sales are delayed, or the borrower reaches a new agreement regarding the debt.

Many of the home loans that are in default are subprime mortgages that have burdened borrowers with rising payments.

But Mr. Roddy said current economic conditions are also playing a part in the spike in foreclosures.

"The whole economic issue is sad," he said. "You've had big increases in the prices of gasoline and food, and it's one thing after another that's hitting homeowners."

Consumer advocates say the foreclosure situation would be even worse without many programs that have been set up to help troubled borrowers.

But they admit that the scale of the situation is overwhelming.

"There is no one silver bullet to take care of the problems," said Todd Mark, vice president of education at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Dallas. "We are getting a lot of people calling who are many months behind in their mortgages."

Many of the borrowers have just stretched too far, Mr. Mark said.

"Somebody is always living beyond their means – maybe only by $100 or $200 a month," he said.

Rising food and energy costs are adding to consumer woes.

"We see people already stretched to the limit, and they can't handle that 25-cent jump in gas prices," Mr. Mark said. "And it's cheaper to drink gasoline than it is milk right now.

"All these factors are creating a perfect storm for consumers."

He said he doesn't expect to see much change in home foreclosures over the next 18 to 24 months.

 Fort Worth News stated , Home foreclosures in Tarrant County are up 39 percent for May, with 1,380 homes posted for foreclosure at the May 6 auction, according to figures released Thursday by Foreclosure Listing Service.

For the year, there have been 6,971 postings in Tarrant County, 29 percent more than a year earlier.

Tarrant, Dallas, Denton and Collin counties combined had 4,426 postings for the May auction, also up 39 percent from a year earlier.

There are a number of reasons that foreclosures are continuing to rise, said George Roddy, president of Foreclosure Listing Service. The cost of living -- including the price of gasoline and groceries -- continues to rise, contributing to the rise of people's bills, but salaries have not kept up.

"The cost of living has gone to the moon," he said.

In addition, some people have mortgages with variable rates that are adjusting.

These higher costs are compounding the usual underlying causes that contribute to foreclosures: job loss, divorce and insurmountable medical bills.

The mortgage is usually the one of the last bills that people stop paying.

"Once you get behind, it's extremely hard to get caught back up," Roddy said.

Merrill Lynch & Co (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday posted a quarterly loss of $2 billion and said it planned to cut 2,900 jobs after recording more than $9.5 billion in write-downs and losses on subprime mortgages and other risky assets.

The results were worse than analysts' gloomy expectations, and shares of the world's largest brokerage fell more than 2 percent in premarket trading. Chief Executive John Thain is trying to turn the company around as it struggles with the aftermath of bad bets on subprime mortgages and repackaged debt. He is increasing the investment bank's business in emerging markets and cutting costs to help offset write-downs.

Merrill Lynch reported losses, write-downs and reserve increases of $1.5 billion on collateralized debt obligations, $925 million on loans financing leveraged buyouts, $3.5 billion on an investment portfolio, more than $800 million on residential mortgages, and $3 billion for exposure to bond insurers.

Merrill Lynch's first-quarter net loss was $1.96 billion, compared with a year-earlier profit of $2.16 billion.
Including preferred stock dividends, the loss was $2.14 billion, or $2.19 per share, and compared with a profit of $2.11 billion, or $2.26 a share, a year earlier.
The loss from continuing operations was $2.20 per share, wider than the analysts' average forecast of $1.96, according to Reuters Estimates.

Net revenue declined 69 percent to $2.93 billion. Analysts expected $3.35 billion.

Dallas News Reported - Denver-based Frontier Airlines Inc. became the fourth U.S. airline in less than a month to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy papers Friday, joining Aloha Airlines Inc., ATA Airlines Inc. and Skybus Airlines Inc.

However, Frontier will continue flying its airplanes, the carrier said, unlike the other three which have grounded their aircraft and ceased operations.

Frontier blamed an unnamed credit card company that had tried to “substantially increase” the amount of customer receipts the credit card company wanted to hold back and keep in reserve in case the airline ran into trouble.

The action, which was to begin Friday, “threatened to severely impact Frontier’s liquidity,” the carrier said.

"Frontier is committed to delivering exceptional customer service and we intend to continue delivering on that promise with normal operations throughout our reorganization process," Frontier president and chief executive Sean Menke said in a statement.

"To be clear, we filed for very different reasons than those of other recent carriers, and our customers and employees can be confident that we intend to keep on flying and providing outstanding service and products,” he said.

Mr. Menke said Frontier “has continued to perform relatively well in this difficult environment, and contrary to the trend, we have not seen a decrease in consumer demand, as demonstrated by our record traffic and revenue in March.”

The credit card holdback “would have made it impossible for us to continue normal operations,” he said. The bankruptcy filing will prevent the card company from increasing the holdback, Mr. Menke said.

“We are prepared to litigate this issue is necessary,” he said.

From Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Frontier flies to Denver and Mazatlan, Mexico.

Washington Mutual Inc, the largest U.S. savings and loan, said on Tuesday it obtained a $7 billion capital injection from private equity firm TPG Inc and other investors, but that mortgage problems will lead to a $1.1 billion quarterly loss and the elimination of 3,000 jobs.

The thrift also plans to close its 186 stand-alone home loan offices and stop offering home loans through brokers. It will instead offer mortgages through its retail branches, where some of the affected mortgage employees will be offered jobs, spokesman Derek Aney said. WaMu, as the thrift is known, said it expects a first-quarter loss of $1.40 per share, more than twice the 51 cents that analysts on average expected.

The Seattle-based thrift expects to set aside $3.5 billion in the quarter for loan losses, nearly twice what it previously projected, and said net charge-offs will total $1.4 billion. WaMu will also reduce its quarterly dividend per share to 1 cent from 15 cents, saving $490 million a year. The cut is the second in four months.

"These companies are getting serious," said James McGlynn, a portfolio manager at Summit Investment Partners in Southlake, Texas. "They are bringing in capital, (and) getting out of businesses where they weren't efficient. It just seems like they are getting their comeuppance." Shares of WaMu fell 73 cents, or 5.6 percent, to $12.39 in morning trading. They had risen 29 percent on Monday, after news of the thrift's plans to raise $5 billion first surfaced.

WaMu joined more than a dozen commercial and investment banks to seek cash from outside investors in the last year, following more than $200 billion of write-downs and credit losses tied to the nation's housing and credit crisis.

Senate leaders announced an agreement Wednesday on legislation to ease the slumping housing market and help millions of families threatened by foreclosure.

The scaled-back proposal released by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky contains an amalgam of ideas aimed at boosting demand for housing and helping homeowners saddled with subprime mortgages avoid foreclosure. For instance, the plan contains $4 billion in grants to local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes, new authority for states to issue bonds to be used to refinance subprime mortgages and a $7,000 tax credit for people buying new homes or properties in foreclosure.

"It is a robust package," Reid said. "This is good news for the American people."

But economists across the political spectrum sounded skeptical that the measure would have much practical effect to ease the wrenching crisis in the housing market and the wave of foreclosures spreading across the country. "They're good steps, but they're small steps and certainly not big enough steps to solve the problem," said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com. "I don't think it's going to be enough to solve the housing problem, at least not in 2008."

Reid did not release details, but staff aides described a still-being-drafted measure containing several elements from a bill Democrats have touted for weeks. The measure also contains a provision dropped from February's stimulus measure that would permit homebuilders and other money-losing businesses to reclaim previously paid taxes, new disclosure requirements aimed at preventing unsophisticated borrowers from being duped by mortgage brokers, and additional money to provide counseling to people threatened with foreclosure and help them in negotiating with their lenders.

Republicans forced Democrats to drop efforts that Zandi and other economists said might have proven more effective in alleviating the crisis, including a controversial plan opposed by banks and their GOP allies to change bankruptcy laws to help borrowers trapped in subprime mortgages keep their homes. Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., was forced to leave out of the bill a plan to have the Federal Housing Administration guarantee perhaps $400 billion worth of refinanced loans if lenders reduce loan amounts to reflect reduced home values.

The measure will contain a broader rewrite of the FHA that reduces down payments on FHA-insured loans and raises the dollar limit on mortgages that FHA can insure. "This package addresses the core issues of this crisis, including foreclosure mitigation, mortgage counseling, FHA modernization and homeowner tax credits, among other provisions," Reid and McConnell said in a joint statement. Reid said he hoped the measure could quickly pass, though it faces a flurry of amendments from senators in both parties.

According to The Houston Chronicle, employers slashed 80,000 jobs in March, the most in five years and the third straight month of losses. At the same time, the national unemployment rate rose from 4.8 percent to 5.1 percent, the clearest signal yet that the economy might already be shrinking. The new snapshot of the job market, released by the Labor Department today, underscored the damage that a trio of crises —in the housing, credit and financial sectors — has inflicted on companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.

"The labor market has indeed turned south," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "That was the one last bastion of hope to stay out of a recession. Now the question is how deep and how long will it last?"

The unemployment rate was the highest since September 2005, when significant job losses followed the devastating blows of Gulf Coast hurricanes. Job losses were widespread in March. Construction, manufacturing, retailing, financial services and various business services all racked up losses. That overwhelmed gains elsewhere, including in education and health care, leisure and hospitality as well as in government. The new employment figures were much weaker than economists were expecting. They were anticipating a drop of 50,000 payroll jobs and the unemployment rate to rise to 5 percent.

The 5.1 percent rate is relatively modest by historical standards, but was nonetheless the highest in 2 1/2 years.

Job cuts in both January and February turned out to be even deeper. Employers got rid of 76,000 in each month. The elimination of 80,000 jobs in March was the most since March 2003, when the labor market was still struggling to recover from the 2001 recession. The economy is suffering the effects of a housing collapse, a credit crunch and a financial system in turmoil. That's causing people and businesses to hunker down, crimping spending, capital investment and hiring. Those things in turn further weaken the economy in what has become a vicious cycle.

For the first time, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged Wednesday that the country could be heading toward a recession, saying federal policymakers are "fighting against the wind" in combating it. Many other economists and the public believe the recession already has arrived.

Bernanke wouldn't tip his hand about the Fed's next move. However, many economists believe the central bank will lower interest rates again when they meet later this month. The Fed has taken a number of extraordinary actions recently — slashing interest rates, providing financial backing to JP Morgan's takeover of troubled Bear Stearns and opening an emergency lending program for big investment houses. All the actions are ultimately aimed at limiting damage to the national economy.

With a public on edge, Congress, the White House and presidential contenders are scrambling to come up with their own relief plans even as they engage in a political blame game.

With the pace of hiring slowing down, the number of unemployed people increased to 7.8 million in March; workers with jobs saw only modest wage gains at the same time.

Average hourly earnings for jobholders rose to $17.86 in March, a 0.3 percent increase from the previous month. That matched economists' forecasts. Over the past 12 months, wages grew 3.6 percent. With lofty energy and food prices, workers may feel like their paychecks are shrinking.
Many analysts believe the economy shrank in the first three months of this year and could still be ebbing now. The government will release its estimate of first-quarter economic growth later this month. Under one rough rule, if the economy contracts for six straight months it is considered in a recession.

Bernanke, however, has said he is hopeful the economy will improve in the second half of this year, helped by the government's $168 billion stimulus package of tax rebates for people and tax breaks for businesses, as well as the Fed's rate reductions.

Still, even Bernanke predicted this week that the unemployment rate would rise in the months ahead. Some analysts say it could climb to 5.5 percent or higher by year's end.