Another look at this week’s edition of our Housing Bubble Watch. Every week brings us news on the recent developments of the real estate. There are the foreclosure filing rates, the top mortgage companies flirting with banckruptcy, the signs of year over year decline in the median price in some areas, and the feds making their move to help the economy. Recent statistics show that there are more inventories now that it is becoming a buyer’s market. Is it time to make your move or should you wait a little longer and see if the price declines even further? To answer this question, Dr. Housing Bubble wrote the article “Triangulating Real Estate. 3 New market Behaviors: Rewriting History, Falling Sales Receipts, And A Sort of A Diverse Workforce.”

Foreclosure News
The Los Angeles Times Blog indicated that The foreclosures in California and Los Angeles have become flat from June to July 2007. Has it slowed down? Well it has been consistent at that level but if you look at the year over year rates, the rate is still running at 289% ahead of last year’s level.

Mortgage News
According to New York Times, First Magnus Financial Corp filed for bankcruptcy. Thus, following other mortgage companies such as American Home Mortgage, who filed for bankcruptcy on August 6 and HomeBanc Corp, who filed last week. “First Magnus was caught in the credit liquidity crunch now causing a meltdown in the mortgage industry, even though it was not engaged in selling ‘’sub-prime'’ mortgages that sparked the crisis in recent months.” The company has stopped taking mortgages and fired 99% of its 6,000 employees.

Just last week, Countrywide Financial Corp, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, flirted with bankcruptcy but was able to stave off from it by borrowing  $11.5 billion from a group of 40 banks to fund new loans. This move just shows how deep the lending crisis had become.

Photo Credit: AFP