• June 16th, 2009
• August 24th, 2008

Negative Homeowner Equity at New High

By Theresa McCabe, The Street

05/09/11 – 12:09 PM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Home prices in the United States dropped 3% in the first quarter of 2011, the largest decrease since 2008 when the housing market experienced its worst performance, and negative homeowner equity hit a new high, according to Zillow’s Real Estate Market Report.

Median home values fell 8.2% year over year to $169,600 and are expected to fall as much as 9% this year as foreclosures spread and unemployment remains high, Zillow Chief Economist Stan Humphries said. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9% in April, up from 8.8% in March, the Department of Labor reported earlier this month.

“With accelerating declines during the first quarter, it is unreasonable to expect home values to return to stability by the end of 2011,” Humphries said.

Home prices were down 29.5% from their peak in June 2006. Humphries predicts that prices won’t find a floor until 2012.

Negative equity reached a new high in the first quarter, with 28.4% of U.S. homeowners with mortgages underwater, meaning they owed more than their properties were worth. This was up from 27% in the fourth quarter of 2010.

I’ll point out that The Street is Jim Cramer’s own web site.

Monday Business Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 43 Stories.

1 Greece heads for audit after euro exit scare

by John Hadoulis, AFP

Sun May 8, 2:09 pm ET

The Unwisdom of Elites

By PAUL KRUGMAN, The New York Times

Published: May 8, 2011

(W)hat we’re experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. The policies that got us into this mess weren’t responses to public demand. They were, with few exceptions, policies championed by small groups of influential people – in many cases, the same people now lecturing the rest of us on the need to get serious. And by trying to shift the blame to the general populace, elites are ducking some much-needed reflection on their own catastrophic mistakes.

…

(I)t was the bad judgment of the elite, not the greediness of the common man, that caused America’s deficit. And much the same is true of the European crisis.

…

Why should we be concerned about the effort to shift the blame for bad policies onto the general public?

One answer is simple accountability. People who advocated budget-busting policies during the Bush years shouldn’t be allowed to pass themselves off as deficit hawks; people who praised Ireland as a role model shouldn’t be giving lectures on responsible government.

But the larger answer, I’d argue, is that by making up stories about our current predicament that absolve the people who put us here there, we cut off any chance to learn from the crisis. We need to place the blame where it belongs, to chasten our policy elites. Otherwise, they’ll do even more damage in the years ahead.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Heavy fighting grips Libya’s besieged Misrata

by Alberto Arce, AFP

Sun May 8, 3:35 pm ET

Thanks to TheMomCat I’ve discovered the trick to embedding Olbermann videos from Friends of Keith.

He has a store of readings from James Thurber and since I’m a huge fan of Thurber (Keith too) I thought I’d share some with you.

As read by Keith.

So tires are the story (3 Softs, 3 Hards for Qualifying and Race), along with the flexible front wing.  Red Bull was so confident they pulled their drivers out of the cars and saved the tires.  Everyone else did 2 laps on a fresh set of softs and now have only 1 set left.

Will this be significant?  Who knows?  Rain is not expected.

GP 2 will rubber in the track, barring catastrophic failure, tactical miscalculation, and aggressive driving they’ll finish the way they start.

So is Formula One boring?

Not the way Turn Left Bumper Cars are boring.  There you might as well ignore everything except the last 5 laps.  

Massa didn’t turn in a time for Q3.  Kobayashi may or may not start under the 107% rule since he coasted into the pits during Q1 with fuel problems.

• F1: Istanbul Park Qualifying
• Formula One Official Site
• Speed Racecast

Re-broadcast at 1:30 pm ET.

Pretty tables below.

A DocuDharma tradition now on The Stars Hollow Gazette.

I tease my mother by calling her Emily after Emily Gilmore both because overall my family reminds me very much of the Gilmores and because she’s never met a brand name she didn’t like whereas I’m perfectly content to buy generic.

I thank her among many things for a thorough grounding in the domestic and other arts.

Mom teaches first grade and is actually famous in a quiet sort of way.  The kind parents brag about and angle their kids for though she’s won national awards too.  Of course I owe everything I know about educating to her and among my own peers I’m considered an asskicking trainer.

She also insisted we learn to perform routine self maintenance, little things like laundry and ironing, machine and hand mending. basic cooking.  Of course she always indulged us with trips to museums and zoos, made sure we got library cards, did the usual bus driver thing to swim practice, had this huge second career as a Brownie/Girl Scout Leader for my sister.

At one point when I was old enough for it to make an impression she took her Masters of Fine Arts in Art of all things, so I know a little Art History with Far Eastern.  I understand how to bang out a copper pot and make silver rings because she took me to class once or twice.  She liked stained glass so much that she and dad made several pieces (you use a soldering iron and can cut yourself pretty bad so it’s a macho thing too).  They also did silk screening which taught me a lot about layout and graphic arts.

But she always liked fabric arts and in addition to a framed three dimensional piece in the living room, there are Afghans and rugs and scarves and pot holders and wash cloths and hats and quilts and dolls.

And the training kits and manuals for her mentorship programs, and the adaptations and costumes for the annual first and fifth grade play.  Did I mention she plays 3 instruments, though mostly piano?

She touch types too.

So to Emily, a woman of accomplishment and refinement, Happy Mother’s Day.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

Now with 39 Top Stories.

1 Kadhafi steps up assault on rebels across Libya

by Dominique Soguel, AFP

43 mins ago