BofA signals bad news ahead ...
Bank of America’s decision to announce earnings on the morning of Friday, July 17, suggests the bank will deliver bad news it hopes to downplay in the Saturday papers.
Some analysts anticipate the bank will have a murky quarter, if not a downright ugly quarter.
“Bank of America’s quarter will be filled with one-time events that may make it impossible to discern what the company is actually earning,” said Dick Bove, an analyst with Rochdale Securities in a recent report.
from Blog: Bay Area BizTalk
Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label banks. Show all posts
State halts tax-credit program...
California is cutting off applications for a tax credit that was designed to promote sales of new homes.The Franchise Tax Board said it would stop taking applications for the tax credits at midnight Thursday.The program offered $100 million in credits to about 10,000 consumers who buy homes that have never been occupied. The credit is equal to 5% of the purchase price or $10,000, whichever is less.
Buyers must occupy the homes for at least two years immediately after the purchase.The tax board expects to have received 12,000 applications.
But help is on the way …
AB 765 (Caballero) Income tax credit: purchase: principal residence.
Analysis
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes a credit against the taxes imposed by that law in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000 in the case of the purchase of a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, but not to exceed an aggregate limitation of $100,000,000 for all credits allowable.
Existing law requires a certification that the residence has never been occupied be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the sale of the qualified principal residence. This bill would allow a taxpayer to reserve a credit with the Franchise Tax Board and would require that the certification be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the close of escrow of the qualified principal residence. This bill contains other related provisions.
California is cutting off applications for a tax credit that was designed to promote sales of new homes.The Franchise Tax Board said it would stop taking applications for the tax credits at midnight Thursday.The program offered $100 million in credits to about 10,000 consumers who buy homes that have never been occupied. The credit is equal to 5% of the purchase price or $10,000, whichever is less.
Buyers must occupy the homes for at least two years immediately after the purchase.The tax board expects to have received 12,000 applications.
But help is on the way …
AB 765 (Caballero) Income tax credit: purchase: principal residence.
Analysis
The Personal Income Tax Law authorizes a credit against the taxes imposed by that law in an amount equal to the lesser of 5% of the purchase price or $10,000 in the case of the purchase of a qualified principal residence on and after March 1, 2009, and before March 1, 2010, but not to exceed an aggregate limitation of $100,000,000 for all credits allowable.
Existing law requires a certification that the residence has never been occupied be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the sale of the qualified principal residence. This bill would allow a taxpayer to reserve a credit with the Franchise Tax Board and would require that the certification be provided to the Franchise Tax Board within one week of the close of escrow of the qualified principal residence. This bill contains other related provisions.
Some Judges Stiffen Foreclosure Standards (WSJ)
WSJJuly 26, 2008; Page A3
A cadre of state-court judges scrutinizing foreclosure actions in a string of recent rulings have discovered flaws in documents that borrowers may be able to use to keep their homes.
The rulings show the critical role that judges are beginning to play as foreclosures mount in the most severe housing crisis since the Great Depression. The recent decisions build upon widely circulated opinions issued last fall by federal judges in Ohio who found trusts that hold the mortgages regularly begin foreclosure proceedings before they obtain the legal right to do so.
WSJ Law Blog
July 25, 2008
Subprime Legal: Judges Scrutinize Mortgage Docs, Deny Foreclosures
It’s been about nine months since several federal judges in Ohio issued the widely-read foreclosure dismissals that shined a light on sloppy paperwork done by companies that specialize in handling foreclosures.
Since then, the WSJ reports tonight, other judges across the country have caught on and are carefully scrutinizing mortgage documents filed as part of foreclosures and dismissing cases based on mistakes they’re finding, which borrowers might be able to exploit when facing foreclosure. (For another good read on judges and lawyers working to staunch foreclosure, click here for a recent NLJ story.)
On-Line House Hunting Sites Developers Should Know!
Here's are a few:
DotHomes.com : Billing itself as a "real estate search engine," DotHomes scans the websites of agents and brokerages and returns listings in a way reminiscent of Google. The comparison is not accidental -- there's an "I'm Feeling Wealthy" search button that pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button; it returns listings by price. Much like a general search engine, it allows you to enter your parameters very efficiently in one box as if they were keywords, such as "Santa Monica, CA 3 bedrooms.
"FrontDoor.com: One thing that listings sites tend to lack is content that's broader than the listings themselves. That's not the case with FrontDoor, where the popular HGTV cable channel has leveraged its archive of home-improvement and real estate programming. Be warned, however, that if you're a fan of the channel, it might be tempting to kill a lot of time watching videos of "Designed to Sell" host Lisa LaPorta ripping out bad bathroom tile. Non-video content includes numerous brief articles on the ins and outs of buying and selling. On the listings side, the site helpfully breaks them down by neighborhood.
CyberHomes.com: This site also has easy-to-access content: a big library of articles on the nuts and bolts of real estate. CyberHome’s Explore Maps feature goes way beyond the usual mapping -- with this tool, you can zero in on neighborhoods where there isn't much crime or areas where there are likely to be a lot of toddlers.
Movoto.com: You may be able to make up the time you lost looking at the videos at FrontDoor.com when you get to the noticeably efficient home search at Movoto. Enter your search parameters, and it returns 20 listings at a time, shown in pairs. Click on one of them, and it delivers lots of information about that property, including detailed lists of local schools and community amenities, plus demographic information, all in one continuous scroll, without having to click on a lot of links.
OpenHouse.com: The name says it all. If you're setting out on a Sunday to stalk homes for sale, OpenHouse can be a useful tool for planning your itinerary. The details that are available for each listing vary quite a lot, depending on what the agent has included. There are also "virtual open houses," which translate into tons of photographs and videos of many properties.
Wal-Mart.com: Although it's too soon to say, "Look out, Craigslist," the retail behemoth’s recent entry into free classified advertising should not be dismissed. Wal-Mart, after all, is Wal-Mart. In addition to the free consumer-submitted listings, it aggregates broker ads through a partnership with Oodle.com. The number of listings that turned up in our searches in July was not huge, but the service is only a few months old. A search here can be broken down by the usual bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage etc., as well as by homes for sale by agents, via foreclosure or FSBO (for sale by owner).
Excerpts from LA Times Article By Mary Umberger, July 27, 2008
DotHomes.com : Billing itself as a "real estate search engine," DotHomes scans the websites of agents and brokerages and returns listings in a way reminiscent of Google. The comparison is not accidental -- there's an "I'm Feeling Wealthy" search button that pays tongue-in-cheek homage to Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button; it returns listings by price. Much like a general search engine, it allows you to enter your parameters very efficiently in one box as if they were keywords, such as "Santa Monica, CA 3 bedrooms.
"FrontDoor.com: One thing that listings sites tend to lack is content that's broader than the listings themselves. That's not the case with FrontDoor, where the popular HGTV cable channel has leveraged its archive of home-improvement and real estate programming. Be warned, however, that if you're a fan of the channel, it might be tempting to kill a lot of time watching videos of "Designed to Sell" host Lisa LaPorta ripping out bad bathroom tile. Non-video content includes numerous brief articles on the ins and outs of buying and selling. On the listings side, the site helpfully breaks them down by neighborhood.
CyberHomes.com: This site also has easy-to-access content: a big library of articles on the nuts and bolts of real estate. CyberHome’s Explore Maps feature goes way beyond the usual mapping -- with this tool, you can zero in on neighborhoods where there isn't much crime or areas where there are likely to be a lot of toddlers.
Movoto.com: You may be able to make up the time you lost looking at the videos at FrontDoor.com when you get to the noticeably efficient home search at Movoto. Enter your search parameters, and it returns 20 listings at a time, shown in pairs. Click on one of them, and it delivers lots of information about that property, including detailed lists of local schools and community amenities, plus demographic information, all in one continuous scroll, without having to click on a lot of links.
OpenHouse.com: The name says it all. If you're setting out on a Sunday to stalk homes for sale, OpenHouse can be a useful tool for planning your itinerary. The details that are available for each listing vary quite a lot, depending on what the agent has included. There are also "virtual open houses," which translate into tons of photographs and videos of many properties.
Wal-Mart.com: Although it's too soon to say, "Look out, Craigslist," the retail behemoth’s recent entry into free classified advertising should not be dismissed. Wal-Mart, after all, is Wal-Mart. In addition to the free consumer-submitted listings, it aggregates broker ads through a partnership with Oodle.com. The number of listings that turned up in our searches in July was not huge, but the service is only a few months old. A search here can be broken down by the usual bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage etc., as well as by homes for sale by agents, via foreclosure or FSBO (for sale by owner).
Excerpts from LA Times Article By Mary Umberger, July 27, 2008
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