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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech Monday on the Fed’s recent and future moves — and current take on the economy. Some highlights of his talk, given to the New York Economic Club: The housing decline isn’t over and will likely continue through 2008, dragging down growth. The mortgage sector still has room for improvement. We’re not sure yet if rising credit costs will affect consumer spending. Bernanke viewed mid-August as a low point for the financial markets. U.S. economic performance so far this year has been "reasonably good." So what’s next? It’s unclear if the Fed will…

A good friend of mine is currently renovating a condo in an up-and-coming (actually, a somewhat-already-here) neighborhood. The neighborhood has turned out to be a real find, so much so that a relative who works in real estate is thinking about buying down the street. Now, this family member is a classy lady. I don’t see her being interested in a fixer-upper, but rather a home that is ultra-modern, something hip. New construction condo, I asked? The friend lowered her eyes, sheepishly. "No," she said, somewhat nervously. "She’s actually thinking about buying a foreclosed property. It’s for the investment. I…

Yesterday, we discussed the housing slump’s effect on real estate agents — which, in many areas of the country, isn’t looking pretty. And yet, as the housing slump drags on, the National Association of Realtors remains overwhelmingly positive. Just this week, the NAR said that mortgage conditions are improving and that while sales are down from their 2005 peak, 2007 will mark the fifth-highest year on record for pre-owned home sales. That’s indicative of NAR’s other recent forecasts. In July, the NAR said it expected home prices to increase throughout all of 2008; yet it at the same time decreased…

The housing slump has hurt U.S. construction companies, banks and a number of related industries, from home renovation material retailers like Home Depot to power tool companies. And let’s not forget real estate agents. How are they faring as the market crumbles? Not well, according to a number of recent reports. For the first time in a decade, the National Association of Realtors expects membership to decline this year, the Associated Press reported this week. Last year, the NAR had almost twice its 1997 membership. Realtor income has also dropped — falling on a national level from $49,300 in 2004…

This week’s news that property moguls landed three of the four top spots on Forbes Asia’s annual list of the 40 richest people in China highlights an interesting trend — China’s real estate tycoons. That includes 26-year-old Yang Huiyan, who was named the richest person in China this week, with shares of the development company her father founded, Country Garden, valued at about $16 billion. As the U.S. sinks further into housing despair, China’s residential sector is booming. Real estate investment development grew 29 percent in the first eight months of 2007 to 1.4 trillion yuan, or $186.5 billion, the…

Sinking home sales, lower home prices — we’re all feeling the effects of the housing decline. And many of us are paying for it, thanks to higher loan resets. But reports indicate that the decline will soon hit homeowners in a new, costly way: Via property taxes. It seems wrong that property taxes could possibly be rising, when home values and selling prices are dropping across the nation. (Housing prices in the top 20 U.S. cities fell 3.9 percent in July from 2006, according to a recently-released Case-Shiller index.) However, because many counties assess properties every other year (some take…

… at least, not according to today’s report on the economy. Data released by the Labor Department today showed that wages and jobs were both up in September. That’s good news for the U.S., considering the recent dour housing news — the National Association of Realtors announced this week that its index of signed purchase agreements fell to lowest level on record, and residential building hit its lowest spending level since 2003 — had sparked fears we were tumbling into a recession. And, as it turns out, last month wasn’t as bad as we thought. In August, figures indicated the…

As the mortgage default and, accordingly, the foreclosure rate rises, one party has emerged to take the fall — the at-risk homeowner. Some are homeowners who used their home’s value to fund other purchases. Others are new homeowners who bought using a loan that, given booming home prices, assumed their property would appreciate significantly before being refinanced or sold. Many are people who took out a subprime mortgages, loans typically made to people with weak credit histories that will rise in a few years. And rise they did. More than $350 billion adjustable rate mortgages will reset to higher rates…

Yesterday, we touched on the current housing market woes as the National Association of Realtors proclaimed that its index of signed purchase agreements dropped to the lowest level on record. And today, we’re looking for a side of hope to go with that gloom and doom. No one’s arguing that the market is bad — and probably about to get worse — but good news: Some people and programs are trying to turn it around. Help with lending. Homeowners finding their bank isn’t giving them a decent rate due to the bank’s problems or imperfect credit might benefit from trying…