cheaprealty net

Lehman Brothers (TICKER:LEH) nearly reaches a deal to raise almost $5 billion from South Korean wealth funds and institutions, but the pact disintegrates, The New York Post reports, citing sources familiar with the matter. The report says it's unclear why the deal fell apart earlier in the month. See full story

Co-creator of S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices outlines fixes for the housing mess.

Co-creator of S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices outlines fixes for the housing mess.

HOUSING BOOM TO WALL STREET CRISIS: How Real Estate and the Financial Markets Intertwined, lecture at Tax Foundation of Hawaii annual luncheon, noon at Ala Moana Hotel; Todd Lee, executive director of the Global Capital Markets Division of Morgan Stanley, will discuss macro housing issues, including subprime and the housing market's collapse; $60. Reservations: 536-4587.

There's a silver lining in San Diego's slumping housing market: improved affordability. The National Association of Home Builders yesterday ranked San Diego County as the nation's 20th least affordable metro area, a major improvement from four years ago, when the region was ranked the most unaffordable market in the nation.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 (Bernama) - The global sukuk market is likely to gain momentum in the first quarter of next year following a period of slower growth due to the United States subprime market impact.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 (Bernama) - The global sukuk market is likely to gain momentum in the first quarter of next year following a period of slower growth due to the United States subprime market impact.

LONDON: European stock markets closed sharply lower yesterday, following heavy losses on Wall Street on concerns more bad news is to come in the US subprime home loan crisis.

As if the housing market wasn’t scary enough, the record-setting surge in foreclosures could be distorting some of the closely watched housing data used to gauge the market’s health.

Interconnected market bubbles, first in stocks and then in housing, convinced Americans that they were richer then they were, and could borrow and spend freely. That conviction will have to go for stock markets to recover.

Mortgage agency manages to sell bonds at reasonable premium to Treasury yields.

Europeans might be forgiven for feeling bruised. The housing bust across the Atlantic was the trigger for the credit crunch, so justice demands that America suffer most from the fallout.

Former mortgage lender NovaStar Financial Inc.'s sole remaining source of revenue is drying up. In a securities filing late Monday, the Kansas City-based company, which shuttered its mortgage lending operations during the subprime meltdown last year, said cash flows from its remaining portfolio of mortgage loans "are likely to be insufficient to cover our existing expenses in the near future" ...

Propelled by low-cost foreclosure sales and accelerating price drops, more San Diego County homes were sold last month than at any time in more than a year, MDA DataQuick reported yesterday.