From the American Bankruptcy Institute: Consumer Bankruptcy Filings Surge Past One Million During First Nine Months of 2009 Consumer bankruptcies totaled 1,046,449 filings through the first nine months of 2009 (Jan. 1-Sept. 30), the first time since ...

The MBA reports: Mortgage Applications Decrease. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier.

From the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA): Delinquencies Continue to Climb, Foreclosures Flat in Latest MBA National Delinquency Survey The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties rose to a seasonally adjusted...

On a monthly basis, retail sales decreased 0.1% from June to July (seasonally adjusted), and sales are off 8.3% from July 2008 (retail ex food services decreased 9.3%). The following graph shows the year-over-year change in nominal and real retail ...

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) today suspended Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corporation (TBW) of Ocala, Florida, thereby preventing the Company from originating and underwriting new FHA-insured mortgages.

From Bloomberg: Fed Said to Ask Banks to Submit Plans to Repay TARP (ht MrM) The central bank this month asked Bank of America Corp. and eight other banks to. ... Together the nine banks have received about $142 billion in TARP funds ... The banks in...

From Bloomberg: Late Card Payments Rose in October, Moody’s Reports Loans at least 30 days overdue, a signal of future defaults, rose to 6.12 percent in October from 5.97 percent in September, Moody’s said ... defaults fell last month to 10.04...

After the expected spike in existing home sales last month, I quoted legendary basketball coach John Wooden:"Never mistake activity for achievement." It is worth repeating this month. First, it is important to remember that existing home sales are...

Here is another way to look at existing homes sales: Monthly, Not Seasonally Adjusted (NSA): This graph shows NSA monthly existing home sales for 2005 through 2009. For the fifth consecutive month, sales were higher in 2009 than in 2008. And for...

The NAR reports: Existing-Home Sales Record Another Big Gain, Inventories Continue to Shrink Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – surged 10.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 6.10...