Housing Starts at 12-Year Low

Housing starts and permits for new homes fell to their lowest level in 12 years in August, as the problems in the mortgage and real estate markets caused builders to slam the brakes on new construction.  Permits, which are taken as a sign of builders' confidence in the market, fell to an annual rate of 1.31 million from 1.39 million in July.  Economists had been looking for that number to fall to a 1.34 million rate.

The pace of building for single family homes fell even more sharply, falling 7 percent to an annual rate of only 988,000, a 14-year low.  Permits for single-family homes fell 8 percent to 926,000.

The downturn in housing and construction and turmoil in the credit markets were two of the reasons cited by the Federal Reserve when it cut its targeted interest rate for the first time in four years on September 18th.  The slump in housing and home building has been a drag on the U.S. economy for more than a year, and there are growing fears the building slump could help tip the nation into a recession later this year.

What do you think?  Are we on the brink of a recession?  Are we already in one?  Was the Fed's move to lower interest rates too little too late?  We'd love to hear your opinion.  Just click the comment link below and tell us what you think.

Refinance Rescue - Potential Tax Help Too

Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who may struggle to make mortgage payments are likely to get some relief in coming months, including more options to refinance into lower-cost, fixed-rate loans and tax relief if they do face foreclosure.

About 240,000 borrowers of the estimated 2 million with adjustable-rate loans scheduled to reset in the next year already are eligible to refinance into a loan insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) - roughly 80,000 of them are eligible because of the newly created FHASecure Act, which loosens FHA's criteria for refinancing.

If you are behind on payments by at least four months but no more than 12, the FHA may even make a one-time interest-free loan to you to make your account current with your lender.

It used to be you couldn't refinance into an FHA loan if you'd been delinquent in your payments for any reason. But with the FHASecure Act, delinquent homeowners qualify for an FHA-insured refi if they have:

• A history of on-time payments for at least six months before their loans reset to higher rates
• Interest rates scheduled to reset between June 2005 and December 2009
• 3 percent equity in their home, or the cash equivalent
• A sustained history of employment
• Sufficient income to make their FHA-insured mortgage payment and all other obligations

For homeowners whose situations can't be remedied with a refi, they may get tax relief if they end up facing foreclosure.

Currently, if you foreclose on your home and the bank forgives a portion of your mortgage debt which isn't recovered by the sale of your home, that forgiven debt is treated as taxable income to you.  President Bush has asked lawmakers to provide a temporary exemption from that rule.

It now seems like a real likelihood that lawmakers will pass that exemption this fall and make it retroactive so that homeowners who foreclosed in 2007 would be covered.