Record Vacant Homes, most since 1956

[Midway ®]

Monday, April 28, 2008
Record Vacant Homes, Most Since 1956

Vacant Home In Ghost Town
# Nobody's home: Percentage of vacant houses sets record high in first quarter of 2008 by AP - snip:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080428/vacant_homes_record_high.html
The percentage of vacant homes for sale in the U.S. set a new record high in the first quarter of this year, the government said Monday. The Census Bureau report shows that shows that 2.9 percent of U.S. homes -- excluding rental properties -- were vacant and up for sale, compared with 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. It was the highest quarterly number in records going back to 1956. That works out to 2.28 million properties, up from 2.18 million in the same quarter last year, according to the report...

# Warren Buffett says recession may be worse than feared by Reuters - snip:
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN2847461420080428
Warren Buffett, the world's richest person, said on Monday the U.S. economy is in a recession that will be more severe than most people expect...

# Global adjustment will be long and painful by FT - snip:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ef6f6a22-1480-11dd-a741-0000779fd2ac.html
So this crisis is about to end, right? There are two failsafe ways to justify a solid dose of optimism: define the crisis in a sufficiently narrow way; and, even better, look at the wrong crisis. In that spirit I am happy to state my optimism about the prospective end of the subprime crisis. But this would be disingenuous. It is no accident that our multiple crises - property, credit, banking, food and commodities - have been happening at the same time. The simple reason is that they are all part of same overriding narrative. The mother of all these crises is global macroeconomic adjustment - a rare case, incidentally, where the word "crisis" can be used in its Greek meaning of "turning point". It is a huge global macroeconomic shock. How long the financial part of the crisis will go on will depend to a large extent on how bad the economic part of the crisis gets. The economic part of the story started more than a decade ago with a liquidity-driven global boom. Property, credit and equity bubbles were all part of this. So was a Ponzi scheme that later became known as Bretton Woods II, a gravity-defying design that allowed the US to run persistent current account deficits...

# Morgan Stanley see big bank woes just beginning by Reuters - snip:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/140dbf8a-1122-11dd-a93b-0000779fd2ac.html
Morgan Stanley analysts on Monday told clients to "sell the rally" in financial stocks, slashing forecasts for big bank earnings and warning that the current credit crunch is only just beginning. In aggregate, Morgan Stanley reduced its estimates for 2008 large bank earnings by $17 billion, or 26 percent, and reduced 2009 forecasts by $13 billion, or 15 percent. The analysts expect higher loan losses and expenses, offset by higher net interest income, though profits could fall further still if the Federal Reserve stops lowering interest rates. "More capital hikes and dividend cuts (are) coming as our credit deteriorates and forward earnings decline," analysts led by Betsy Graseck wrote in a report. "We think we are only in the third inning of the credit cycle and expect this credit cycle will be worse than (the slump in) 1990-91"...