US Housing Crash Continues .....

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http://money.cnn.com/news/

Home prices plunge 14.1% in first quarter
Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller study shows record decline for housing prices in first three months of 2008.


NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. home prices dropped at the sharpest rate in two decades during the first quarter, a closely watched index showed Tuesday. It's a somber indication that the housing slump continues to deepen.

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller said its national home price index fell 14.1% in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, to its lowest level since its inception in 1988. The quarterly index covers all nine U.S. Census divisions.

The narrower indices also set record declines. The 20-city index tumbled 14.4% during the quarter, the lowest since that index was started in 2001. The 10-city index plunged 15.3%, a record in its 20-year history.

"There are very few silver linings that one can see in the data. Most of the nation appears to remain on a downward path," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee.

Nineteen of the 20 metro areas surveyed reported annual declines, with 15 of them posting record lows. Six metro areas lost more than 20%.

Las Vegas had the worst quarterly performance, falling 25.9%, followed by Miami and Phoenix. Only Charlotte, N.C., stayed above water, gaining less than 1% over the previous year.

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Housing downturn is a boon for some renters

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24972314/?ref=patrick.net

‘Shadow’ market thrives as investors can’t sell off houses, condos


NEW YORK - Renters may be the biggest winners in the current housing slump, especially in places like Florida, Las Vegas and Southern California, that have thousands of vacant for-sale and foreclosed homes and condos on the market.

Apartment vacancies are edging up in many areas of the country as frustrated sellers instead try to rent out their homes and condos in once red-hot housing markets. And that is making it harder for landlords to raise rents. In the toughest markets, apartment owners are even offering lease incentives to snag renters.

This "shadow market" of investor-owned homes and condos accounts for almost half of the rental stock, and attracts displaced homeowners more often than your typical apartment renter.

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Senate passes $410 billion spending bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A massive spending bill that funds the U.S. government for the rest of the budget year passed the Senate on Tuesday despite complaints about nearly $8 billion in what critics called "pork-barrel" projects.

Senators voted 62-35 to cut off debate on the $410 billion measure and passed it on a voice vote immediately afterward.

The omnibus spending bill includes more than 8,000 congressional "earmarks," which total almost $8 billion. The earmarks have caused critics to question President Barack Obama's pledge to end wasteful spending, but Obama administration officials say the bill is a holdover from the previous Congress and the Bush administration.

"It is in America's best interest to close the book on the last administration and let the new one hit the ground running," said Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

But Sen. John McCain, a longtime critic of congressional spending and Obama's Republican opponent in the 2008 election, said the vote shows "business as usual" remained the order of the day.

"If the president were serious about his pledge for change, he would veto this bill. He won't," McCain said.

The bill funds the U.S. government through September, when the 2008 budget year ends. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, postponed the vote last week because he wasn't sure supporters had the 60 votes needed to break a potential GOP filibuster.

The measure passed the House of Representatives last week