FHA Numbers Indicate Foreclosures Will Rise
From AOL Daily Finance: Real Estate News
The percentage of mortgages backed by the FHA that are in default has risen by a third over the last year. According to a report in The Washington Post, “About 9.1 percent of FHA borrowers had missed at least three payments as of December, up from 6.5 percent a year ago, the agency’s figures show.”
Many of the troubled mortgages were granted in 2007 and 2008. Mortgages that are two to three years old apparently carry especially high risks of default because of the high number of loans made during those years to people with extremely low credit scores.
The report adds to the confusion about the direction that the housing market is heading in 2010. RealtyTrac recently reported that forecloses this year may hit 3 million, up from 2.8 million last year. When the company released December 2009 data on January 13th, James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac said, “In the long term a massive supply of delinquent loans continues to loom over the housing market, and many of those delinquencies will end up in the foreclosure process in 2010 and beyond as lenders gradually work their way through the backlog.”
Government data showed that home starts fell 4% in December, but building permits rose. The choppy federal data, which can change direction month by month, has been a hard set of indicators to use to forecast the real estate market in terms of sales and home prices.
The housing market’s future will continue to be plagued by unemployment and over-leveraged consumers, and pressure will also be put on home prices by owners who have underwater mortgages. Some of these mortgage holders may believe that there will never be any equity value in their homes and that they are better off turning their house keys over to the bank. In addition, a wave of $47 billion in interest only loans will reset to full payments this year, according to credit agency Fitch. A portion of these home buyers will not be able to make their new, higher monthly payments.
The FHA news only adds to the probability that 2010 will not be any better for the housing market than 2009 was.
Breast Cancer Support Group Forms in Qatar
Breast cancer support group launched in Doha
By Ourouba Hussein
From today’s Gulf Times
The first breast cancer support group in Qatar was launched yesterday with 25 survivors as members.
Qatar National Cancer Society (QNCS) chairman Sheikh Khalid bin Jabor al-Thani said at a press conference that the organisation has been working for the last 10 years to set up the group, which would provide support to patients “who are newly diagnosed with the disease”.
He explained that the 25- member support group included Qatari and non-Qatari survivors or those who are still under treatment.
Sheikh Khalid said that QNCS was preparing to host a scientific conference on cancer control in April.
“The organisation will also launch a campaign to combat cancer in women and increase awareness to promote prevention and treatment of this disease,” he said.
Wife of the US ambassador Ellie LeBaron, a leading supporter of the cause, observed that the group included women who had suffered breast cancer, in addition to a member of their families.
“The Cancer Survivors’ Group aims to raise awareness of the importance of early detection, which has a great impact on the success of treatment, as well as telling the newly diagnosed that they can fight it and succeed”, she said.
“Many of the women with breast cancer are looking for answers to questions about chemotherapy and radiation treatment, as well as the chances of recovery,” she said.
Breast cancer survivors in the group, spoke about their experiences with the disease and treatment and emphasised that the mental support they received played a major role in their healing process.
US Housing Market Takes Another Hit in December
US home sales see steep drop in December
From BBC News
Sales of previously-owned US homes fell 16.7% in December, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has said.
Sales had risen from September to November as first-time buyers took advantage of tax credits.
The decline in December was expected as buyers rushed to complete deals before the original 30 November deadline.
The first-time buyer tax credit has since been extended until 30 April, and the NAR said there was likely to be another surge in sales in the spring.
December sales fell to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million from 6.54 million in November, but are 15% higher than the level seen in December 2008.
The average sale price of a previously-owned home was $178,300 (£110,200) in December, up 1.5% on a year ago.
Total sales in 2009 were almost 5% higher than in 2008 – the first annual gain since 2005.
“It’s significant that home sales remain above year-ago levels, but the market is going through a period of swings driven by the tax credit,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist said.
“By early summer the overall market should benefit from more balanced inventory, and sales are on track to rise again in 2010.
“However, the job market remains a concern and could dampen the housing recovery – job creation is key to a continued recovery in the second half of the year.”
Bu Yousef’s Haiti Challenge
My Kuwait blogging friend, Bu Yousef, is about to send a donation to the World Food Program designated to help Haiti. He has set a challenge to all bloggers and blog readers. Please, go comment on his post. For every unique comment he gets on his post (one per person), his donation will go up $1 from a minimum $50 to a maximum of $200. It’s up to us.
I would love for BuYousef to hit his maximum. I would love for him to be so overwhelmed, that he ups his maximum to $250. 😉
Please go say good morning/good evening to BuYousef, and do it NOW! Thank you!
Bu Yousef, AdventureMan and I will match your donation. 🙂
We’re All Related
We’re all related. My niece, Little Diamond, brought this article to my attention today:
Most Britons descended from male farmers who left Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago (and were seduced by the local hunter-gatherer women)
Most Britons are direct descendants of farmers who left modern day Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago, a new study has shown.
After studying the DNA of more than 2,000 men, researchers say they have compelling evidence that four out of five white Europeans can trace their roots to the Near East.
The discovery is shedding light on one of the most important periods of human history – the time when our ancient ancestors abandoned hunting and began to domesticate animals.
You can read the entire fascinating article by clicking HERE
Some people set so much store on pedigree. I bet there are a lot of surprises in our DNA.
Ladies Bible Study in Doha
“Tell me the story of Noah” our priest said, and we all chimed in. Everybody knows the story of Noah, how God told him to build an ark, and how he did it. How everyone laughed at him, but he faithfully built. How he filled the ark with animals, and then it started raining and rained for forty days.
“OK, stop there” the priest said. “Is that what the bible says?”
Well, of course that’s what the bible says! We all know the story!
“Wrong!” he exclaimed!
“We have many stories with facts not in the bible, information gathered from another source – the Qur’an.”
We sat there, our eyes wide.
“No where in the bible will you find that Noah was living in a dry and arid place, or that his neighbors laughed at him – that’s in the Qur’an.”
The Episcopal lectionary is in Genesis right now, and so I have had a chance to read – and re-read – the story of Noah. The priest is right. There are details we all take for granted, not there.
One of the other details was that until Noah, the first instructions to Adam and Eve were that they could eat from every tree – no mention of meat. After the flood is the first mention of meat – but NO blood.
Genesis 9:1-17
9:1 God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.* 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ 12 God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ 17 God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’
Now I have to go find a Qur’an and read what it has to say about Noah and the ark. I like it that our traditions don’t have to be at war with one another, but can illuminate and enrich one another.
3 Months for Killing, One Year for Stealing
These articles are in today’s Gulf Times, under Court Roundup.
Jail term, fine for death crash
A local motorist has been sentenced to three-month’s imprisonment for reckless driving that led to the death of a 56-year-Pakistani pedestrian.
The Doha court of first instance imposed on the 26-year-old motorist a fine of QR20,000.
The fatal accident took place in the Old Airport area on September 27, 2008. According to the traffic report, “the accident occurred because the motorist was speeding.”
A traffic official told the court that the motorist was driving at 80kmph on a busy street.
Family members of the deceased can claim blood money in a civil court.
Man sentenced for stealing
A Sri Lankan driver has been sentenced to a year-imprisonment for stealing items including two gas cylinders and a vacuum cleaner from the labour camp of a private company. Four of the co-accused were sentenced in absentia to five years in jail.
The theft took place on July 21, 2008 in New Rayan area, the charge-sheet said.
Two Egyptians, who witnessed the incident, testified that they saw five men loading the items, estimated to cost QR4,000, on to a pickup from a store inside the camp.
The Egyptians said they captured three of the workers while the others drove away in the pick-up.
The police arrested all the accused and four of them were deported on an administrative order before the commencement of the trial.
Different Languages, Different Tribes, One God
This is the meditation from yesterday, from Forward Day by Day. I really like it. We all talk about tribalism, as if we were not ourselves from tribes, even self-made tribes. It can be a tribe based on family, or based on nationality, or, in the USA, sometimes on nation-of-origin. It can be a tribe that calls itself Alpha Beta Zeta, or Rotary. Any kind of grouping that distinguishes between “us” and “them” is a kind of tribalism, in my opinion. And it costs us so much, in terms of energy and focus and resources, when, as i see it, we are all one family under God.
Psalm 118. I called to the LORD in my distress; the LORD answered by setting me free.
In the depths of the long civil wars here, the people cried to the Lord in their distress and were set free. The results have been amazing: the crossing of tribal lines to form one people whose most precious commonality is their belief in Jesus. Sitting in church on Sundays, that lesson comes true. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, or recite the creeds, or sing our favorite hymns, we do so in our own languages, so that a cacophony of voices rises to the heavens. It is not unusual to hear 12 or 13 languages spoken simultaneously, all praying the same thing at the same time.
We are set free when we forget to which human tribe we belong and focus on being members of God’s tribe of beloved children. This is how peace will be achieved, not just in this land, but in all of creation: by ignoring our differences and focusing on the freedom we have in God and from God.
Some days, listening to all the languages and praying in my own, I am moved to tears by the beauty of the holy noise we are making. We are set free in those moments, and our distress falls away.
PRAY for the Diocese of Aguata (Province of the Niger, Nigeria)
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