The FDIC had a nice, slow August Friday, which is to say that it only had to close three banks: the California-based Affinity Bank, Bradford Bank in Maryland and Mainstreet Bank in Minnesota.

The busts pushed the 2009 failed-bank tally to 84 and drained another $446 million from the fast-shrinking FDIC deposit-insurance fund.

Not surprisingly, Uncle Sam is making it a little bit harder to launch a bank. It will now subject a startup to “enhanced regulation ” — including more strict capital requirements — for seven years, rather than three.

Found here.

There are deals in the state with the highest foreclosure rate, but do your research

Ontario’s real estate market is strong. But you can find bargains galore in Florida, the U.S. state with the highest rate of foreclosures.

Property values have dropped about 40 per cent since the market there peaked in September 2005.

For example, a four-bedroom house with pool in Cape Coral (on the Gulf coast) that sold for $495,000 in 2005 is now listed at $339,000.

The property actually sold for $290,000 last month, says listing agent Carolyn Simoneau. But the buyer had to back out and wants just enough to cover his realty commissions.

Let’s make a deal?

Not so fast.

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The most important component of a good legal education is learning to think like a lawyer. However, you can save a lot in student loans if you check yourself into a mental hospital instead. In Movsesian v. Versicherung AG, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals provides more proof of the benefits of a good legal education.

Movsesian is a lawsuit about an interesting California law that allows the heirs of people killed during the Armenian genocide to sue the debauched opportunistic life insurance companies who have still not paid policy benefits to any of the victims’ families.

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Simon Property Group Inc., the biggest U.S. shopping-mall owner, led $1.25 billion of real estate company bond sales this week, raising cash for possible acquisitions as credit markets eased.

The real estate investment trust doubled the size of a previously planned debt offering to $500 million by reopening its 6.75 percent notes due in 2014. Duke Realty Corp., an owner of industrial, office and retail properties, added $250 million of 10-year bonds to its planned $250 million sale of 5.5-year notes. Both REITs are based in Indianapolis.

Property companies are taking advantage of opening credit and equity markets this year to refinance debt as maturities loom and raise funds for potential acquisitions from competitors weakened by the recession. The rally in corporate credit has driven yields on company debt relative to benchmark rates to the lowest since July 2008.

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The FDIC is right to demand protections for taxpayers.

Federal regulators are meeting Wednesday to decide on rules for investing in failed U.S. banks, and they’re under heavy pressure to ease up on the draft terms that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. laid out earlier this summer. While some flexibility may be in order, the FDIC is right to drive a hard bargain for taxpayers.

The private-equity community has in particular been lobbying hard against the draft rules, which set tough capital and cross-ownership standards. Wilbur Ross, who has made a fortune buying failed assets with the help of Uncle Sam, has hit the media circuit saying he’ll never invest in a failed bank again if the FDIC’s terms aren’t watered down.

That’s best understood as negotiating melodrama. Mr. Ross is entitled to wrangle for the best terms he can get, but he isn’t entitled to an easy profit as if he’s waiting to invest as a great favor for taxpayers. He and other private-equity players aren’t amassing $40 billion or more to buy bad banks as philanthropy. Mr. Ross was already part of a private-equity group that bought BankUnited, a Florida thrift, on bargain terms from the FDIC.

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The price being charged for a real estate ad in one of online advertising’s two major pricing plans has more than doubled since the last quarter of 2008, according to Adify, an online network builder and ad broker.

The figures reflect increasing demand by the mortgage, moving, real estate and contracting companies that place ads on Web sites related to real estate. That rise in demand is, in turn, linked to the moderate increase in housing starts over the last quarter.

At the same time, Adify’s data is limited in scope. It reflects only the 12,000 Web sites built on technology hosted by Adify, which tend to bemidsize sites with five-figure monthly visitor counts.

Moreover, Adify’s advertisers pay per thousand views of their ads (a system known as C.P.M. for “cost per mille”), rather than paying for each time a user click on their ads (a system known as cost per click).

Adify also reported more moderate rises in rates for sports and entertainment-related ads.

Found here.

The number of people applying for a mortgage in the US is up 25pc on last year as would-be home buyers attracted by low interest rates and a less risky economic environment return to the market.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) US mortgage market index rose by 5.6pc to 527 in the week ending August 14.

It marks the third-consecutive weekly increase, and comes as interest rates slid to a five-week low, with the average for a 30-year fixed mortgage falling from 5.38pc to 5.15pc.

Buyers are also being attracted by the government’s $8,000 (£4,850) tax credit for first-time buyers – part of President Obama’s $787bn stimulus plan – and the significant fall in the price of property in many areas.

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Let’s say you have a brand-new car and you’re the victim of an accident or vandalism that requires you to get the car repaired. Fortunately, you have insurance, so you can count on the car being made good as new. Right?

Wrong.

In 2003, while serving in the state Senate, I wrote the law that gives consumers the right to select the collision repair facility of their choice. This law was necessary because insurance companies routinely make deals with preferred shops to use cheaper used or “after-market” parts rather than parts made by the vehicle manufacturer. Sometimes the imitation parts work fine, but too often they don’t fit the vehicle or are made of inferior metals and plastics. The law made it illegal for insurers to steer policy holders toward specific shops.

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Lenders favor refinancing of smaller projects, require more equity than in past

Gallows humor provides the only bright spot in the dismal outlook for commercial real estate lending as the credit crunch and economic slump create the biggest hurdles in decades for securing big-ticket financing.

Alec Pacella, a specialist in investment property sales at the NAI Daus realty brokerage in Beachwood, said he and his colleagues recently rushed to their phones after hearing a rumor the banks were “opening up” to more real estate lending. Their hopes were dashed.

“We decided that a lender had just returned someone’s call,” Mr. Pacella said.

Although small and regional banks are providing some refinancing for small projects, generally under $5 million, finding big lenders to refinance larger loans is tough. To refinance a property, it requires far more equity than real estate owners are used to providing — 35% to 40% down now, compared to 15% to 25% down just two years ago.

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Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed into law new rules requiring insurers to cover the screening and therapeutic treatment of autism, making it the 15th state in the U.S. to require such coverage.

Corzine signed the measure (A-2238/S-1651) into law Aug. 14, requiring coverage for diagnostic and therapeutic services, including any medically necessary occupational, physical and speech therapy.

Corzine said the state has made the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders “a top priority.”

“[The new law] recognizes there must be appropriate resources to treat and care for individuals with autism, and provide their families the support they need,” the governor said in a statement. “By doing so, we enable those affected with autism to function as independent, productive, and empowered individuals and ease the burden of their loved ones.”

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