It is Joe Biden

I got my text at 2:43 this morning - so despite what MSNBC is reporting that it was not going out until 5:30 Eastern.

I was awake when it arrived because we are leaving to go to Tulane.

Sliver of Hope in the July Home Sales Figures

The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors has released the July 2008 sales figures and sales are down 25.7%. Bad news. Pending sales which are an indication of future sales are down 23.1%. Bad news. Inventory is up 12.6%. Bad news.

So where is the sliver of hope? A significant increase in the inventory is due to a big jump in the number of Farms, Land and Lots. Up nearly 50% to 6,182 vs 4,170 in 2007. The sliver of hope is that Single Family listings are up less that 1,000 compared to 2007 which indicates that the inventory is beginning to stabilize.

So why is the inventory of Farms, Land, and Lots up? In better times many developers do not add their inventory of lots to the MLS, since they marketing them directly to builders. As times get tough they broaden their marketing and place their lot inventories on MLS. It appears that this is why there has been such a year over year increase.

John McCain says Barack Obama acts like he's a celebrity. Maybe he should review his own life. Seems like the pot calling the kettle black.

Tennessee ranks 13th in foreclosures

Nashville Business Journal - July 28, 2008
http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/07/28/daily3.html

Monday, July 28, 2008 - 9:32 AM CDT

Tennessee ranks 13th in foreclosures Nashville Business Journal Tennessee ranks 13th among all states in foreclosure rates, according to second quarter data RealtyTrac Inc. reported Friday. The state of Tennessee had 12,008 foreclosure filings -- default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions -- in the second quarter. That's 105.2 percent more than the second quarter 2007. One out of every 223 Tennessee households got a foreclosure notice in the second quarter. In the U.S., foreclosure filings were reported on 739,714 properties during the second quarter -- a 121 percent increase from the second quarter of 2007. The report also shows that one in every 171 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter. "Although much of the fallout from foreclosures is being driven by rampant activity in a few states, such as Nevada, California, Florida, Ohio, Arizona and Michigan, most areas of the country are seeing at least some increase in foreclosure activity," says James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, in a statement. "48 of 50 states and 95 out of the nation's 100 largest metro areas experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity in the second quarter." Saccacio noted bank repossessions accounted for 30 percent of total foreclosure activity in the second quarter, up from 24 percent of the total in the first quarter. "This shift in the distribution of activity indicates that there is a progression toward purging the problem loans out of the system -- at which point the housing market can regain some sense of normalcy," he says. "Of course, if another surge in defaults occurs, which could well happen later this year, it would refill the foreclosure pipeline and prolong the recovery."

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Nashville, you won't miss your corporate caffine fix.

There are no scheduled Starbuck's closings in Nashville. Murfressboro, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga were not so "lucky." See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/18/starbucks-reveals-closure_n_113593.html for a complete list.

NAR reported that existing home sales increased 2.0% in May

The NAR reported that existing home sales, including single-family, townhomes, condos and co-ops, increased 2.0% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.99 million units. Sales remain 15.9% below the 5.93 million-unit pace in May of last year. The Association believes that better-than-expected sales last month were a result of buyers wading back into the market because of recent price declines and more affordable mortgage products. Regionally, sales rose in all areas by varying degrees except for the South where they declined 0.5%. Stronger sales activity resulted in a slight decline in inventory levels. The inventory of homes on the market fell 1.4% to 4.49 million which represents a 10.8 month-supply at the current sales pace. Prices continued to decline amid rising foreclosures and short sales. The median price for an existing hom e nationwide fell 6.3% over the last year to $208,600 as average prices declined 6.5% to $253,100. The improvement in home sales is welcomed; however, the housing market remains weak as evidenced by sky-high inventories and declining sales prices. Weakness is expected to continue going forward.

Jobless claims were unchanged at a level of 384k for the week ending June 21. Claims remain elevated indicating sluggish labor market conditions at best. Expect the employment report for June, due out next Thursday to probably showing a larger decline in payrolls than in May.

The final revision to Q1 GDP showed the economy grew at a 1.0% rate, as expected. Economy-wide inflation increased slightly to 2.7% from 2.6% in the previous estimates. The data released so far in April and May suggest that Q2 growth will continue to be very soft. John Cherry LANDAMERICA VALUATION CORPORATION Parkview One 925 North Point Parkway, Suite 400 Alpharetta, GA 30005 Toll Free: 800.207.7959 Fax: 770.777.6036

June 25, 2008

Report Sees Illegal Hiring Practices at Justice Department

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday.

The blistering report, prepared by the Justice Department’s inspector general, is the first in what will be a series of investigations growing out of last year’s scandal over the firings of nine United States attorneys. It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had become overly politicized during the Bush administration.

“Many qualified candidates” were rejected for the department’s honors program because of what was perceived as a liberal bias, the report found. Those practices, the report concluded, “constituted misconduct and also violated the department’s policies and civil service law that prohibit discrimination in hiring based on political or ideological affiliations.”

The shift began in 2002, when advisers to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft restructured the honors program in response to what some officials saw as a liberal tilt in recruiting young lawyers from elite law schools like Harvard and Yale. While the recruitment was once controlled largely by career officials in each section who would review applications, political officials in the department began to assume more control, rejecting candidates with liberal or Democratic affiliations “at a significantly higher rate” than those with Republican or conservative credentials, the report said.

The shift appeared to accelerate in 2006, under then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, with two aides on the screening committee — Michael Elston and Esther Slater McDonald — singled out for particular criticism. The blocking of applicants with liberal credentials appeared to be a particular problem in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, which has seen an exodus of career employees in recent years as the department has pursued a more conservative agenda in deciding what types of cases to bring.

Applications that contained what were seen as “leftist commentary” or “buzz words” like environmental and social justice were often grounds for rejecting applicants, according to e-mails reviewed by the inspector general’s office. Membership in liberal organizations like the American Constitution Society, Greenpeace, or the Poverty and Race Research Action Council were also seen as negative marks.

Affiliation with the Federalist Society, a prominent conservative group, was viewed positively.

Representative John Conyers Jr., the Michigan Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee, saw the report as affirmation that the Justice Department had crossed the line in “putting politics where it doesn’t belong.”

“When it comes to the hiring of nonpartisan career attorneys,” Mr. Conyers said, “our system of justice should not be corrupted by partisan politics. It appears the politicization at Justice was so pervasive that even interns had to pass a partisan litmus test. ‘’

The inspector general is still investigating other issues related to alleged politicization of the Justice Department, including the central question of why nine United States attorneys were fired in late 2006. Those findings have not been made public.