Extreme Makeover: HomeLESS Edition

An Extreme Home Makeover may be going bust. The first Atlanta metro area family who got a new home is facing foreclosure. An army of volunteers swarmed a Clayton County neighborhood to build a new home for a deserving family on “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” in 2005. When the show came to town, no one could have predicted what would happen just 3½ years later - foreclosure. A foreclosure notice appeared last Friday, a $450,000 mortgage they took out less than 15 months ago was in default. Lake City mayor Willie Oswalt was among the 1,800 volunteers helping "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" build the Harper’s new home ago. Beazer Homes of Atlanta was the main sponsor. The mayor said he is baffled. "Beazer gave them $100,000 cash and paid their mortgage off and they still can't make it," said Oswalt. Harper told Channel 2 they invested the loan proceeds in a construction business and the business hasn’t been good. She didn’t say how much of the money is left. “What’s going to happen is instead of keep paying my mortgage, I’m going to take my money and not pay my mortgage because I’m being harassed,” said Harper.

I will limit my comment to the fact that I've always hated that show.

Ford

The headlines about Ford's second quarter will all be about its $8.7 billion loss -- its biggest quarterly loss ever. Most of that red ink is for asset impairments and does not directly address how the core operating businesses are doing Once investors look outside the US, Ford is doing fine, but not fine enough to float Ford's entire boat Even with all of its cost cutting initiatives, Ford lost $1.3 billion in North America.

In South America, Ford posted a pre-tax profit of $388 million, up from $255 million a year ago. In Europe, the numbers were remarkably strong. Pre-tax profits there were $582 million, up from $262 million a year ago In Asia, Ford's profits were much more modest. Ford Asia Pacific Africa reported a pre-tax profit of $50 million, compared with $26 million a year ago.

The earnings highlight the extent to which Ford is becoming a tale of two companies. One exists in the US market and it trapped by old products, high fuel prices, and plant which will take years to re-tool. There is nothing wrong with Ford that being out of North America would not fix. Too bad that cannot happen.

http://www.247wallst.com/2008/07/ford-f-all-the.html

New Post from a fellow Blogger

Hi Alberto,

We just posted an article on hedge fund and investment. I thought I'd bring it to your attention just in case you think your readers would find it interesting.

Title: 4 Reasons Why Investors Should Avoid Hedge Funds at All Costs

URL: http://www.bankaholic.com/finance/hedge-fund-risks/

Thanks for your precious time!

Thanks,

Helen Anderson

Lehman down 40% for week

Lehman fell the most since the firm went public in 1994 on speculation that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae might fail. Lehman, which has lost about 40% of its market value this week, dropped $3.27 (19%) to $14.03 this morning.

FNM and FRE in free fall

At the opening bell, FNM is at $12.95 (down $2.36 or 15.41%) and FRE is at $8.03 (down 2.23 or 21.73%). I think people are finally starting to realize that yeah they really COULD fail. Woe are we if that happens.

Edited...

As of 10:19, FNM is at $12.61 and FRE is at $7.30. UBS AG analysts led by Eric Wasserstrom in New York increased their estimates for losses at Freddie Mac and cut their price target for the stock to $10 from $28. WTF? Why do these guys have jobs?

The Bears Have It

• Off 21.3% from its October high, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,147.44
• The S&P 500 index was down 20.3% from its October 10, 2007, high of 1,562 closing at 1,244.68
• The Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 2,234.89, off 21.8% from its October high

In particular, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave up yesterday's gains to end today at $15.31 and $10.26 respectively.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummet

As of 1:15pm today...

Fannie Mae (FNM) fell 19.5% to $15.08, down 51.2% YTD and 78.6% from its 52-week high.

Freddie Mac (FRE) fell 21.9% to $11.32, down 57.4% YTD and 83.2% from its 52-week high.

Reason: It was reported they may have to raise $46 billion and $29 billion respectively if forced to bring off balance sheet assets back onto their balance sheets.