Remember how the NY Times looks at apartment complexes in danger of defaulting on their mortgages last month? Well, Crain's continues that line of thought, noting that almost 600 buildings "have one or more factors that could lead to mortgage default." The Riverton Houses and Savoy Park in Harlem are both mentioned again, as is Stuyvesant Town. Per the Daily News, "Housing advocates told Crain's that buyers had unrealistic goals about rent increases. The same......

A day after Washington Mutual fell, Wachoiva began talks with Citigroup and other possible suitors, including Wells Fargo and Banco Santander of Spain, about a possible merger. The Wall Street Journal reports that "Wachovia officials don't believe they need to rush into a deal, and the bank isn't feeling immediate pressure on its financial condition," but the mortgage crisis has put pressure on many banks. Shares have fallen 78% in the Charlotte, NC-based company over......

The Bush administration's $700 billion request to bail out bad mortgages was formally sent to Congress today. From the Washington Post:The package, the most sweeping government intervention in the markets since the Great Depression, was $200 billion higher than lawmakers had been told yesterday to expect. It also does not include the $200 billion that officials said earlier this month the government will spend on the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To accommodate......

Photograph of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., left, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart, right, discussing the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout by Susan Walsh/AP After the U.S. federal government moved to take over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this past weekend, stock markets around the world rallied--trading in Tokyo ending 3.4% higher and in Hong Kong, it ended 4.3% higher. And in Europe, stocks also rose 3-4%. While......

Sources say that the federal government may take over mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as soon as this weekend. The Wall Street Journal says this "would represent perhaps the most significant intervention by the government in the financial industry since the housing bust touched off turmoil in the credit markets a little more than a year ago." The NY Times adds the move, which includes the feds standing behind Freddie's and Fannie's debt,......

Last week, it was reported that developer Donald Trump was going to buy TV personality Ed McMahon's home out of foreclosure, allowing McMahon to continue to live in it while paying rent. But now it turns out there's some competition for the $4.6 million mansion, with a second anonymous buyer emerging. Trump said, "I hope they take good care of Ed McMahon because he deserves it. The only reason anybody other than me would be......

It's not surprising, but it's jarring to see the numbers: Personal bankruptcies filed by New Yorkers during the first 7 months of the year has increased 31% over last year's first 7 months. According to Crain's New York, it's "fueled in large by the number of homeowners who could not keep up with monthly payments on subprime loans," which is different from the usual reasons of "catastrophic events such as accidents, illnesses or divorce." An......

Today, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is making remarks at the New York Public Library about the economy, and, according to text of the speech, he'll say he believes Congress will pass a bill to "boost confidence" in failing government-sponsored Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which, as Bloomber News puts it, "account for almost half of the $12 trillion mortgage market." Paulson has also been making a number of public appearances recently--Face the Nation, CNBC, various......

Photograph of trader Al Young sitting as the bad news keeps coming by /Richard Drew/AP The Dow plummeted 358 points to end at 11,453, after bad news about brokerages and the ever increasing price of oil. Bloomberg News summed it up this way:U.S. stocks tumbled, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its worst June since the Great Depression, as record oil prices, credit-market writedowns and a slowing economy threatened to extend a yearlong......

Photograph outside Bear Stearns' offices on Friday by Mark Lennihan/AP It's the New York banking equivalent of the Enron meltdown: Bear Stearns has agreed to sell itself to JP Morgan Chase at a fire sale price. When Bear Stearns' 14,000 employees left work Friday afternoon, the bank's stock had already plunged almost 50% in value, closing at $30 a share. But today they found out something much, much, much worse: their company has been......