Real Estate Dispatch

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today issued guidance on how to identify the presence of metal corrosion, as well as other indicators of problem drywall in homes.

 On January 13, 2010, Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell filed suit today in Orleans Parish against multiple Knauf entities, other international and domestic manufacturers, distributors, importers of toxic Chinese drywall as well as several builders alleging the State of Louisiana has and will continue to suffer economic loss because of the defendants’ manufacture, distribution, sale and/or installation of defective and toxic Chinese drywall. The suit names nine foreign drywall manufacturers, eleven drywall supply and distribution companies, and three home builders.

Homeowners with tainted drywall can get assistance, especially if they have an FHA-insured mortgage and are behind on their payments.

Chinese Drywall, it smells bad, because it emits sulfurous gases carbon disulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and hydrogen sulfide. These emissions, which have the odor of rotten eggs, worsen as temperature and humidity rise.

PMI Mortgage Insurance has a new tool for homeowners facing potential foreclosure on their home. The Mortgage Options Assessment Tool (http://www.homesafepmi.com/) enables homeowners to organize, calculate, and produce reports on their current financial situations prior to meeting their lenders or counselors to discuss solutions to foreclosure. This is a free online tool available to anyone.

According to the Remodelormove.com fall 2008 Remodeling Sentiment Report, an online publication of ABCD Publishing LLC, the amount of equity homeowners have is influencing their remodeling plans.

How many potentially life-threatening hazards do you have around your house?

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Insight has a page that provides links to a wide array of data on housing markets and housing finance at:

http://www.ofheo.gov/Research.aspx?Nav=110

This article was so popular that we decided to start a whole website centered around the concepts of value investing at www.buffettandmunger.com  It is of course named after the pre-eminent residents of Graham and Doddsville.

This graph was created from data obtained from the Federal Reserve.  In addtion to the 10 year, month by month fixed rate home mortage interest rate there is a 12 month moving average to provide a smoothed trendline.