Welcome to the Christmas Eve Edition of the Dispatch! I’ve got a little time, so I just wanted to share some headlines I found to be interesting . . .

• The Kansas City Star picked up on the recent foreclosure report from the Center for Responsible Lending and discusses Foreclosure rise forecast: Nearly one in five subprime borrowers will be at risk in the coming months, a group says.
• According to Bloomberg, it looks like the Housing Market in U.S. May Be Stabilizing.
• Onn the other hand, the Columbus Dispatch is reporting that the housing slump is expected to continue.
• Finally, Jeff Ostrowski does a great job covering the Top Real Estate Stories of ‘06. I don’t think I could have put it much better, but have at least two other items for the list: Real Estate Scams on the rise. With scandals like the Pinnacle Development Partners ponzi scheme and mortgage fraud running rampant around the country, real estate scandal was on the tip of everyone’s tongue in 2006. The other item that I think he left out was foreclosures. The foreclosure numbers have been exploding around the country, and I predict foreclosures will be the TOP STORY of 2007.

  Does anyone have any other suggestions for the list?

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Tags: bloomberg, development, Foreclosures, housing, market, partners, pinnacle, scandal, subprime

Location…Location…Location. The battle cry of real estate brokers. And, location is what a new “landmark” plan for middle-income housing in New York City has: Directly across the river from the United Nations in Queens…24 acres!

New York City Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement and, according to Jill Gardiner’s account in The New York Sun, the city is buying the land from the Port Authority for $146 million dollars.

The Mayor reportedly said of the deal that it is a “landmark moment in affordable housing.”

The last time the city undertook such a large project was back in 1974 with the development of Starrett City in Brooklyn.

Tags: bloomberg, city, housing, income, middle, nations, New, queens, united, York

Bloomberg is reporting tonight that US housing starts will likely fall to their lowest level in three years when the number is announced tomorrow (Tuesday).

Builders probably started work last month on the fewest new houses in three years as higher mortgage rates discouraged home buyers, economists said ahead of a U.S. government report today (Tuesday).

Housing starts fell to a 1.746 million annual rate last month, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, from the previous month’s 1.795 million. Building permits probably fell to a 1.74 million pace, from July’s 1.763 million, economists said.

In addition, the National Association of Homebuilders is reporting that “homebuilders’ confidence in the housing market dropped this month to a 15-year low.” Looks like all signs are finally pointing to a slowdown we should have had a few years ago.

Tags: bloomberg, homebuilders, housing, starts