Muara Teweh!

At Topps Salon Day Spa, owner Suzanne Van Houten is going for a look that is “very seamless.”

Clients are greeted by name and offered something to drink before their hair, skin or nails get a tune-up. A list of values — “creativity, commitment, integrity, loyalty, trust, fun” — is displayed throughout the small Oakland salon.

It wasn’t always this way.

Just a couple of years ago, stylists routinely would arrive for work late and unprepared, Van Houten said.

With clients waiting, they would rush to the bathroom to style their own hair or apply makeup. Employees set their own schedules and made other business decisions without informing her.
» Read more after the jump →

When Domenico Colombo saw that his monthly mortgage payment was about to balloon by 30 percent, he had a clear picture of how bad it could get.

His payment was scheduled to surge by an extra $1,500 (€1,013) in December. With his daughter headed to college next fall and tuition to be paid, he feared ending up like so many neighbors in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, who defaulted on their mortgages and whose homes are now in foreclosure and sporting “For Sale” signs.

Colombo did manage to renegotiate a new fixed interest rate loan with his bank, and now believes he’ll be OK — but the future is less certain for Americans.

In the months ahead, millions of other adjustable-rate mortgages like Colombo’s will reset, giving them a higher interest rate as required by the loan agreements and leaving many homeowners unable to make their payments. Soaring mortgage default rates this year already have shaken major financial institutions and the fallout from more of them, some experts say, could spread from those already battered banks into the general economy. » Read more after the jump →

The slowdown in home loan growth would continue in 2007-08, with disbursements expected to grow at only 10 per cent, on the back of a subdued 18 per cent growth in 2006-07.

Besides, the present home loan non-performing asset (NPA) figures of banks understate the extent of delinquency in the sector as loans given in the last three years, which form 71 per cent of the total outstanding home loans, are yet to season, according to a Crisil Research report on mortgage finance.

Mortgage finance by banks and housing finance companies grew 35 per cent on a compounded basis during 2000-01 to 2005-06 to Rs 86,500 crore, boosted by low interest rates and a booming economy.

However, a sustained rise in property prices during 2004-06 along with rising interest rates resulted in a significant slowdown in disbursements in 2006-07, which grew by only 18 per cent year-on-year. » Read more after the jump →

Wells Fargo & Company, the nation’s second-largest mortgage lender, after Countrywide Financial, said yesterday that it would take a $1.4 billion fourth-quarter charge for losses it anticipated in connection with home loans.

The bank said that it would continue to provide home equity financing directly to customers, but that it would not originate or acquire home equity loans through indirect channels. Wells Fargo will also not originate home equity loans through third parties when the combined loan-to-value ratio of the first and second mortgages is over 90 percent or where the second mortgage is not behind a Wells Fargo loan.

The bank is putting $11.9 billion into a special liquidating portfolio. The bank’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said that the figure is 3 percent of its total loans outstanding, but that it represents the riskiest element of the $83.4 billion in its National Home Equity Group portfolio. The loans are generally clustered in areas of the country that are having the greatest decline in retail prices. » Read more after the jump →

Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in October to the lowest level in at least eight years as loan restrictions and the prospect of further price declines deterred buyers, economists said before a report today.

Purchases dropped 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 5 million, according to the median forecast of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would mark the eighth straight month of decreases and bring the pace of home sales to the slowest since record-keeping began in 1999.

Defaults on subprime mortgages have prompted banks to tighten lending standards, while foreclosures add to a glut of unsold properties that’s putting pressure on home prices. Lower property values raise the risk that consumers will curtail spending, making businesses more cautious about investing and compounding a slowdown in economic growth, economists said.
» Read more after the jump →

Sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. fell in October to the lowest level in at least eight years as loan restrictions and the prospect of further price declines deterred buyers, economists said before a report today.

Purchases dropped 0.8 percent to an annual rate of 5 million, according to the median forecast of 70 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would mark the eighth straight month of decreases and bring the pace of home sales to the slowest since record-keeping began in 1999.

Defaults on subprime mortgages have prompted banks to tighten lending standards, while foreclosures add to a glut of unsold properties that’s putting pressure on home prices. Lower property values raise the risk that consumers will curtail spending, making businesses more cautious about investing and compounding a slowdown in economic growth, economists said.
» Read more after the jump →

U.S. stocks fell, pushing the decline from this year’s record highs to more than 10 percent, on concern that mounting mortgage losses will lead banks to reduce lending.

Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., the three biggest U.S. banks, retreated after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said HSBC Holdings Plc faces $12 billion in additional writedowns. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the largest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, tumbled after UBS AG said higher credit costs will cause earnings growth to slow. Target Corp. and Macy’s Inc. led retailers lower on concern consumers will spend less on holiday gifts.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 33.48, or 2.3 percent, to 1,407.22, leaving the benchmark down 0.8 percent in 2007. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 237.44, or 1.8 percent, to 12,743.44, paring its gain for the year to 2.3 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 55.61, or 2.1 percent, to 2,540.99 and is up 5.2 percent in 2007. Almost six stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.
» Read more after the jump →