Mortgage giant Fannie Mae plans to raise a previous 1.25% fee charged to lenders to 3.25% — and yes, that is passed on to the consumer — on some types of mortgages it purchases. Saturday's Wall Street Journal had a short write-up on it.
For instance, for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage to buy a condominium, […]

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If you missed it, Jim Rainey had a piece in Sunday’s L.A. Times about that New York Times series "The Reckoning." L.A. Land readers may recall that we had posts  on the part entitled "White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire" and the subsequent White House apoplexy.

More interesting to me than a rehash of that dust-up […]

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The Bradford Pear – Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’

The spring-blooming ornamental pear tree Pyrus calleryana was introduced to the West in 1908 from its native China and Korea. The seedling that later became ‘Bradford’ was brought from Nanjing in 1919, but the USDA did not introduce the variety commercially till 1963. It was assumed to be […]

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Among those offering their looks ahead at 2009 in "How to Play the Crisis," accompanying today’s Wall Street Journal story "The Doomsayers Who Got It Right," are Paul Kasriel, economist-researcher at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago, and economist Robert Shiller, co-creator of the Case-Shiller index.
Although not addressing housing per se, Kasriel — who noted that […]

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Taking a look back at 2008, Fortune offers a list of this year's 21 dumbest moments in business. More than a few relate to housing and mortgages. Among them, Angelo Mozilo's famous e-mail:
If you thought the former Countrywide CEO couldn't sink any lower, think again. Already under attack as the overpaid, over-tanned and over-zealous […]

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What were your favorite posts of the year?  To refresh your memory, here are some of the most-commented-on L.A. Land posts from Peter Viles (and one guest) from the first half of 2008:

– A tipping point: "Foreclose me … I’ll save money" — Jan. 23, 231 comments
– Guest blogger: ‘Please cover the other side’ — […]

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Will the latest nugget of news about the Federal Reserve's plan to buy mortgage bonds send home-loan rates plummeting again?
Borrowers and analysts will be closely watching quotes from lenders Wednesday, especially because another key mortgage player is predicting a sharp decline.
The Fed said late today that it would begin purchasing $500 billion in […]

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Prices in Los Angeles and Orange Counties dropped 34% from October 2007 to October 2008, according to the Standard & Poors/Case Shiller Index released this morning.
The worst declines were among homes priced lower than $351,000, which lost 39% of value during the year. Those same homes have lost 46% of their value since the […]

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Spend a little time around the commercial real estate business — one day at an industry convention will do — and you'll notice how much the guys tend to look alike. That's because almost all of them are guys. White guys, to be specific.
It's hardly news that such fields as real estate brokerage and […]

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Lemon-scented gum – Corymbia citriodora 
Tall and towering, with a smooth, pinkish white, bare trunk extending for half its height and graceful open foliage borne in distinct layers, the lemon-scented gum stands out in the landscape. Most people would call this native from the central and northern coasts of Queensland, Australia, a eucalyptus but […]

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