Debt delinquency accelerates in Canada
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1756572
“More than half a million Canadians have fallen behind on their credit payments as economic conditions deteriorate, a survey has found. The delinquency rate is based on payments for credits cards, bank loans, lines of credit, sales finance and personal finance that are more than 90 days overdue. It does not include mortgages.”

U.S. Credit card defaults rise to record in May
http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1698555
“The U.S. government approved a law last month limiting credit card fees and interest rates, which is expected to tighten lending further and ultimately boost defaults as consumers find it harder to refinance their debts.”

At least prices are not going through the roof again. Some major cities have gotten back to pure goofiness with multiple offers, and a bit of a run up in prices over the past few months.

Seems like sales in Saskatoon are on a rampage, it’s truly amazing what low interest rates can do. It’s all starting to make me feel a little queezy, I sure hope things don’t implode before they explode.

So? Wasn’t that the case with AIG, GM, the TARP program and all the other ridiculous bailouts that have occurred? Didn’t stop them then, won’t stop them now. 55 seats are on the line, what’s a few billion. The bailout will come with some strings attached to make it more palatable. California will likely have to pay the money back, albeit probably at ridiculously low interest rates. At any rate, there is a precedent for it in the 70′s.

As far as California affecting US government debt, you have to consider the numbers. I mean $55 billion? The US government’s debt is over $10 trillion. That is less than 1% of debt outstanding. Hell, they are running a deficit of over 1.5 trillion this year alone.

Peter, one problem with that scenario is that they’ll have then set a precedent to bail-out any state that suffers any similar financial crisis or is unable to balance their budget (there are quite a few in the same predicament, although not as dire as CA). It’s also been argued that by taking on California’s debt it could reduce the credit rating of the US. In any event, unless something miraculous happens in the very near future, IOU’s are set to become the next temporary currency in CA.

“The last time a leading municipal bond issuer was on the verge of default was 1975, when New York City was going through its own financial crisis. Then-President Gerald Ford gave a speech vowing to veto any federal assistance for New York — a speech immortalized by the next day’s New York Daily News headline, “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

Even though Ford later approved federal loans to New York, the political damage was done. New York had voted Republican in 1972, but four years later, Ford wound up narrowly losing the state to Jimmy Carter, which ultimately cost him the election.

Analysts think Obama is unlikely to make a similar mistake. “The most important factor here is that California has 55 electoral votes,” says Greg Valliere, Washington policy strategist at Soleil Securities. “At the end of the day, that’s why I think Washington blinks.” To top of page”

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/25/pf/california_bonds_trouble.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009062512

Dang! I was off by not quite 10K.

I’ve not seen this posted elsewhere yet, but if true, it really does take “punishing savers” to a whole new level:

Sweden’s central bank cut the deposit rate to -0.25% today, effectively charging savers interest on deposited money.

http://tinyurl.com/nejako

Q2 average selling price in the residential category is $277,247.

“Is it possible listings may have peaked for the year?”

Hard to know but we sure saw a big slide with month end expired listings. Just a few minutes ago, we were sitting at 1,337, but we’ll see some of those come back over the next few days.

Any idea what the average was for Q2? My apologies if it’s listed and I missed it.

I’m with you. I had thought I’d be impressed if we hit the five-year average of around 380 units. If July and August are similar we could quickly return to a more “normal” inventory level.

“I assume the 2,153 number of units sold and the 4,310 units listed in 2008 were both also YTD comparisons”

That’s right Jason.