Quoted: The problems started after mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae decided to take steps earlier this year to limit exposure in what it viewed as a risky lending segment that’s been loaded with foreclosures, Sachenbacher says.
As a result, the two biggest insurers of mortgage loans now require 70% of a condo property’s units to be sold, up from 51% less than a year ago, before it will insure or buy the loan, thereby allowing it to be sold on the secondary market.

Quoted: Existing home sales were up 23.5 percent from a year earlier and sales activity was at the highest pace since February 2007, NAR says.

Quoted: For the first time in history, a Washington state wine — Columbia Crest 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon — has been named the “No. 1 Wine in the World” by a prestigious wine publication.

Quoted: According to RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure database, 6,495 properties entered some stage of foreclosure in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region in the third quarter of this year. That translates into a 38 percent increase from a year ago, putting the region 95th out of 203 metro areas that RealtyTrac gauges.

Quoted: Aided by the home buyer tax credit, the outlook for housing and the economy appears headed for a sustainable recovery, the National Association of Realtors said Friday.

Quoted: If it's really your 'dream job,' don't say so

Quoted: The $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, which helped home sales rebound this year, was scheduled to expire Nov. 30. The legislation extends it to homes that are under contract by April 30, 2010, and creates a new $6,500 tax credit for owners of existing homes who buy a new principal residence. To take advantage of this credit, buyers must have lived in their old house for at least five of the past eight years.

Quoted: Pending sales of single-family homes and condominiums in King County jumped more than 70 percent in October compared with last year as buyers raced to purchase homes before losing a federal tax credit.

CIT did a lot of lending during the heydey of the market, but their presence up here in the PNW was limited.

Tough news to swallow for a company that is over 100 years old.

Quoted: The bankruptcy of CIT is likely to hand the Treasury Department its biggest loss to date under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. It invested $2.3 billion in CIT last December.