Real estate agents in the Gulf area want to be compensated for lost business due to the oil spill. From Kenneth Feinberg, overseer of the $20 billion oil-disaster fund:
“The Realtors and real estate brokers are a major political force. … I’m hearing from them constantly. I’m not sure whether they have a valid legal claim. [...]

About 30,000 unemployed Massachusetts residents have lost their unemployment benefits since June 2, 2010. Another 10,000 Massachusetts residents will see their unemployment benefits expire this week, and that number will continue each week through July and possibly beyond.
File Under: Monday morning blues

Think Massachusetts has expensive rentals and tough rental laws? Try Paris.
The practice of investing in a pied-à-terre in Paris and then renting it out on a short-term basis (while using the pad for yourself on vacations) has grown in popularity among Americans, Britons and others over the past few decades. It’s convenient if you go [...]

From Dina ElBoghdady at the Washington Post: Bill would extend home buyers’ deadline for tax credit
Home buyers hoping to take advantage of a lucrative federal tax credit would get three extra months to complete their purchases under a proposal introduced in the Senate on Thursday.
File Under: The gift that keeps on giving.

Alana Semuels at the LA Times has an interesting article on how more individuals are opting to walk-away from their mortgages:

Joseph Shull, a 68-year-old marketing professor, said he’s planning to walk away from the town house he bought in Moorpark in June 2006.
“I’m angry, and there are a lot of people like me who are [...]

Paul Jackson has an interesting post at HousingWire headlined, Housing Recovery is Spelled R-E-O:
Using LPS data, for all loans more than 90 days in arrears, the average days delinquent is now at 272 days—up from 204 days in early 2008. For loans in foreclosure, the aging numbers are even more staggering: loans in this [...]

The Federal Housing Administration warned in Congressional testimony that a double-dip decline in housing prices may result from even a slight increase in minimum down payments on FHA-backed loans. An excerpt from WSJ:
An increase in down payments to 5%, from the current minimum 3.5%, would limit new FHA-backed loans by 40%, equivalent to 300,000 fewer [...]

The Huffington Post just did an article on the fate of Minneapolis janitor Rosalina Gavilan Gomez, who recently learned that she’s been cleaning up after the chief executive of the bank that bought her foreclosed home — the home that she’s facing a March 11 eviction from.
Excerpts from the Huffington Post:
“At the beginning I [...]

The guys over at ThinkBigWorkSmall talk about the fact that China has just become the biggest real estate market (in value). They’re actually trying to slow down the buying … China Syndrome anyone?
Another clip on the video shows how one buyer lost $54M deposit on the world’s most expensive house.
Real Estate Video

To everyone who claims that our wealthiest citizens pay more than their fair share of income taxes and we should cut them a break because they’re the ones who, you know, create jobs in our economy, I have four words for you:
Frank and Jamie McCourt.
The McCourts, who own the Los Angeles Dodgers (so she says; [...]