By J.W. Elphinstone, Associated Press / Statesman.com

NEW YORK — Home prices across most of the country have started to rise from the depths of the housing slump, a crucial trend that might help stabilize the broader U.S. economy, according to figures released Tuesday.

Nationally, prices in the second quarter posted their first quarterly increase in three years, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index of 20 major cities.

Home prices are still 30 percent below their mid-2006 peak and 15 percent lower than in the second quarter of 2008, but their new direction could bring relief to lenders and homeowners.

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By Ryan ZumMallen / LBPOST.com
July 2, 2009

Earlier this week, Governor Schwarzenegger’s office announced that nearly $11 million in stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would be awarded to ten California workforce organizations, and the City of Long Beach was awarded with $935,797.

“Using Recovery funds and public-private partnerships, the California Green Jobs Corps will help 1,500 at-risk young adults realize a brighter future while stimulating our economy and working toward a greener California,” Schwarzenegger said in the press release.

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By Harry Saltzgaver / Gazettes.com
July 2, 2009

Another $3 million in federal economic stimulus money will come to Long Beach, this time in the form of support for the Water Department’s seawater desalination testing facility.

This money comes through the Department of Interior as part of a $134.3 million allocation from the Bureau of Reclamation for water projects in the west. Ultimately, the money came from the $1 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for economic stimulus.

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By Kurt Helin / Gazettes.com
July 1, 2009
When local engineers finish the ongoing Reconnaissance Study of the Long Beach Breakwater later this summer, the Army Corps of Engineers may actually read it.

That’s because last week Congress took steps to allocate $100,000 to review the study, as part of the newest House Appropriations Subcommittee Energy and Water Report.

That’s a big step forward for those promoting changes to the breakwater. But it is one step in a staircase of things that have to happen before any physical change is made to the structure.

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By Darcy Leigh Richardson / Gazettes.com
July 1, 2009

A grant recently awarded to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewards will bolster the group’s effort to raise awareness of the wetlands’ importance and will mark the start of community involvement with restoration efforts on a larger scale.

The Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project’s Community Wetlands Restoration Grants Program awarded $28,500 to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewards last month. The money will be used to launch the Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship Program.

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By Michael Newsom / SunHerald.com
June 30, 2009

New U.S. Census Bureau data shows Gulfport, Long Beach and Waveland had the most population growth in 2008, but most South Mississippi cities are still below pre-Hurricane Katrina populations.

The data released today shows only cities in Pearl River, Stone and George Counties are above their pre-storm totals, though Coast cities are making steady gains. Gulfport — South Mississippi’s largest city — gained 1,074 people in 2008, the data shows. The city is still 3,205 below its pre-Katrina population of 73,260. Waveland gained 454 people in 2008, bringing its population to an estimated 5,249, still far below the pre-Katrina population of 8,346. In Long Beach, 753 residents were gained in 2008, the Census reports.

Long Beach Mayor Billy Skellie believes many families, taking advantage of good schools there, have rebuilt their homes and he notes several apartment complexes opened, which likely contributed to the growth.

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Foreclosures, REOs (Bank Owned Real Estate) and NODs (Notice of Defaults) were the headline news beginning in 2007 and for most of 2008. The number of foreclosures went through the roof, over extending housing supplies, creating blighted markets, and causing unheard of price reductions on existing and new housing inventory. Then in the first quarter 2009, things changed.

Presidents Obama’s administration asked for a moratorium on foreclosures while they enacted new programs to assist the struggling home owners and the foreclosure market slowed to more manageable levels. As a result, the housing inventory began to decrease, home prices stopped their steep decline, and buyers started making offers. Optimism around the housing market has slowly improved and news on foreclosures has slowly dwindled away.

Bruce Norris, a California Real Estate Analyst, in a TNG radio interview May 16th, said that the current low inventory levels are giving ‘a false indicator’. He said that the shadow inventory (foreclosed homes that the banks are sitting on) and new NODs are going to give us a second wave of high foreclosures sometime in 2009.

The Wall Street Journal
May 26, 2009

Like the economy, the housing market seems on the threshold of recovery. But it might not cross it soon.

This week brings a fresh slew of housing data. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home-price index for March is due Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors releases April home-resale data Wednesday, and the Census Bureau releases new-home-sales numbers Thursday.

A consensus is forming that home sales and construction are at long last bottoming and may soon rise. Economists largely expect this week’s numbers to affirm that notion.

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BY THOMAS D. ELIAS

And so California’s seemingly endless budget battles resume, with no convenient end in sight. That’s one early result of the voters’ May 19 rejection of Proposition 1-A and several others intended to straighten out the state’s balance sheet.

Another possibility - slim, but still present - is that lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will finally give serious consideration to one change that could begin to spell the end of all the repeated budget crises. All they need to do is revise the regulations that now permit some real estate to change hands without being reassessed.

For sure, plenty of draconian tactics will be suggested in the coming days and weeks. Schwarzenegger has already called for selling off landmark state lands and buildings, and that might be a fine idea for properties which are useless now and show no promise of ever doing much for citizens. But you can only sell off land or buildings once. When you do it, you are in a sense selling off your patrimony. This makes it a desperation tactic that won’t solve the underlying spending and revenue problems behind the repeated budget crises.

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Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington — The Obama administration, stepping up efforts to stem foreclosures, will offer lenders and homeowners incentives to cut payments on second mortgages, write down balances on first mortgages that are underwater, and repay loans in a timely fashion.

The new measures announced Tuesday would especially help many distressed homeowners who have both first and second mortgages — and can’t afford either. The Treasury Department now wants lenders and their customer-service agents to agree to modify both loans as part of a comprehensive solution.

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