Distressed AVM: IAS Touts Updated AVM, Consideration of ‘Distress’ - By KELLY CURRAN - Most industry leaders anticipate an increasing volume of distressed properties and fluctuating loan-to-value ratios over the next several quarters as default and REO properties continue to enter the market.  Default management services provider, Integrated Asset Services, unveiled a tool to help mortgage servicers manage and more accurately value these distressed residential properties and loans. - housingwire

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has video and commentary - Low housing start numbers good for real estate -  Tim Plaen - Investing Thoughts

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MUST WATCH VIDEO - Davidowitz Doesn’t See Luxury Retail Industry Turnaround: Video -  Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates Inc., talks with Bloomberg’s Carol Massar about the outlook for luxury retailers.  Davidowitz says the luxury-goods industry will shrink “dramatically” and “never, ever turn around.” (Source: Bloomberg) 

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The Economic Contraction Is Losing Steam - NAHB - The sharpest contraction in economic output (real GDP) during the current recession apparently occurred in the final quarter of last year when a massive financial market shock threatened to throw the U.S. and global economies into 1930s-like depressions. The “Great Recession” is hardly over, but the rate of decline is slowing and the light at the end of the tunnel is coming into view.

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always interesting - David Merkel - One Dozen More Notes on the Economic Scene - Aleph Blog