According to the Wall Street Journal, its average weekday circulation has risen to 2.02 million print copies and online subscriptions in the six months ending in September. Although it has not yet been confirmed, the Journal’s boost in circulation has probably made it the most widely-circulated newspaper in the U.S., replacing Gannett Co.’s USA Today.
Last week, USA Today released numbers showing that its average daily circulation had fallen by about 398,000 copies to around 1.9 million. These figures will be confirmed by the Audit Bureau of Circulation on October 26, which will release figures showing the average daily circulation for …read more

The big news today is that President Barack Obama is proposing sweeping changes to the regulatory system that oversees our financial products and services industry. In addition to expanding the scope of some of the Federal Reserve’s powers to regulate large firms, Obama suggests that a consumer protection agency be created. One of the issues that such a consumer protection agency will oversee is that of home mortgage loans .
The main idea is to have mortgage lenders first offer traditional mortgages to borrowers, and help them find the mortgage that would best fit their situations . The Wall Street Journal …read more

I am thrilled that one of the articles I wrote for Bankling, on the world’s richest pets, was mentioned by the Wall Street Journal Blogs. I’m thrilled. We bloggers do like recognition on occasion, and it is precisely why we tell everyone about it when it happens ;)
A lovely surprise for a Sunday.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and that you are ready for a new week — and a new month!

The Canadian dollar is strong and U.S. homes are cheaper than they’ve been in years. This combines to make U.S. housing a strong investment for Canadian buyers.

This allows homeowners to first buy their new home and then — in what is known as the “buy and bail” — stop paying the mortgage on their first home, letting it fall into foreclosure. In the end, the homeowner is left with a new house with a lower mortgage payment. Not a bad deal.

But foreign investors still love the U.S. residential real estate market, at least according to this story by Aleksandra Todorova for the Wall Street Journal.

Take a look at this story in the Wall Street Journal’s online edition. Written by June Fletcher, it says that, according to economists gathered at the spring construction forecast held by the National Association of Home Builders, the housing market won’t show signs of improvement until early next spring, at the earliest.

Surprisingly enough, in this severe housing downturn, several governments across the country are proposing increases in homeowners’ property tax rates.

Three writers at the Wall Street Journal recently wrote an interesting story on those condo/hotels that were built, reporting that many of the buyers who’ve purchased individual condominium units aren’t happy with their investment. They’ve made far less money off rentals than they expected, and their units aren’t appreciating as quickly as they had hoped.

We all know it’s a terrible housing market. But did you know that the market is so rough it’s forcing many homeowners to dealy their retirements?