National Speed Limit: Would You Slow Down?

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, asked Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to look into what speed limit would provide optimum gasoline efficiency given current technology. He said he wants to know if the administration might support efforts in Congress to require a lower speed limit.

In 1974, Congress set a national 55 mph speed limit because of energy shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. The speed limit was repealed in 1995 when crude oil dipped to $17 a barrel and gasoline cost $1.10 a gallon.

Today, gasoline averages around $4.10 a gallon nationwide, with oil hovering around $145 a barrel.

If Congress does re-impose a lower speed limit on our nations' highways, the question is, will that make you slow down? Tell us what you think about lowering speed limits in an effort to save gasoline and HOPEFULLY lower the skyrocketing fuel prices. Do you think lowering the speed limit will even make any difference at the pump? Sound off. Tell us what you think. Use the "comment" link below to tell us. Your email address will NOT be published here, so don't worry about anyone emailing you or harvesting your email address here.

Housing Market: Can It Really Get Any Worse?

An even gloomier scenario may be in store for an already ailing U.S. housing market if the overall economy slips into a recession, according to UBS Securities analysts.

Falling home prices, soaring foreclosures at a time of tighter lending and rising unemployment are all weighing heavily on an already troubled housing sector, the analysts said during a conference call recently.

Lack of funding is the biggest problem facing the housing market right now, according to the analysts, with subprime and Alt-A securitized markets shutting down and banks being forced to cut their mortgage lending dramatically due to capital constraints. So-called Alt-A loans are made to borrowers with less than prime credit ratings but who are above subprime.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have also cut back their lending to stressed subprime and Alt-A borrowers with low incomes and high loan-to-value ratios.

Foreclosures, which have been building over recent months as borrowers default on risky subprime home loans, are not expected to peak until late 2008 to mid-2009.

So where do you see the housing market? We'd love to hear your opinion. Use the comment link below to sound off about it. Your email address will not be published here, even though it is required in order to post your comment.

Foreclosures: Lenders Slashing Prices

Lenders stung by the housing bust are slashing prices dramatically to rid themselves of an unprecedented number of foreclosed properties, sparking bidding wars in some places that harken back to the market's go-go years and may signal the bottom is near.

The trend is more dramatic in some parts of the country where prices skyrocketed during the housing boom and are now falling precipitously. Sales of foreclosures, vacant new homes and other distressed properties now dominate some markets, causing grief for individual homeowners who need to sell for other reasons, like a job in a new city.

Nationwide, one out of every four sales between January and March was a distressed sale, and that figure jumps to more than 50 percent in the hardest-hit areas.

Over the past year, as the housing crisis accelerated, the number of properties turned over to bank ownership more than doubled. As of April, there were more than 660,000 such properties in the U.S., up from 254,000 in April last year.

With lenders slashing prices on foreclosures at record paces, now might be a good time to contact us to see if there are any foreclosures in our market that you could get a good deal on. You never know til you ask.

Walkaway Homeowners: Fact or Fiction?

U.S. lenders claim people who owe more on their homes than they're worth are simply abandoning them, "walking away" from high mortgage payments.

Bankers say the trend is frightening because homeowners in the past have gone to great lengths to avoid foreclosure.

But the Los Angeles Times reports few banks or real estate trade groups have been able to produce hard figures about the phenomenon. Marianne Sullivan, senior vice president at Fannie Mae, said she hears more stories about walkaways but still called them "folklore."

Bruce Marks of Neighborhood Assistance Corp., a Boston group that helps homeowners, said that to the extent there are walkaways lenders should take the blame.

"Who do you see walking? They're people whose rate is about to reset and they see no way out," Marks said. "People who have a fixed-rate mortgage that was initially affordable and continues to be affordable don't walk away from their home, even when it's underwater."

Stuart Gabriel, a real estate expert at UCLA, said some of the apparent walkaways are likely to be people who bought houses as speculation and lied on mortgage applications, saying they would live in them.

What is your take on this? Do you know of anyone personally who has taken the "walk away" attitude with their home? Use the "comment" link below to tell us about it. Don't worry, your privacy is protected, no email addresses EVER get published from our reader comments.

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