Japan’s Economy Shrinks More Than Forecast
Japan’s economy shrank more than estimated in the first quarter after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disrupted production and prompted consumers to cut back spending, sending the nation to its third recession in a decade.

Read more on Bloomberg

Here’s the information, my credit is not great, but I am looking into buying a house, I will have about $1500 avail to me soon. I am looking at buying a home that is under $25K, but I have been told you cannot finance short sales, or maybe its bc of my price range, can anyone give any clarity here?
I am in Florida

We have been waiting for over 30 days for an answer on a short sale property offer we made on a house that the current owner will abandon as part of filing Chapter 11bankrutpcy. The bank (Homecomings Financial) has been totally unresponsive whenever our Realtor makes contact with them–their consistent reply is: “we don’t know when it will be approved, it can take 30-60 days and sometimes 90″.

The basic question is: what are they doing? The only explanation is that our file is sitting somewhere on someone’s desk waiting to be worked. It baffles me that in light of the escalation of defaults and foreclosures in the market that lenders are caught unprepared to quickly evaluate short sale offers that, relative to entering foreclosure or repossession and resale (REO) of the home, could save them tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are about to give up as we won’t be able to sell our home quickly enough before the fall slow down if we don’t get a decision soon.

More than 100 bank-owned homes in Inland Empire will be auctioned July 24
Real estate auction specialist REDC and Bank of America recently announced plans to auction more than 100 bank-owned homes in the Inland Empire.

Read more on Fontana Herald News

Friday, September 29, 2006 — Time: 10:16:27 AM EST

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Mother seeks $100 million in son’s death

By Phil Ray, pray@altoonamirror.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The mother of a man killed in a triple homicide last year plans to sue the federal government for $100 million, court documents state.

Sandra Miller of Altoona is the mother of Stephen Heiss, who died Aug. 28, 2005.

Miguel Padilla was convicted and received death sentences this month for killing Alfred Mignogna, owner of the United Veterans Association building; Fredrick Rickabaugh Sr., UVA doorman; and Heiss, a patron.

The jury wasn’t told that Padilla is an illegal alien.

The civil lawsuit notice, filed by attorney Art Cohen of Hollidaysburg, blames the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for allowing Padilla to remain in the United States.

Padilla, 27, came to America as a young boy with his mother and brothers to escape an alcoholic father.

He graduated from Penn Cambria High School but never became a U.S. citizen.

He was involved in a stabbing incident in which the victim was his then-father-in-law.

ICE never took Padilla into custody or attempted to deport him.

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9th District, spoke of the case on the House floor, saying ICE did nothing about Padilla.

Most of the money sought is for punitive damages because the government did not take any action that could have prevented the homicides.

An attorney with ICE declined comment Wednesday. ICE has asked Cohen to provide it with more details concerning the Padilla case.

The bank approved my short sale. However, I found out that if I don’t buy, it will go to foreclosure in the next 2 months. Do I have more bargining power with that being known?

thanks to everyone for their honest answers