John Lockwood

I don't know how much you're following the news of the bailout of wall street banks who repackaged bad loans, but if you're not, now is a great time to get involved and please, please call your elected representative and tell everyone you can about this incredible fiasco.

Hank Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, and George Bush are asking Congress for the authority to spend up to $700 billion at a time (that's a balance sheet maximum, not a maximum on the total the government can spend).  That's more than the total cost of the War in Iraq so far.  The Treasury will spend it buying bad loans, and get no equity stake in the firms they're buying them from -- leading some to call it "cash for trash".

Section eight of the proposed legislation gives Paulson an oversight-free blank check as to how to spend that much of your money.

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

You can read the full text here.

Although as you might expect, public opposition to the plan is strongest among Democrats, several prominent conservatives have also gone on record as being opposed to the plan.  This legislation is so bad that even CNN gets it.

Please look up and either write to or phone your Senator and House Representative right away.  You can learn more about the proposal by clicking through on the articles current on Digg for Business and Finance.

Congress is in a HUGE RUSH to get this done, so those of us who think it's expensive, ill conceived and leaves us stuck holding the bill need to MOVE NOW to express our concerns to Congress.

Finishing up our series of Roseville Market snapshots (for now -- anyway -- we may have an aggregate market update for Roseville available soon), here is a snapshot of market data for West Roseville (95747) for May, 2008. This snapshot reprinted by permission from the Roseville Real Estate Blog.

Unit Volume Data

Price Data

Inventory

This Central Roseville real estate market snapshot is reprinted by permission of the Roseville Real Estate Blog. It covers the period of May, 2008 with inventory figures as of June. This report is based on MLS data and covers Roseville 95678.

Unit Volume Data

Price Data

Inventory

This market snapshot covers the period May, 2008 for East Roseville, California (95661). Reprinted by permission from http://www.rosevillehomesandland.com.

Price Data

Inventory

Unit Volume Data

Here's a roundup of some of the real estate market updates that Elite Properties bloggers published in May in Sacramento County. Generally these articles deal with sales for the previous month (April):

Folsom

Franklin / Freeport

East Florin / Churchhill Downs

Rosemont

Elk Grove

Antelope

Sacramento County Condo Market

Sacramento County Real Estate Market Part I and Part II.

Overall the story for our entire area is one where prices have fallen heavily, and demand has turned a corner and is picking up. Even the Sac Bee is picking up the story of a real estate recovery.