| Troubled year for housing in Valley
But that might not help her, Hauger said. "She still won't be paying principal on her loan, and home values aren't going to climb enough in two years for her to refinance or sell without taking a loss," she said. 'Foreclosure mess' By late fall, Hauger's group began to see more lenders willing to work with it on foreclosures. But, she said, so far it hasn't been able to stop a foreclosure and get a bad loan restructured. Hauger said she needs another counselor just to work with the agency's foreclosure clients, but there is no money for it. Her group might have been facing layoffs now if it weren't for a $200,000 housing grant it received a few years ago. Earlier this month, national mortgage figures showed foreclosures at a record high. The same day, the White House announced a plan for a five-year freeze on interest rates for certain struggling homeowners with subprime loans.
Alex Marshall has master’s touch in retaining indoor crown
Yesterday, he turned in a masterful performance to win the indoor title for the fifth time, having made the record his own last year, moving ahead of Bryant, Tony Allcock, Richard Corsie and Paul Foster, who have each won it three times. Bond, of England, may have been suffering from a painful shoulder injury but that had not stopped him reaching the final with some delicate drawing. "Tattie" [Marshall] was awesome. He started both sets brilliantly, and never really let me in," Bond said. Aron Sherriff, of Australia, lost 21-10 to Safuan Said, of Malaysia, in the final of the World Outdoor Singles in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although the two flagship events were scheduled at the same time, most of the top players opted for Hopton-on Sea. .
Dodging a bullet
At this year's gathering of the United States Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C., there's little to celebrate. Executives from hard-hit Eastern and Midwestern cities are calling on the federal government to assist them in dealing with the fallout from the subprime mortgage meltdown that has left thousands of homes vacant and undercut property tax revenues that fund municipal services. Houston Mayor Bill White, who passed on the conference this year, can sympathize with his colleagues' pain but is not feeling it locally. The city's economy, bolstered by a booming energy sector, has not experienced the nosedive in the housing market that has occurred elsewhere. Likewise, Texas leads the nation in job growth and single-family home starts and sales. Foreclosures in Harris County rose a moderate 24 percent in 2007, totaling less than a third of the record 30,742 that occurred in 1987.
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