RENO, Nev.—Harvey Whittemore rose from mopping floors as a student at the University of Nevada here to become one of the state’s top power brokers. Now he is entangled in litigation that is roiling the political landscape in one of the nation’s swing states.

Mr. Whittemore, 55 years old, worked his way to the top of Nevada’s political scene as a lobbyist and prodigious fundraiser over much of the past quarter-century. He has been an ally and donor to both of the state’s U.S. senators—Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Dean Heller.

In January, Mr. Whittemore was sued by …

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303812904577289481514462726.html

The summer has barely started, but the fight is on against changes to loan limits that don’t take place until the first of October.

Today the National Association of Home Builders released its own study claiming that lowering the loan limits at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), “will reduce housing demand and place downward pressure on home prices in major housing markets.”

The loan limits were raised when the mortgage market crashed, investors in mortgage backed securities ran for the hills, and the government-owned entities were the only ones left writing mortgages. Originally at $417,000 for a so-called “conforming loan,” they rose to as high as $729,000 in the nation’s higher-cost markets, in order to keep mortgages moving. That will drop to $625,000 in October in those markets, with the base limit remaining at $417,000.

The builders say that homes above those limits “would likely require financing with higher mortgage interest rates and other less favorable loan terms, such as higher required down payments and more stringent credit history thresholds.”

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43526306?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

The only thing more cold and gloomy than my pre-dawn live shot here in Seattle this morning was the February housing report from the Department of Commerce.

Housing starts plunged 22.5 percent in February from the previous month, and building permits, which are an indicator of future activity, dropped 8.2 percent.

You can’t blame it all on the weather either, as starts were even down 28 percent out West.

Some of the housing pundits this morning are saying this is all a good thing, as there is still far too much supply on the market, and builders need to sell all that before they start building more, but tell that to a home builder. The real issue now is credit. The big public builders can get some cash from the banks, but they represent barely a quarter of the market. The private builders are in real need now.

“Our view is that the housing market will start to get back on its feet this year,” notes HIS Global Insight’s Patrick Newport. “The forecast, however, hinges on builders being able to access credit. If builders cannot get financing to build new homes, housing will remain in the dumps.”

Here in Seattle, California-based Shea Homes is going in a new direction for financing, tapping private equity, which appears to be far more willing to back private builders than the banks.

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