Equity

The Obama administration's new plan to stimulate refinancings of FHA mortgages is likely to help large numbers of homeowners — even those who are deeply underwater — cut their monthly costs by switching to a loan with a rate below 4%. Here's a quick overview of the "streamline refi" program and what it will take for you to qualify. First, the baseline criteria: Your current home loan must be FHA-insured and must have been put on the Federal Housing Administration's books no later than May 31, 2009.

$138.9 billion: Total negative equity in Southern California 78.5%: Homeowners with negative equity in the 90014 ZIP Code, the worst rate in Southern California 0%: Homeowners with negative equity in the 93040, 91963, 92066 and 91210 ZIP Codes 10%: Percentage of Southern California cities in which one-fifth of homeowners owe double the value of their homes

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Even as a tentative housing recovery in the Southland appears underway, a big stumbling block remains: the vast number of underwater homeowners. Nearly 1 in 3 homeowners with a mortgage in Los Angeles County owes more on the loan than the property is worth, according to fresh data from real estate website Zillow. In the hard-hit Inland Empire, that climbs to more than half of borrowers. In roughly 10% of Southern California cities, 1 of every 5 homeowners with a mortgage owes double the value of the house, according to the data, released Wednesday.

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

Profit (in this instance) as any schoolchild could tell Campbell, is the sales price less the selling expenses and the cost price (including any costs of improvement). Period. Shame on the L.A. Times for publishing this simple writer's theory as if touted by an expert. CLIVE KENNEDY Beverly Hills Don Campbell replies: When in his question my letter writer used the word "profit" when he clearly meant "equity," my first instinct was to change the copy accordingly.

In response to Clifford Adelman's column "Putting Women's Education to Work Could Enrich U.S. Economy" (Opinion, Oct. 28): The statement "women achieve pay equity in fields requiring substance more than fluff" hit home to me. Several years ago I was a manager in the data processing department of an insurance company. It was very easy to judge which of my workers were competent because they did things that were measurable. It was very hard to judge which of the managers were competent because much of what they did was fluff.

Even as a tentative housing recovery in the Southland appears underway, a big stumbling block remains: the vast number of underwater homeowners. Nearly 1 in 3 homeowners with a mortgage in Los Angeles County owes more on the loan than the property is worth, according to fresh data from real estate website Zillow. In the hard-hit Inland Empire, that climbs to more than half of borrowers. In roughly 10% of Southern California cities, 1 of every 5 homeowners with a mortgage owes double the value of the house, according to the data, released Wednesday.

ScanlanKemperBard Cos., a real estate private equity firm based in Portland, Ore., is expected to announce today that it will open its first office in Southern California in May. The office in Manhattan Beach will be headed by John Strockis, formerly the senior director of acquisitions for CB Richard Ellis Investors. SKB acquired nearly $600 million worth of properties in 2007.

Top agents at International Creative Management on Wednesday completed the buyout of the agency from longtime Chairman and Chief Executive Jeff Berg and private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management - ending a long-running management drama at one of Hollywood's leading agencies. Staff members of the 400-person firm celebrated with a champagne breakfast. Twenty-nine agents are now partners who will own and control the Century City-based firm, which has been renamed ICM Partners.

Benihana Inc., the Japanese-style and sushi restaurant chain known for slicing, dicing and frying food in front of diners, has accepted an offer to be sold to a private equity group for $296 million. Angelo, Gordon & Co. plans to pay Benihana shareholders $16.30 a share in cash in a transaction that's been approved by the Miami-based chain's board. Benihana shareholders must also approve the acquisition. The price is a premium of 46% over the average closing price for the 30 days before March 13, when Benihana first said it was exploring strategic alternatives for its business.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

The coolest place in Hollywood is a sauna inside the health center at El Centro and Selma that's been around since the mid-1980s. I was reminded of this the other day after a conversation with a Guatemalan maintenance man named Romulo and a retired auto mechanic from Ecuador named Victor. We sat sweating together as they discussed Victor's house in Ecuador. He wanted to sell it but couldn't. The idea pained Victor, as he'd bought the house hoping his kids might want to experience his home country.

Providence Equity Partners is selling its stake in online video service Hulu for about $200 million, according to people familiar with the situation. The move is expected to give at least two of Hulu's media company owners — News Corp. and Walt Disney Co. — a greater ownership stake in the rapidly growing online service. It also would make it easier for the partners to achieve a common strategy for the asset without having a restive investor in the mix. The 5-year-old service has more than 2 million paid subscribers to its Hulu Plus offering and about 38 million visitors a month to its free site, which offers catch-up episodes of such popular shows as "Glee," "Revenge" and "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.

SACRAMENTO — Federal securities regulators sued a former chief executive and a former director of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, accusing them of scheming to defraud an investment firm of $20 million. The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that former CEO Federico Buenrostro Jr., 62, and former director Alfred J.R. Villalobos, 68, fabricated documents requested by Apollo Global Management, a New York private equity firm. Apollo had hired Villalobos, a close friend of Buenrostro, as a so-called placement agent to secure billions of dollars of investments from the country's largest public pension fund.

Three cheers for the Alexander Pope-Dave Elder initiative to restore property tax equity and for The Times' support of it. It is bad enough that recent home buyers pay bloated prices for housing and outrageous interest on home loans. But it is worse than that--we also have to carry on our backs the homeowners who bought before 1975 and pay next to nothing in property taxes, while we support the state through our higher taxes. Because of the gross inequities in the housing situation, there are two classes of people in the California middle class, those who live the good life, and those who strain at every penny they spend--and these two groups take home the same pay. MARCIA J. BATES Van Nuys

Troubled film financier David Bergstein has sued the owners of Miramax, alleging that they denied him money and an equity stake owed for his role in the acquisition of the film label from Walt Disney Co. in 2010. The suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court by the law firm Weingarten Brown, contends that Bergstein — who has been involved in dozens of lawsuits, many related to his activities in the film business — played a crucial role in the deal to acquire Miramax. It asserts that Santa Monica private equity firm Colony Capital, one of Miramax's new owners, and its principal Richard Nanula conspired to deny Bergstein a $6.1-million fee and 3.3% stake they agreed to provide him as part of the purchase.

WASHINGTON — Trying to ward off a financial crisis like the one that shook the world in 2008, a powerful panel of federal regulators approved criteria for classifying which non-banking firms pose a risk to the entire financial system and are subject to tougher rules. The new financial regulations are aimed at large, previously unregulated insurance companies, such as bailed-out American International Group Inc., as well as hedge funds, private equity funds and other firms whose complicated securities and bad bets on mortgages created a credit crisis and helped deepen the recession.