United States Housing

Housing starts rose in December for the third month in four, confirming that home building is a bright spot in a slowing U.S. economy. An index of manufacturing for January dived, giving the Federal Reserve another reason to cut interest rates later this month. A rise in construction of single-family homes led to an overall 0.3% increase in housing starts last month to an annual rate of 1.575 million units, the most since May, the Commerce Department said.

Housing starts rose in December for the third month in four, confirming that home building is a bright spot in a slowing U.S. economy. An index of manufacturing for January dived, giving the Federal Reserve another reason to cut interest rates later this month. A rise in construction of single-family homes led to an overall 0.3% increase in housing starts last month to an annual rate of 1.575 million units, the most since May, the Commerce Department said.

Federal housing officials today are expected to call for a 90-day freeze on foreclosure proceedings against homeowners behind on payments of government-backed loans after finding an unusually high rate of mortgage defaults among the elderly, minorities and immigrants who might have been victims of unscrupulous lending practices.

Federal housing officials today are expected to call for a 90-day freeze on foreclosure proceedings against homeowners behind on payments of government-backed loans after finding an unusually high rate of mortgage defaults among the elderly, minorities and immigrants who might have been victims of unscrupulous lending practices.

In an effort to create housing for homeless and low-income people, Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti announced Thursday that he has introduced legislation to place an $850-million housing bond measure on the June, 1988, state ballot. "We are going to respond to the public demand that we do something about shelter and do something about the homeless," Roberti said in a press conference held on the dusty soil of Los Angeles' "urban campground."

New procedures have been established to permit the continued emigration of Soviet Armenians to the United States, U.S. Embassy officials announced Friday. Relatives of Armenians who were scheduled to leave for the United States before Sept. 30 but were prevented from doing so when federal refugee funds for resettlement ran out may sponsor their immigration by guaranteeing financial support, the officials said.

The Democratic-controlled Senate today thwarted an effort to block spending for upgrading facilities in the United States for housing prisoners transferred from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a move that Illinois officials feared could have complicated efforts to place detainees at a prison in their state. The measure was defeated on a mostly party-line vote of 57-43. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) proposed the restriction as an amendment to a spending bill for military construction and veterans programs, telling his colleagues, "If you want terrorists here, then vote against this amendment."

Thousands of public housing projects across the country--21 of them in Los Angeles alone--stand as ugly monuments to the Depression era. Many of them are dilapidated and infested with rats, roaches and crime; and most of the projects nationwide are densely populated with unemployed residents who are reluctant to find work, lest their rent payments increase. Not having a job guarantees a lower rent under current federal rules.

The cost of housing in San Diego County will continue to rise rapidly this year, although at a somewhat slower rate than in 1988, several housing experts predicted last week. The same market factors that drove prices to unprecedented heights last year--the shrinking supply of new housing in the county's subdivisions combined with rapid population and job growth--remain realities in 1989.

Annette Smock survives on $439 a month in Social Security disability benefits, but like many on fixed incomes at the West Grove Mobile Home Park near the Garden Grove Freeway, it may no longer be enough. Last September the Mel Mack Co., owner of the mobile home park on Hoover Street, began charging residents fees for water and trash collection, then raised the monthly rent by $30 per mobile home in January.

There comes a point in every man-made disaster when the guilty parties are identified and brought to book. That way the victims can at least snatch from the wreckage some confidence that lessons have been learned and mistakes recognized. If Friday's federal fraud lawsuit against Goldman, Sachs & Co. over its role in the subprime mortgage meltdown signals the start of that process, all we can say is: Finally . Goldman, like other big Wall Street banks, has taken the position that the crisis was something of a natural disaster.

The U.S. economy grew faster than first thought in the third quarter thanks to strong business investment, but investment in housing posted its biggest decline in more than 15 years, the government said Wednesday. Gross domestic product, which measures total economic activity in the U.S., expanded at a 2.2% annual rate during the third quarter, higher than the 1.6% gain previously estimated and above Wall Street expectations for a 1.8% gain.