Is it really camping if you’re inside a nice hotel? And other housing and economy stories to check out over the weekend:
- The San Francisco Weekly wove a compelling story about an investor who lost millions of dollars to Jim McConville, the man at the center of our investigation earlier this year.
- The U-T announced you can camp at the Rancho Bernardo Inn — with discounts for every amenity you give up, in a sign of the grim era for local hotels.
- The LA Times’ real estate blog points to national numbers of underwater homeowners and wonders if that will spark banks to do more “cramdowns” — the reduction of the total loan amount to bring what is owed more in line with what the home could currently sell for.
- My chum Randy Dotinga (aka VOSD History Man) dropped some historical knowledge on us about the Talmadge sisters after my story about the people in the mid-city neighborhood of the same name who sacrifice sleep for safety.
- http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-loans5-2009aug05,0,858718.story “target=”_blank”>The LA Times and others included this startling stat about the success rate of Obama’s loan modification plan: only 9 percent of eligible loans have been changed.