A look at the stories across HousingWire’s desk during the holiday weekend…with more coverage to come on bigger issues:

All eyes are looking up this week, the first week of a new year and a new decade — and a new era, as Burj Dubai opens this week as the world’s tallest skyscraper (for now). A post over at the UK’s TimesOnline has the scoop.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke spoke Sunday on monetary policy and the housing bubble. His comments suggest that the use of “monetary policies” did not address the cause of the crisis as effectively as stricter regulatory and supervisory polices would have. He also traced the mortgage crisis back to some risky loan types that ended up causing most of the financial troubles. From Bernanke’s speech:

“The picture that emerges is consistent with many accounts of the period: At some point, both lenders and borrowers became convinced that house prices would only go up. Borrowers chose, and were extended, mortgages that they could not be expected to service in the longer term. They were provided these loans on the expectation that accumulating home equity would soon allow refinancing into more sustainable mortgages. For a time, rising house prices became a self-fulfilling prophecy, but ultimately, further appreciation could not be sustained and house prices collapsed. This description suggests that regulatory and supervisory policies, rather than monetary policies, would have been more effective means of addressing the run-up in house prices.”

Bernanke’s speech concludes:

“…the best response to the housing bubble would have been regulatory, not monetary.”

Translated: take that, Greenspan put!

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) reported no failed banks over the first weekend of the new year. In 2009, 140 FDIC-insured institutions were shut down by regulators and their deposits and assets put on the line for acquisition or dispossession. The last bank to fail, First Federal Bank of California, was shut down December 18th.

The Treasury Department late Thursday released its annual Agency Financial Report (available to download here). Secretary Timothy Geithner said in the report that the Treasury focused in 2009 on stabilizing the housing market by bringing mortgage rates “to historic lows and establishing new programs to allow responsible homeowners to refinance into affordable mortgages or modify at-risk loans to lower monthly mortgage payments.” The report indicates the Treasury is positive on the efforts initiated through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) have kept the financial crisis from being any worse.

From Geithner’s remarks in the report:

“The housing market is showing some signs of stabilizing. Home prices have increased modestly over the past six months, reversing consistent declines since 2006, and sales of existing single-family homes have increased by 20% over the past year. The cost of credit in securities markets has fallen substantially for businesses, and credit is flowing again in these markets.”

Bankrupt real estate firm Kobra Properties, which recently filed for financial protection under Chapter 11, will soon sell 24 real estate assets. The properties are free of liens and other claims, according to a press release Thursday. The minimum bids on all properties totals nearly $35.13m. Interested parties have until January 6 to qualify. The auction is scheduled to take place on January 14.

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