When President-elect Barack Obama launches his effort to resolve the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, he will do so from a house that has lost more than $23 million in value over the past year alone.

That's according to a Zillow report released today:

Real estate Web site Zillow.com today announced it has calculated a Zestimate® value for the White House were it actually a home that could be bought and sold. That estimated value—$308,058,000—would make this by far the most expensive residence in the United States, however still more than $23 million less than its value one year ago . . . .

After winning praise from congressional Democrats—while locking horns with colleagues in the Bush administration—FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair appears poised to keep her post once Barack Obama takes office.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Obama was complimentary of Ms. Bair on Tuesday and two advisers said afterward that it was likely she would remain in her post.

"I do think that the F.D.I.C. and Sheila Bair have had the sense of urgency about the problem that I want to see," Mr. Obama said in an interview. "And so, you know, we haven't made any official statements on this yet, but I think generally they've been on the case with the resources that they have to try to shore up the system."

If she remains, Ms. Bair will be one of a small handful of Republican holdovers in senior posts.

One of the key legislative battles of the new Congress--in the housing arena, at least--is set for liftoff after Democrats in the House and the Senate dropped the controversial legislation.

Sen. Dick Durbin, a democrat from Illinois, introduced a bill earlier this week that would change existing bankruptcy code to allow bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of mortgages on primary residences. The bill, which Durbin calls "a top priority this year," will be fiercely apposed by the mortgage banking industry, which has argued that the change would lead to higher mortgage rates.

Rep. John Conyers, a democrat from Michigan, introduced a companion bill in the House.

More bad news on the credit front, this time concerning home equity lines of credit and auto loans.

From the American Bankers Association:

In the latest sign that consumers are under financial stress, indirect auto loan and home equity lines of credit (HELOC) delinquencies reached their highest levels ever during the third quarter of 2008, according to the American Bankers Association’s Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin. In addition, the composite ratio, which tracks eight closed-end installment loan categories, rose 22 basis points to 2.90 percent of all accounts (seasonally adjusted), the highest level since 1980.

Looks like the housing market just stuffed Shaquille O'Neal:

From the New York Post, via patrick.net:

The Phoenix Suns center has just relisted his Star Island estate in Miami Beach for $25 million - $10 million less than its all-time high asking price back in November 2007, when a prospective buyer backed out of a deal for it. O'Neal bought the spread for $18.8 million in 2004, when South Florida was riding a boom.

Radar Logic released its most recent monthly housing market report Tuesday. Here's the damage, quoting from the press release:

[Home] prices and sales volumes decreased more in October 2008 than in any other October since the beginning of Radar Logic's data, January 2000 . . .

For the fourth month in a row, Milwaukee, WI was at the top of the 25-MSA [metropolitan statistical area] ranking in October. Home prices in Milwaukee were 5.3% higher than they were a year before, making Milwaukee the only MSA tracked by Radar Logic to experience year-over-year price appreciation in October.

The National Association of Realtors' Pending Home Sales report for November--released Tuesday--was a real downer, even by housing crisis standards:

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 4.0 percent to 82.3 from a downwardly revised reading of 85.7 in October, and is 5.3 percent below November 2007 when it was 86.9. The current index is the lowest since the series began in 2001.

So why were the figures so low? Mike Larson, of Weiss Research, can think of a few reasons:

"If you think back to what was going on in October and November: we were dealing with an economic recession, rising unemployment, consumer confidence was falling, lending standards had gotten tighter, then of course, the worst financial market turmoil to date really was in the September-October-November time frame. I think that clearly when people read the headlines, they saw that companies were firing, they may have unfortunately been laid off at their own job, the drumbeat of news about house prices falling--not a lot that exactly instills confidence. So I think that's what these numbers are telling you."