Among the many daunting tasks for the Obama Administration is the revamping of HUD that has languished under poor leadership and neglect for eight years. The muddling of missions was also repeated by federal oversight agencies that assumed roles of consultants.

Meanwhile, sales of existing and new houses hit new lows as nervous lenders freeze funds or direct them toward more profitable investments.

While press attention has focused on Hurricane Ike’s devastation of the Texas coast, volunteers in flood-ravaged Wichita Falls methodically toil to restore 86 partially destroyed homes.

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This is tantamount to evaluating the American Community Survey, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, sales data, and labor statistics, and concluding that the weakest parts of the weakest markets are the weakest parts of the weakest markets. What sort of genius it took to figure this out is anybody’s guess, but it’s a good bet that it was gestated in the womb of a community development field and movement quite unwilling to separate the affordable housing needs of low-income households from the negative impacts that concentrations of poverty impose on markets our own practices birthed and perpetuate.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said the hiatus on foreclosures — which will run from November 26 through January 9 — will give mortgage servicers more to work out easier borrowing terms for troubled homeowners.

Regulators and lawmakers have leaned harder on the two companies to help stabilize the crumbling U.S. housing market since they own or control about half of residential mortgages outstanding.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston announced changes that aim to expand participation in the new “Hope for Homeowners” program.Launched Oct. 1, the program is off to a slow start, with the government receiving just 111 applications during the first month.

The benefits were clear: Countrywide’s new regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, promised more flexible oversight of issues related to the bank’s mortgage lending. For OTS, which depends on fees paid by banks it regulates and competes with other regulators to land the largest financial firms, Countrywide was a lucrative catch.

But OTS was not an effective regulator. This year, the government has seized three of the largest institutions regulated by OTS, including IndyMac Bancorp, Washington Mutual — the largest bank in U.S. history to go bust — and on Friday evening, Downey Savings and Loan Association. The total assets of the OTS thrifts to fail this year: $355.7 billion. Three others were forced to sell to avoid failure, including Countrywide.

In the parade of regulators that missed signals or made decisions they came to regret on the road to the current financial crisis, the Office of Thrift Supervision stands out.

Adding to the gloom for the U.S. economy, a separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago showed its National Activity Index contracted again in October, staying mired in negative terrain for 15 straight months.

Existing-home sales have been down every month so far this year compared with sales last year. New-home sales were down through September, data from First American CoreLogic show. It has not yet released October new-home sales data.

But at least one national economist thinks the Houston-area housing market will see price appreciation of as much as 10 percent in 2009.

Mr. Perry will reiterate that Texas needs the federal agency to cover all of the hurricane debris removal costs for the next 18 months, or risk bankrupting the state’s hard-hit coastal communities.

The Federal Emergency Managment Agency installed it but must remove it after the city said no trailers were allowed.

Two months after the storm devastated major chunks of the county, though, an estimated 900 residents who look to live in those temporary homes are still weeks away from moving in.

The program was designed to provide temporary housing alternatives to eligible applicants who need a place to stay because their houses are uninhabitable due to Hurricane Ike damage.

Around 240,000 people were eligible for TSA, although only 25,000 used the program, including 4,700 people who are currently check into participating hotels. Another 5,000 have been moved to longer-term disaster housing under the Disaster Housing Program-Ike, and 7,700 are receiving rental assistance grants from FEMA.

TSA-eligible applicants staying in hotels are reviewed every two weeks. The program runs through Jan 15.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Adminstration have extended deadlines to Dec. 12 for those affected by Hurricane Ike.

As soon as they can sell the damaged house on the bay side of island’s East End, he and his wife plan to buy another one somewhere on the mainland, McCoy said. The McCoys are among dozens of property owners swept off the island by Ike, which made landfall Sept. 13, flooding 75 percent of Galveston houses.

“The work has been consistent so far. We started a little early with five houses the weekend of Nov. 8 and have been doing three to five houses per week,” said Bob Johnston, member of the Wichita Falls Area Disaster Recovery Committee.

It used to cost about $600 per month to live at the Stoneridge Apartments, what many consider the last affordable apartment complex near downtown. About a year ago a developer bought the property and demolished it.