Tom Lindmark sent me a link to a post on his blog, a write-up of the main things he learned at the IMN Distressed Real Estate Conference in Las Vegas. Remember, this event is for those in the industry who LIKE messy, ugly situations. But it gives the impression that the industry is close to […]
Read more...Even though the Fed has cut short term rates, those in the real estate business know too well that mortgage rates are rising. What is worse, an article in Bloomberg suggests that despite price declines, housing has become less affordable. In other words, even with the drop in purchase prices, the monthly cost of mortgage […]
Read more...Ooh, the blood sport of watching Countrywide come under attack for its predatory mortgage practices is getting even more gripping. Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times reports that the Illinois attorney general is suing the lender for not simply selling a toxic product, but other fraudulent practices, including falsifying borrower income and making bogus […]
Read more...The US government has gone from being the biggest player in the mortgage market to being just about the only player. Per recent reports sent by an alert reader, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae now finance 80% of all mortgages, and the FHA guarnatees another 10%, so these entities now come close to having mortgage […]
Read more...Do you remember the Ford Pinto? The 1970s car had a nasty tendency to explode into flames in rear end collisions. But the piece de resistance was when litigation exposed a Ford internal memo that showed the company was not only aware of the problem, but had run the math and concluded reinforcing the car […]
Read more...We’ve taken a dim view of plans to use government sponsored enterprises like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the Federal Housing Administration as vehicles to prop up a housing market that, even with its decline to date, is still overpriced in many areas of the country relative to incomes. Many have spoken in favor […]
Read more...So many bad numbers have come out about residential real estate that they all begin to blend together. But a figure as grim as “50% decline”, applied to an entire market, even if in real rather than nominal terms, is a stunner. This grim forecast for UK real estate comes from a futures index based […]
Read more...Now one might ask why there is anyone trying to move development forward in California, given the impressive downward price trajectory of real estate over the last year. We’ll take as a given that such a big state can have pocket of opportunity even in a bad market. But this article highlights an issue that […]
Read more...I had to feature this article from the Guardian not only for its content but for its particularly vivid writing .But the specter of a market implosion is quite stirring, in a perverse way. Just get a load of the headline: “Wrecking ball hits housing market“. From the Guardian: Jeepers. What a way to start […]
Read more...The housing contraction in England, not surprisingly, is following a similar trajectory to that in the US, and as here, tighter credit is the main culprit. However, since England’s overall consumer debt levels were even higher than those in the US, it’s an open question as to how deep the downside will be. One factor […]
Read more...As the mortgage mess grinds on, just as with body counts in war, we are getting to the point, as matters get worse, that the numbers don’t have the impact they used to or ought to. The forecast that housing prices may fall 30%, which would put over 40% of the US mortgages underwater, is […]
Read more...In a settlement of an anti-trust lawsuit (one might more accurately call it a capitulation), the National Association of Realtors will open its multiple listing service to Internet brokers. The NAR tried to put a brave face on this development, but consider: 1. Anyone finding a property via an internet listing will pay the Internet […]
Read more...Kevin Funnell at Bank Laywer’s Blog fulminates about an idea to deal with the burgeoning homeowner debt crisis, namely a proposal by House Representative Raúl M. Grijalva based on (but different in some key respects) from a Dean Baker proposal called “own to rent”. While there are problems with the idea, there is more than […]
Read more...I kid you not, the headline above is a faithful representation of the thrust of an article today in the New York Times, “The Scars of Losing a Home,” by Yale economist Robert Shiller. With friends like this, liberals have no need of enemies. Shiller’s argument is ludicrous: implement the legislation before Congress, which guarantes […]
Read more...Mark Thoma has posted a nice little piece by his colleague Tim Duy on what a housing bubble looks like (as in charts, not in those “what were they thinking” pictures of overpriced shoeboxes now going begging). It illustrates very nicely the most basic symptom of pricing gone awry: how housing prices hit unprecedented highs […]
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