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Real Estate Funds Defy Housing's Gravity: THE housing market may be facing a prolonged dip in prices, but for real estate mutual funds the problem is very different: prices that have climbed so much that they may not be sustainable. (nytimes.com)
To own or rent a home? Market, jobless rate issues add to complex question: After the steep drop in the housing market revealed cracks in the long held belief that there was minimal financial risk in owning a home, does it still make sense to buy a house? The economy and high jobless rate have only made it more complex for many families, despite low mortgage rates. (boston.com)
4 Reasons Why the Current Housing Market Stinks: Underwater homeowners are hoping for a miraculous turnaround to restore their equity. Home buyers are waiting to see when prices will bottom, so they can make their move. Real estate agents are promising sunnier days ahead. Just don’t expect any of these things to happen in 2011. (homebuyinginstitute.com)
Housing crash slows in 6 major cities, including Las Vegas: The U.S. housing market looks like a scorched landscape. Nationwide, home prices are down almost 32 percent from their 2006 peak. Many economists expect them to fall at least 5 percent more this year. Some predict even steeper declines. (rgj.com)
House Prices declined 2.7% in February, Prices now 4.1% below 2009 Lows: According to the CoreLogic HPI, national home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 6.7 percent in February 2011 compared to February 2010 after declining by 5.5 percent in January 2011 compared to January 2010. (corelogic.com)
Foreclosure fraud: The homeowner nightmares continue: Reading between the lines of settlement proposals, the states attorneys general aren't speaking the same language as the big banks. And struggling homeowners are paying the price. (fortune.cnn.com)
Wells Fargo Eliminates 1,900 Mortgage Jobs as Home Lending Slows: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the largest U.S. home lender, cut 1,900 employees from its mortgage unit, or less than 1 percent of the workforce, as fewer would-be borrowers submit applications for loans. (bloomberg.com)
Florida's 'shadow' real-estate inventory ranks No. 1 in U.S.: The forecast could be dim for the Sunshine State as a looming market of distressed and discounted homes threatens a struggling recovery. According to a new report from the National Association of Realtors, Florida's "shadow inventory" ranks No. 1 in the nation with 441,461 homes statewide. California is in second place with 227,961 homes. (miamiherald.com)
Could a Government Shutdown Hit Housing?: If the federal government shuts down, the housing market could face a bit of a screwball just as the spring sales season gets underway. (wsj.com)
Housing crash slows in 6 cities: What the bottom looks like: The U.S. housing market looks like a scorched landscape. Nationwide, home prices are down almost 32% from their 2006 peak. Many economists expect them to fall at least 5% more this year. Some predict even steeper declines. (usatoday.com)
From housing to homesteads: why farmland is the next real estate bubble: Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University, has warned that soaring food prices are driving the next asset bubble, which will be in US and UK farmland. (citywire.co.uk)
New Evidence Mortgage Market Is Choking Housing Recovery: Few have the appetite, but even fewer may have the ability to buy, given today's tight mortgage market. Just look at piece of data #2: Weekly mortgage applications. Yes, applications to purchase a home rose 6.7 percent. (cnbc.com)
California During the Great Recession: It Could Have Been Worse: It wasn't really as bad as it seemed. That is the take- away from a new study out of USC called "California Roller Coaster: Income and Housing in Boom and Bust, 1990-2010." (nbclosangeles.com)
REITs Could Be On The Verge Of A Bubble: Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have been one of the soundest forms of investment in the past few years. These trusts, which are essentially companies that buy, develop, manage and sell real estate assets for their investors, have had the benefit of lots of capital in a buyers’ market over the past few years. (rejournalonline.com)
Real Estate News: Housing Bubble Continues to Haunt Fed: The Developments blog features exclusive news, analysis and commentary on residential and commercial real estate from The Wall Street Journal's real estate bureau. (wsj.com)
Seattle Got Richer Just Before the Housing Bubble: The housing chart above demonstrates the point I’ve been making quite well. Notice how between 1996 and 2001, only King County had consistent growth in this ratio. Every other Puget Sound county was basically flat until the housing boom started to heat up. (seattlebubble.com)
If Home Prices Counted in Inflation: A FEW years ago, the Federal Reserve remained complacent about inflation even as a housing bubble inflated. The Fed did not take the kind of action that would have seemed reasonable if it had been alarmed by rising prices. (nytimes.com)
Mortgage Paperwork: The Next Housing Shock?: If there was a question about whether we're headed for a second housing shock, that was settled last week with news that home prices have fallen a sixth consecutive month. Values are nearly back to levels of the Great Recession. One thing weighing on the economy is the huge number of foreclosed houses. (cbsnews.com)
U.S. Property Taxes Fall by Most Since Housing Market Crash: U.S. state and local property-tax collections dropped in the last three months of 2010 by the most since home prices peaked more than four years ago, slowing the overall growth in government revenue. (bloomberg.com)
Beazer Homes buying homes to rent: Atlanta-based Beazer Homes has started a new division to buy distressed homes and fix them up for the rental market. (ajc.com)
Feeding the housing bubble monster: Before the US house price bubble burst, its banks and regulators claimed that there wasn’t a bubble and that, if house prices did fall, it wouldn’t affect the solvency of the banks. (businessspectator.com)
How Long Will Renewed Downtrend in Housing Last?: Housing data is getting ugly again. Or rather, housing data has been getting ugly for months but has been pushed to the bottom of the headline queue by, frankly, more important things. (minyanville.com)
How Long Will the Foreclosure Crisis and the Housing Crash Continue?: It seems that the foreclosure crisis is getting worse – no end seems to be in sight. Prices of residences continue to tumble while the underwater mortgages are surging. In 2010 foreclosure numbers set a record. (houserepos.net)
As Housing Recovery Lags, Rental Business Set to Boom: The severe and prolonged downturn in housing likely will have one notable beneficiary: Demand for multi-family dwellings is expected to rise as more owners switch to renting. (cnbc.com)
In Pictures: America's Foreclosure Ghost Towns: On the cover of their most recent issue, Fortune declares the "return of Real Estate" to be upon us. With the national housing market wrecked by low sales and marred by high foreclosure rates, the optimistic sentiment seems odd. Have they not seen the scores of empty homes? (huffingtonpost.com)
'Shadow inventory' of 1.8 million homes could prolong housing crash: The glut of troubled homes not yet on the market represents a nine-month supply at the current sales pace. That's in addition to 3.49 million previously owned homes already on the market. (latimes.com)
Foreclosures slow but housing market still hurting: Home foreclosures slowed in the fourth quarter, but that is likely to be a brief reprieve once banks move more aggressively back into this area following a review of their mortgage servicing practices, according to a report released by U.S. banking regulators on Thursday. (reuters.com)
After Months of Growth, Signs of Weakness in the Manhattan Real Estate Market: After more than a year of slow but steady growth, the Manhattan real estate market saw declines in price and sales volume in the first three months of 2011, raising the question of whether the city may finally be following the rest of the nation into a double dip in housing prices. (nytimes.com)
Why the Housing Market is Three Times Worse Than You Think: To get a sense of where your housing market stands, take a look at CoreLogic's comparison of each state's tally of mortgages that are at least 90 days late to its current sales rate. The states with the most distressed housing inventory are New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, and Florida, while those with the least distressed inventory are ND... (http://moneywatch.bnet.com)
How Did Canada Miss the Housing Bust?: Interesting observations from Merrill Lynch's Sheryl King and Ryan Bohren. They believe Canadian housing is "in bubble territory" with commensurate "down-side risks remain despite an accelerating economy." However, they are not looking for a Canadian Housing crash. (ritholtz.com)
Is the U.S. Stuck in a Second Housing Slump?: The economy itself is continuing to show signs of a strengthening recovery, with stronger consumer spending and a pickup in hiring. But new data released today shows a weak housing market. The S&P-Case-Shiller index is down nearly a third from its peak in 2006, before the housing bubble burst. (pbs.org)
NAR Is Identified As A Joke In Mainstream Media: Good housing charts and housing graphs here documenting the NAR's deceitfulness. (zerohedge.com)
Home price declines deepen in major US markets: Damage from the housing crash is spreading to areas once thought to be immune. In at least 14 major U.S. metro areas, prices have fallen to 2003 levels - when the housing bubble was just starting to inflate. Prices will likely drop further this year, making many people reluctant to buy or sell. That would push down sales and prices more. (miamiherald.com)
27 Depressing Facts About The Housing Crash That Never Seems To End: The housing crash that never seems to end appears to be getting even worse. Home prices continue to go down, the number of underwater mortgages is soaring and the number of foreclosures set an all-time record in 2010. (businessinsider.com)
The Future of the American Home: Over the past decade, the U.S. housing market has been on a roller coaster ride. Home prices rose at an unprecedented rate during the boom years. They then fell precipitously when the bubble burst. In 2011, prices are expected to decline further, as the market continues to search for a stable bottom. (theatlantic.com)
Atlanta Housing price index sags to 1999 levels: An index measuring metro Atlanta home prices slid to its lowest point in 11 years in January. According to the latest Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index, released Tuesday, existing single-family home sale prices declined by nearly 7 percent in January compared with the same month in 2010. (ajc.com)
U.S. Property Taxes Fall by Most Since Housing Crash: U.S. state and local property tax collections dropped in the last three months of 2010 by the most since home prices peaked more than four years ago, slowing the overall growth in government revenue. (bloomberg.com)
Renting vs. owning in a battle royale: If anyone is delighted by the paradigm shift that came with the housing crash, it's apartment owners. They'd been arguing for years that renting isn't a waste of money, but few people seemed to agree until a lot of folks who bought during the market's height ended up way underwater on their mortgages. (baltimoresun.com)
Why the Mega-Mansion Market Is Still Dead: Real estate agents who sell ultra high-price homes are announcing a housing recovery. The stories are based on the premise that the rich are once again rolling in dough from Wall Street and that they are re-discovering their need for homes with 28 bathrooms. There is only one problem with this theory: supply. (wsj.com)
In Prison for Taking a Liar Loan: No. Charlie Engle wasn't a seller of bad mortgages. He was a borrower. And the "mortgage fraud" for which he was prosecuted was something that literally millions of Americans did during the subprime bubble. Supposedly, he lied on two liar loans. (nytimes.com)
China: World's Biggest Housing Bubble: All this talk about how undervalued the Yuan is, how China will rule the world, and why the Yuan will be the next global reserve currency is pure silliness. China's growth is nothing more than a credit bubble on steroids. Cities are vacant, yet China keeps building, and building and building. (mish.com)
Fed: Housing crash drove wealth decline: The housing crash was a major factor in a drop in average U.S. wealth between 2007 and 2009, the Federal Reserve said in a report released Thursday. (upi.com)
Housing Gloom Doesn't Extend to Rentals: Not all real estate is in the dumps. Housing data due this week aren't likely to be encouraging. Figures Monday are expected to show sales of existing homes fell nearly 4% in February from January. On Tuesday, the government's index of home prices is forecast to register its seventh drop in eight months. (wsj.com)
New revelations how the Federal Reserve shrugged off housing crash warnings: The Mortgage Insurance Companies of America were warning the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators in 2005 and 2006 that disaster loomed. (boston.com)
Condo Owners' lament: Can't sell, can't rent: Condo associations limit number of leases; Georgians feel trapped. Kristen and Ben Hudgins feel stuck. The couple lives in an Atlanta studio condo Ben bought in 2005 while a grad student at Georgia Tech. With plans to start a family, they haven't been able to sell: even after dropping the price. (acj.com)
Shrinking Labor Pool Means Shrinking Demand For Housing: Here is an interesting set of charts on labor pool statistics and housing courtesy of my friend Tim Wallace. First consider a chart of various civilian population numbers. (mish.com)
Buffett Didn’t “Fully Realize” Housing Bubble Until September, 2008: Don't feel so badly if you didn't see the market meltdown of September, 2008 coming. Neither did the Oracle of Omaha, the iconic investor of our time, Warren Buffett. (forbes.com)
Shiller Says Fannie, Freddie Phase-Out Threatens Housing Market: U.S. government plans to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the world's largest mortgage financiers, threaten to worsen a weak housing market, said Robert Shiller, a Yale University economics professor. (businessweek.com)
How the middle class became the underclass: Are you better off than your parents? Probably not if you're in the middle class. Incomes for 90% of Americans have been stuck in neutral, and it's not just because of the Great Recession. Middle-class incomes have been stagnant for at least a generation, while the wealthiest tier has surged ahead at lighting speed. (money.cnn.com)
Housing Chart of the Day: Is this the Chinese Housing Bubble?: Residential housing investment as a share of China's GDP has tripled from 2 percent in 2000 to 6 percent in 2011 which is the same mark U.S. housing hit before imploding. (theatlantic.com)
Housing prices: Can you afford to buy at the current prices? (Canadian): The Canadian real estate market continued its slowdown in February, with the number of homes sold declining 1.6 per cent compared to the previous month and dropping 5.9 per cent from a year ago. (cbc.ca)
U.S. housing starts approach record low: New construction of U.S. housing units plunged in February, erasing a sharp gain in January and coming close to an all time low level. (MarketWatch.com)
Don't Ignore Weak Housing Market and Bank Stress Issues: Japan’s nuclear nightmare will stall global growth, which begins with housing and banking in the United States. With the world’s third-largest economy slowed to a crawl, the impact will be felt around the globe. Here in the United States, I worry about the housing market and the banking system... (minyanville.com)
Does Anyone Seriously Believe the Global Recovery Is Still Intact? : A global recovery dependent on a spiraling addiction to debt and sovereign spending & intervention has been undermined on numerous fronts. (oftwominds.com)
There May Be A Light At The End Of The Housing Market Fiasco Tunnel: After a rough end to the week for consumer and investor confidence levels, American morale appears to be on the rise this week as a Prudential Real Estate survey indicates that 68 percent of potential homebuyers and home-sellers expect that their property values will recover in the next year or two. (http://dailynewspulse.com)
Buy? Nah, Rent. Nah, Buy.: To buy or to rent? That was never much of a question for most Americans. Buy as soon as possible, of course, to show that you’ve grown up and made good. Paying rent, the thinking went, is just throwing money away; owning a house is an investment in the future. Until the past few years, that is... (nationaljournal.com)
Home Truths: The Perils of Property: PROPERTY’S grip on people is unrelenting. After the worst housing crash in memory, almost two-thirds of Americans still think that property is a safe investment. (economist.com)
Bankers Behaving Badly: Count me among those who were glad to see the documentary “Inside Job” win an Oscar. The film reminded us that the financial crisis of 2008, whose aftereffects are still blighting the lives of millions of Americans, didn’t just happen — it was made possible by bad behavior on the part of bankers, regulators and, yes, economists. (nytimes.com)
Home Ownership Should Not Be Part of the American Dream: But perhaps it's time to question whether homeownership should even be part of the American Dream. (fortune.cnn.com)
Nervous Banks Stall Housing Comeback: Thirteen hundred miles from Wall Street, Alex Fairchild is still waiting for a little of the government's multibillion-dollar bailouts and Federal Reserve largesse to trickle his way. (dispatch.com)
Philadelphia Housing Authority Failed to Account for Millions in Federal Funding: The nation's fourth-largest housing authority failed to adequately account for millions of dollars in payments made to outside law firms, according to a newly released federal audit. Auditors also found that the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) paid $7 million to a firm that employed a relative of a board member, and spent more than $1 million. (abcnews.com)
Realtor Accused of Fraud: A real estate investment broker who was on the Irvine Planning Commission until last month is accused by a longtime friend, a married couple, and a father and son of cheating them out of $1.75 million. (ocregister.com)
Housing slump for student-built homes: "At one time, we were able to sell the houses at or above our cost, but the last several years we were selling them for $40,000 less than we put into them," Schlomann said. (suntimes.com)
For Housing Rebound, Once Again It's Wait Until Next Year: The glimmer of hope that housing would stage a sustainable comeback this spring has melted with the winter snow. Even as many await the traditional surge of buyers and sellers in the warmer months, analysts say it will be a year before there's any solid improvement in housing. (cnbc.com)
Renters Suffer In Foreclosures: The case illustrates how the impact of nation's foreclosure crisis is spreading beyond over-leveraged homeowners and into the country's most fragile housing stock: low-income rental communities that were purchased at peak of the market by speculators and investors. (cincinnati.com)
Behind the Foreclosure Crisis: Big Banks' Reign of Terror: The problem in the nation's housing market now isn't subprime lending. It's subpar lenders. It's a bad situation - and the new majority in the House is poised to make it even worse... (washingtonpost.com)
Federal mortgage assistance going away?: The House of Representatives passed two bills to rescind federal funding for mortgage modification programs last week, the first steps toward getting the government out of the home lending business. (lasvegassun.com)
Why There's No Such Thing as a Bad Housing Market: "Down" and "depressed" - according to the news, that's the real estate market these days. And thanks to continuing tight credit and sluggish job growth, the United States isn't likely to see anything like a booming real estate market for many years. (sfgate.com)
To buy or rent? There's no simple answer: Are you a renter thinking of buying a house? With the echoes of the Great Housing Bubble Burst still rattling the housing market, here are some things to consider. (stltoday.com)
Is a 20 percent down payment the answer to the housing crisis?: Here there are great opportunities for first time home buyers as well as second time home buyers. We have zero down payment financing available, 3.5 percent down payment available and 20 percent down payment available for second home buyers and investors. (santanvalley.com)
How the Crash will Reshape America: The crash of 2008 continues to reverberate loudly nationwide—destroying jobs, bankrupting businesses, and displacing homeowners. But already, it has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America’s economic landscape will look very different than it does today. (theatlantic.com)
New Worries for Buyers Seeking Mortgages: The dread of not finding a lender after the housing market collapsed in 2009 has been replaced by uncertainty, confusion and frustration. According to brokers and lenders, the list of demands that stand between finding a place to buy and signing on the dotted line simply never stops morphing. (nytimes.com)
China Housing Bubble Bust Could be Dubai X1000: It's an eerily familiar story. Shortly before the American housing bubble burst, pundits across the globe argued that the world had reached a new plateau of economic growth, where the old rules of economics no longer applied... (marketoracle.co.uk)
Without qualifying for exemption, forgiven mortgage debt may be taxed: With hundreds of thousands of homeowners having negotiated loan modifications or short sales or been foreclosed upon during the past year, the Internal Revenue Service has issued fresh guidance on how to handle canceled mortgage debt in the upcoming tax season. (dailyherald.com)
Brace for $200 oil if unrest hits Saudi Arabia: Strong markets are supposed to rise along a wall of worry. This one was rising very nicely amid plenty of worries until investors caught a whiff of the idea that Saudi Arabia could fall victim to the unrest enveloping the Middle East. (MarketWatch.com)
Housing Crisis? Bank of America Takes $533,500 Loss on Exec’s Home: Bank of America Corp. is fighting an effort to force U.S. banks to reduce the amount some borrowers owe on their mortgage. But property records show that the bank was willing to take one heck of a hit when mortgage chief Barbara Desoer unloaded her Charlotte N.C., home in 2009 as part of a move to California. (wsj.com)
Help Housing? Dump Uncle Sam: A number of politicos and pundits are warning that reforming and/or getting rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would hit the home-mortgage market hard. Home buyers would have to make big down payments-20% or more-and mortgage interest rates would soar. (forbes.com)
How cheap houses spell bad news: Houses look more affordable than ever. But prices will have to fall further before many Americans can actually afford to buy one. The end of 2010 brought the start of a double dip that left U.S. home prices down 31% from their mid-decade peak. (cnn.com)
Western U.S. Dragging Down Home Prices: While National Home Prices Have Appreciated 4.2% Since Early 2009, the West Region Is Poised to Double Dip by the End of Q1 2011 if Trends Continue (marketwire.com)
Back Off From Our Housing Choices (OpEd): IN FEBRUARY the Obama administration took two modest but welcome steps toward toward reducing federal subsidies for suburbia by proposing changes to the home mortgage interest deduction. But President Obama should go further, and make the case that the American dream is found as easily in a skyscraper as in a ranch house... (bostonglobe.com)
Mortgage Applications in U.S. Increase 16% but Economists Unsure about Housing Recovery: Mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week, reflecting gains in purchases and refinancing that signal the housing market may be stabilizing. (bloomberg.com)
An Unrecognizable Housing Recovery: Normally lower home prices would be good for any housing recovery and good for first time or move up home buyers. Home sales data indicate an upward tick after 2010 the worst year of sales in a decade. Any momentum, however, is not coming from the typical homeowner but from cash rich investors who are snapping up foreclosed and distressed... (stockmarketsreview.com)
Underwater mortgages rise as home prices fall: The number of Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth rose at the end of last year, preventing many people from selling their homes in an already weak housing market. (finance.yahoo.com)
Rising interest rates could offset sinking home values: It's not news to anyone that the real estate market in the United States is in limbo. Homeowners, including the 27 percent who owe more than their home is worth, are reluctant to put their homes on the market when prices are so low. (foxbusiness.com)
Housing, Moving Industries Struggle to Bounce Back: Even in what John Gill likes to call “the crazy days of the early 2000s” -- when home prices were skyrocketing, inventory was low, and the ranks of real estate agents and brokers swelled to an all-time high -- the Washington, D.C.-based realtor still harbored fears about the future. Some things weren't quite right. (foxnews.com)
Oil Prices Raise Cost Of Homeownership, Threatening Housing Recovery: The pain could get worse as rising energy costs begin to threaten a sector that's already taken a historic beating in recent years: the housing market. (huffingtonpost.com)
Best Real Estate Markets in 2011: The best real estate markets for investors to put down their money in 2011 are located in a cross section of areas across the U.S., many of which are supported by strong government jobs. Hubs for high-tech, health care and education also make up the ten best markets to buy a home to make a profit on this year. (housingpredictor.com)
Housing Market Still In Toilet While Banks Live Off Government Bailout: Even if you have the money for a bigger down payment, there can be good reasons to save your cash. (dailynewspulse.com)
U.S. Home Values Have Fallen Past The Housing Crash -- Back To 2003 Levels: Home values in 25 major cities have fallen to the lowest level in eight years, according to the RPX Composite Index. That's a definitive double dip. And from peak, home values are down 34%. (businessinsider.com)
The 2008 crash isn’t over, only covered up: We have hard evidence Washington and Wall Street knew the 2008 crash was coming years in advance. Yes, they could have prevented it. But didn’t. And, yes, the cover-up cost Americans trillions. (MarketWatch.com)
'Sunburnt' cities have a shot to remake themselves: Beyond the gates of Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park, the fairy tale stops abruptly — with no happily- ever-after ending. Foreclosure signs dotting once-booming suburban developments that supported decades of growth here and across the rest of the Sun Belt are grim memorials to the recession and housing bust. (usatoday.com)
Warren Buffett Predicts A Housing Recovery: Billionaire Warren Buffett is like the Orville Redenbacher of investing: a gray-haired old man with a salt-of-the- earth image. But he’s also widely regarded as one of the sharpest business minds in America. So, it was good news for real estate when he predicted a recovery from the real estate crash last week. (seattlepi.com)
Who's buying homes? The rich: The rich are different from you and me: They're buying real estate. After four straight years of declines, sales of million- dollar homes and condos rose last year in all 20 major metro areas, according to DataQuick Information Systems. On average, these cities saw an 18.6% jump in high-end home sales. (money.cnn.com)
Why The Housing Crisis Will Get Worse Before It Gets Better Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-bust-trading-etf-crisis-2011-3#ixzz1Fw21SOFI: The housing market is at a fork in the road. While we don't know if this is the bottom or the beginning of another downturn, either way we are sure to have volatility and this is where traders make their profit. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/housing-bust- trading-etf-crisis-2011-3#ixzz1Fw2dfqwl (businessinsider.com)
Buffett's Subprime Solution: Says Warren, “If we were stupid in our lending, we were going to pay the price. That concentrates the mind.” (forbes.com)
House Prices Expected to Remain Low throughout 2011: Latest figures show house prices fell in February by 0.9 percent from the following month. According to the Halifax Housing Price Index this is an indication of months to come, with a two percent decrease in house prices expected in 2011 as uncertainty over the economic outlook continues to suppress housing demand. (moneyexpert.com)
Housing remains economy's weak spot, Atlanta Fed CEO says: While speaking at the 2011 NABE Economic Policy Conference, Lockhart said Monday that the housing market is still in recovery with housing sales slowly improving and inventories down from peak levels. However, he warned housing supply still outpaces demand, sending prices in a constant state of fluctuation. (housingwire.com)
Economist: Housing market could see improvement in '14, '15: PHOENIX - A Valley homebuilder says they're making strides selling new homes in the face of so many foreclosures on the market. Homebuilders like Cachet say the past three years have been a struggle. (ktar.com)
As Mortgage Rates Move, Headaches Follow: "I'm not sure now that the average consumer realizes how significantly rates have increased or the impact on monthly payments, said Brian Bonnet, president of Signature Mortgage Services." (wapo)
Searching for a bottom in the housing market: "Sales in the decimated housing market may finally be bottoming, but don't expect home prices to stop dropping before mid-2010 at the earliest, analysts and economists say." (cnn.com)
America's 4 Nastiest Regional Housing Busts: "As homeowners everywhere search frantically for signs of a real estate recovery, it's worth taking a look at how markets recovered from previous regional busts." (usnews.com)
Here come higher interest rates: "Borrowing remains unusually cheap right now by historical standards, but government deficits and inflation will change that picture over the next few years." (money.cnn.com)
The risks of a double-dip, W-shaped recession may be growing: "While economic data suggests that improvement in fundamentals has occurred - the risk of a near depression has been reduced; the prospects of the global recession bottoming out by year end are increasing; and risk sentiment is improving - it is equally clear that other, less sustainable factors are also playing a role." (taipeitimes.com)
RealtyTrac reporting low foreclosure numbers in Atlanta? Other places?: "When the most frequently quoted source of foreclosure information released its April statistics, it estimated that 3,746 properties in metro Atlanta's five core counties had been slapped with foreclosure sale notices." (ajc.com)
Storm coming for commercial R.E.: "A commercial real estate storm is brewing that threatens to wash away investors who bought at the peak of the market a few years ago." (boston.bizjournals.com)
"Housing Market Recovery" driven largely by refinances: "Total mortgage originations may top $2.59 trillion this year, largely due to refinance volume, which will account for some 72% of the total origination market, according to projections within The PMI Group's monthly housing and mortgage market review." (housingwire.com)
Renting vs. owning: Tight credit markets cause many would-be buyers to lease: "Watching 30-year fixed-rate loans hovering between 4 percent and 5 percent and tax credits galore for first- time buyers, one might think it's a good time to be in the market to buy a house. But as the recession grinds on, stats show buyers haven't yet made a significant return to the housing market. (houston.bizjournals.com)
Foreclosures grind on as lenders fail to modify loans: "The Obama administration's $75 billion program to reduce foreclosures has been beset by backlogs and delays, leading many overstretched homeowners to complain about unreturned phone calls and inaccurate information from lenders, while others say they were denied help for reasons that weren't clear." (usatoday.com)
Cracks seen in foundation of U.S. housing recovery: "Though buyers are rushing in, rising interest rates, growing unemployment and a likely new wave of foreclosures signal that problems in the housing market are far from over" (globeandmail.com)
South Florida's Housing Crisis Leaves Behind Ghost Towers: "Drive down Federal Highway or Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale or Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach and the "For Sale" signs seem inescapable. Every lonely strip- mall storefront and empty condominium complex pleads to become someone else's problem." (browardpalmbeach.com)
Mythical land shortage inflates housing cost: "THERE is a lot of misunderstanding about home prices. Many people all over the world seem to have thought that since we are running out of land in a rapidly growing world economy, the prices of houses and apartments should increase at huge rates." (shanghaidaily.com)
The New Boom-Bust Cycle: "The housing and finance sectors caused the economic mess. Here's why they can't fix it." (newsweek.com)
The Accidental Slumlord: "At the height of the housing boom, I became a long- distance landlord. Then my tenants came home to roost." (newsweek.com)
Paul Krugman: First year a lot like Great Depression: "In the face of such uncertainty, history is one of the few reliable sources of insight, and he set the tone early Tuesday, starting off with slides showing how the current recession is looking a lot like the United States' Great Depression of the 1930s." (newjerseynewsroom.com)
Has Anyone Noticed the Housing Bubble?: "The Obama administration's regulatory reform proposal includes many positive features, but it ultimately will not make the financial system safer for the simple reason that it conceals responsibility rather than holding regulators accountable for their failures." (prospect.org)
Builders conference has a gloomy mood: "Their industry shrinking, their projects on hold, their access to capital choked off, a subdued and sparse group of home builders gathered at San Francisco's Moscone Center this week for the annual PCBC show, formerly called the Pacific Coast Builders Conference." (sfgate.com)
Throwing a BRIC through the housing numbers, getting Fed up: "I know you may want to pop the champagne to celebrate today's report that house construction rose 17.2 percent in May. Unfortunately, inventories remain high, mortgage rates have started rising and May's numbers are still 45 percent lower than housing starts in May of 2008, hardly a boom time." (seattletimes.com)
The Way We Were: Housing Halloween Costumes Are Funny: VERY FUNNY..."The Way We Were looks back at some of the antics, fashions, and embarrassments of the real estate boom years. Big hair, big jumbo loans, big mistakes? Send photos and tips to la@curbed.com" (la.curbed.com)
10 Things to Buy During the Recession: "We present you with these buying opportunities that will likely last only as long as the recession does - which is something we sincerely, deeply, truly hope won't last much longer, even if it does mean the fire sales fizzle..." (palmbeachpost.com)
US housing market sees 'green shoots': "The first green shoots seem to be emerging in the US housing market, with the number of homes under construction rising to a 2.5 year high." (telegraph.co.uk)
Foreclosures to peak in 2011?: "Nationwide foreclosures won't peak until 2011, according to one prominent economist. David Crowe, chief economist of the National Association of Home Builders, made that prediction in a BusinessWeek story about foreclosures spreading to high-end homes." (seattletimes.com)
Green shoots? Normality is a long way off: "With one bound, we are free: a couple of months of hopeful news from manufacturers, a few signs of life from the housing market, and suddenly pundits are predicting the end of recession." (guardian.co.uk)
Longtime homeowners face big tax hike in Florida: "There's a flip side to the Save Our Homes amendment. With property values falling instead of rising, many longtime homeowners may suddenly get hit with big tax increases." (miamiherald.com)
10-year yield at 4% snarls economic recovery: "Treasury yields are soaring. Mortgage rates are following. And the spike in rates threatens to upset the recovery party." (money.cnn.com)
Housing Solutions for Those Hardest Hit: "'Some don't realize that voluntary surrender may be favorable to foreclosure,' Morial adds. 'How many times did Donald Trump return the keys to the lender?'" (housingwire.com)
Rising Mortgage Rates Leave Refinancers Behind: "In recent weeks, mortgage rates have shot to the highest levels since Thanksgiving. That rise has left procrastinators wishing they had refinanced their home loans last month, when interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages were below 5 percent." (npr)
Beware of Neighbor's Home Foreclosure: "The report, which was released in May, focuses on the ripple effects of home foreclosures, and suggests that homeowners who are concerned about their home's value should watch for signs of trouble among their closest neighbors." (nytimes.com)
Next Wave Of Condo Flippers May Be Hitting Miami: "Some might say this is sign that the real estate market is bottoming out in South Florida. CBS4 News has learned that a large investment group is now in the area and is looking to spend half a billion dollars to scoop up steals and flip them." (cbs4.com)
New foreclosure rules to start Monday: "After a severe economic storm of more than 365,000 California foreclosures since early 2007, the state's long-awaited 90-day foreclosure moratorium law goes into effect Monday." (sacbee.com)
Why I Think the Housing Bubble Has Not Yet Bottomed: "People's expectations still have pretty substantial price increases baked in. Until people let go of the assumption that offering a mere 2.5% annual profit from the market's peak is a real bargain, prices will not have bottomed." (theatlantic.com)
The Great Unwinding: "Here's one way to look at the politics of our era: We've moved from The Age of Leverage to The Great Unwinding." (nytimes.com)
mportant Housing Question Posed to Anyone Who Has a Reasonable Answer?: "Why should the same home located anywhere in the United States be worth more today, on an inflation adjusted basis, than it was worth in 1997? I am talking about the identical house. Same address. No new pool. No granite countertops. Not in a dramatically improved neighborhood." (affordablemortgagedepression.com)
Jon and Kate Plus 8: Housing crisis hits the Gosselin's?: "Are Jon and Kate Gosselin victims of America's unfortunate housing market?" (examiner.com)
Should Homeowner Sell at a Loss or Wait it Out?: "Their question: Do they sell their house at a $50,000 loss, or do they try to rent it out at a break-even rate for a year and try to sell it when the housing market will hopefully be stronger?" (wsj.com)
Housing Prices Drop Below 1989 Prices in Parts of LA: "Properties in several areas are selling for less than they did 20 years ago, and that's not including inflation. Some first-time buyers are nabbing houses for less than what their parents paid." (latimes.com)
Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates: "Here we stand more than a year into a grave economic crisis with a projected budget deficit of 13% of GDP. That's more than twice the size of the next largest deficit since World War II." (wsj.com)
Financial institutions: Our downfall: "My view, and I have stated this before, is our economy became captive - and may still be - to the banking and finance sector; that these guys almost destroyed capitalism singlehandedly." (hernandotoday.com)
A case study on toxic mortgage mess: "It hadn't even hit the bookstores before this month's Color of Money Book Club selection, Busted, set off a flurry of Internet conversations. Sanctimonious critics have slammed this book in the blogosphere, where people can anonymously sling potshots they would never have the guts to say to someone's face." (miamiherald.com)
Some owners who used homes to buoy finances are sinking: "In better economic times, Santa Clarita mortgage broker Fred Arnold relied on a home equity line of credit if his cash flow was uneven and he needed to cover payroll. But when home sales crumbled last fall, there was no such backstop for the business." (latimes.com)
The Impact of Falling Prices on Housing Bubble Home Equity: "The Housing Bubble created a net $8.0 trillion of Home Equity from 1995 through 2005. In the 3 years since 2005 $4.6 trillion of Home Equity has been destroyed by falling prices. This equates to 57.4% of the Housing Bubble equity gains." (affordablemortgagedepression.com)
Homebuyers Crash Into Appraisal Roadblock: "Mortgage guidelines have become increasingly strict -- not to mention regimented -- as the private secondary- mortgage market has all but disappeared in the past 24 months. But according to the Wall Street Journal, appraisals are increasingly becoming one of the biggest hurdles for new purchase and refinance transactions." (minyanville)
Mark Faber Thinks Inflation and Hyperinflation is on its way: "The dumb money is fairly easy to spot. It's the money that always shows up late to the party, wearing yesterday’s fashions. It watches TV and thinks the reality shows actually show reality... it thinks Ben Bernanke is a great economist" (fleetstreetinvest.co.uk)
Green Shoots or Yellow Weeds by Nouriel Roubini: "Recent data suggest that the rate of contraction in the world economy may be slowing. But hopes that 'green shoots' of recovery may be springing up have been dashed by plenty of yellow weeds." (turkishweekly.net)
One owner's tale of mortgage-modification hell: "Trying to get a mortgage modified is a long and arduous process, leaving tens of thousands of borrowers in the same baffling position -- frustrated and concerned they're not being heard. This story, from a reader named Jim, is typical" (marketwatch.com)
How and When the U.S. Economy Will Recover: "Though it seemed like we entered recession overnight, it'll be much longer until we emerge from it. This report outlines when the U.S. economy will turn around, the effect of President Obama's policies and how to protect your finances in the meantime." (jutiagroup.com)
The Economy Is Still at the Brink: "The storm is not over, not by a long shot. Huge structural flaws remain in the architecture of our financial system, and many of the fixes that the Obama administration has proposed will do little to address them and may make them worse." (nytimes.com)
A Slow Recovery for a Sick Economy: "There are headwinds that must be overcome, and if my take on this is correct, our speed ahead is going to be at a snail's pace. The burdens of our current situation are simply too heavy to allow for a rapid recovery." (seekingalpha.com)
Chase Mortgage Ad From 2005 Is Funny And Scary: "Every now and then we come across an artifact from the great real estate boom of the twenty-first century that simply takes our breath away. Apparently, Chase's 'Simply Signature' mortgage program involved very little beyond just signing up for a mortgages." (businessinsider.com)
The Committee to Reinflate the Bubble : "At one time, the NRA was considered the most powerful lobby in politics. Swap two letters and you have a different, lower-profile powerhouse: the NAR - the National Association of Realtors. The housing bubble was a product of public policy..." (nationalreview.com)
Bond-market rout lifts mortgage cost: "'If the meltdown continues in the bond market, then mortgage yields will soon be at levels that choke off refinancing activity,' said economist Ed Yardeni, who runs his own investment firm. 'Even worse, they could abort any necessary recovery in home sales and prices.'" (finance.yahoo.com)
Homeowners Struggling To Stay Above Water: "Sagging home prices have left 17 percent of homeowners in the Hartford region under water, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to statistics recently released by Zillow.com, an online real estate tracker." (hartford courant)
Surprising path to dream house: "Fecal matter wafting in the air. Mold growing from the basement floor from an unplugged sump pump. Landscaping ripped from the ground. Central air-conditioner unit gone. Furnace missing. Holes in the once pristine walls." (suburbanchicagonews.com)
The anatomy of an economic meltdown: "How did it get this bad? For two years, economic turmoil in the United States throbbed from a few areas of isolated distress - dark bruises on a national map that was otherwise unscarred. Even the deflating housing bubble was confined mostly to areas like California’s inland valleys, Las Vegas and Florida..." (venturacountystar.com)
Walking Away Revisited - Reader Mailbag - Moral Dilemma: "The question is what to do about it. The law provides a penalty for walking away. That penalty is ruined credit for five years. That is it. Lest people get all bent up over how easy you can get off, the lender knew those risks in advance and took them anyway." (mish)
The Missing Piece in the Foreclosure Solution: "The missing piece is debt relief ... not a reduction in interest rates, not an extension of the loan amortization period, not a temporary abatement in mortgage payments. We need to confront the problem head on and stop nibbling at the edges - we need to discuss principal reduction." (huffington post)
Reality check for U.S. bond binge: "Here is how it is supposed to work: Uncle Sam would borrow and spend trillions of dollars to save the economy, but interest rates would stay near rock-bottom and nobody would worry about the potential side effects of all that spending - like, say, inflation or a devalued dollar. Things aren't proceeding quite according to plan." (latimes.com)
Cracking Down on Certain Brokers: "THE subprime mortgage crisis has had at least one positive outcome: many unscrupulous professionals who steered unsophisticated borrowers into risky loans went out of business." (nytimes.com)
Foreclosure: Now an Upscale Blight: "Housing can't revive as long as the market is being flooded with homes that are falling into foreclosure. And far from going away, the problem is broadening. It's not just about subprime anymore. Now, people with excellent credit who never dreamed of getting in financial trouble are being dragged down by a dangerous cycle of rising unemployment.." (businessweek.com)
No Bottom in Housing: "Housing faces another big wave of foreclosures. Jobs report: no cause for celebration." (barrons.com)
Sense of community lost in nation's housing crisis: "Las Vegas is in many ways ground zero of the nation's housing crisis. 'Bank Owned' signs are visible all over town -- so many foreclosures, in fact, that local real estate brokers have set up bus tours to take potential buyers and investors around town." (cnn.com)
Shaky commercial real estate market threatens economy: "There's about $8 trillion in commercial and industrial real estate mortgages out there. Even though that market is in trouble, you won't hear much about it because these mortgagors and mortgagees like to keep their pain close to the vest. But there's big trouble brewing in big cities nationwide." (goerie.com)
Mortgage crisis robbing seniors of golden years: "The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression has slashed home values and triggered an unprecedented surge in foreclosures across the nation. It's also taking an especially harsh toll on an often overlooked demographic: seniors who are retired or nearly so." (usatoday.com)
The Trouble Lurking in Subprime's Wake: "Two years after poor-credit borrowers fell into foreclosure due to skyrocketing mortgage payments, trouble is growing in another category of loans, threatening to exacerbate the local housing crisis. A step above subprime, the category known as Alt-A consists of high- risk loans for good-credit borrowers who purchased more expensive homes." (voiceofsandiego.com)
Bankruptcy filings rise to 6,000 a day as job losses take toll: Nevada, Michigan and California had the biggest per- capita increase in bankruptcy filings in May, according to AACER. Nevada and California have suffered from the housing crisis. By contrast, Michigan is dealing with the collapse of the auto industry. (usa today)
Why US Housing 'Stabilization' Is the Mother of All Head Fakes: "Recent signs of stabilization in the US housing market are likely to be the 'mother of all head fakes', say hedge fund T2 Partners. They say the signs of 'stabilization' are due to two short-term factors: 1) Home prices and sales are seasonally strong currently and 2) A temporary reduction in foreclosed homes." (contrarian profits)
Celebrity Foreclosures: Dykstra, Canseco, Gotti et al: "It seems like just yesterday -- excess was in and celebrities lived it up, buying lavish cars, expensive toys and over-the-top homes. Now, they're losing it like everyone else." (forbes.com)
Get ready for next big drop as 'DEBT' becomes next 4-letter word: "Regardless, here is why housing is about to suffer more losses. For those of you reading this who do not have a high understanding of loans, loan modifications, foreclosures, shadow inventory, etc., the T2 pdf does a great job explaining why Option ARMs are the worst financial product to have come down the pike in this housing bubble." (rock trueblood)
WHY THERE IS MORE PAIN TO COME (pdf): T2 Hedge Fund Managers EXCELLENT pdf explains it all in detail. (T2 Partners)
FEMA says 'Foreclosed homes = disaster shelters' in Florida: "Just three days into hurricane season, a new plan is in the works by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make storm victims your next door neighbor." (myfoxorlando.com)
Bleak U.S. Job Picture Brightens a Bit: "The U.S. job market isn't deteriorating as much as earlier this year, but companies continue to cut workers at a rapid clip. Private employers cut 532,000 jobs in May, according to a report Wednesday from payroll company Automatic Data Processing Inc. and forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers, compared with a cut of 545,000 jobs in April." (wsj.com)
Foreclosures: No End in Sight: "A continuing steep drop in home prices combined with rising unemployment is powering a new wave of foreclosures. Unfortunately, there's little evidence, so far, that the Obama administration's anti- foreclosure plan will be able to stop it." (ny times)
Countrywide Alumni Back in the Game: "Angelo Mozilo is now spending most of his time dealing with the dozens of lawsuits naming him as a defendant, but his one-time No. 2 executive and a team of Countrywide alumni are still in the game - shopping around a new business called PennyMac that buys up distressed mortgages and modifies borrowers' loans." (ap)
What we can learn from the last housing crash: "If you have property that you are not particularly keen on, the next few months are, in my view, your last chance to get out." (moneyweek.com)
Even Tim Geithner can't sell his house: "Treasury Secretary is renting out his home in a tony New York suburb after the property went unsold for months." (yahoo news)
Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream: "The sad fact is that the Great American Dream is still out of reach for far too many and it was the declining affordability of decent houses that was one of the triggers of the housing bust." (towardfreedom.com)
Scams: Foreclosure fixers will help you - for a fee: "Fueled by record foreclosure numbers and a sharp housing downturn, loan modification companies have come to dot the housing crisis landscape over the past year" (newsday.com)
U.S. Housing Mortgage Market Meltdown, More Pain To Come: "Certainly we are closer to a housing bottom than two years ago but I am betting the bottom is still years away although the rate of decline is slowing." (market oracle)
One kind of debt replaces another: "A 'government finance bubble' has replaced the mortgage crisis bubble." (financial times)
EDITORIAL: Economy on the brink: "Many sectors of the economy were reported to be getting worse just last week. During the first three months of 2009, the mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates in the United States experienced their greatest quarterly increases since records started in 1972. Both numbers are at their highest recorded levels." (washington times)
You now owe $55k more for the past year of govt spending: "Taxpayers are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises, a USA TODAY analysis shows." (usa today)
U.S. mortgage rate rise threatens housing recovery: "A dizzying rise in U.S. mortgage rates this week has left homeowners worried about the government's ability to revive the housing market as a means to economic recovery." (reuters)
Has economic twilight fallen on nation's Sun Belt?: "Some cities - Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fort Myers are good examples - hitched their floats to the housing bubble and got caught up in development that depended largely on, well, development itself, rather than sustainable, scalable, productive industry, economic analysts say." (associated press)
Nation's first citywide open house to combat the housing crash: "Now, by staging what's billed as the nation's first citywide open house, Happy Valley is setting out to turn that frown upside-down. A daylong event Saturday will open the doors of 150 houses in this city of 11,600 residents to everyone from prospective buyers to the merely curious." (portland housing blog)
Cities stepping up to fight foreclosures: "Fed up with inaction at the State House and slow aid from Washington, Bay State cities and towns are pushing ahead with grassroots efforts to halt bank seizures and protect neighborhoods ravaged by the national mortgage crisis." (boston herald)
Charting the mortgage crisis: "Key to any impending US economic recovery will be how high the red line in the below chart is going to go." (financial times)
When it makes sense to rent: "With home prices expected to continue falling in most areas this year and to flatline for several years after that, many people are joining the Joneses in rethinking the merits of home ownership - for now." (cnn.com)
Housing Market Crash Leaves Unoccupied Condo Space for Universities: "River views, granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances, 9-foot ceilings. This is student housing?" (la times)
Real Estate Bubble and Bottom: A Simple Analogy of the Housing Collapse: "There has been much confusion with all of the different explanations as to how we got ourselves into this housing collapse. The following is a simple story that may shed some light on the events." (nationalledger.com)
Government to allow use of tax credit for down payments: "The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Friday finalized plans that allow qualified first-time home buyers using a Federal Housing Administration- insured mortgage to 'monetize' the recently unveiled $8,000 tax credit, meaning they can apply the funds to their down payment." (chicago tribune)
Exploring The Massive $15 Trillion Money Pit, And How We Fell Into It: "Let's pause for a minute and think about $15 trillion. That's roughly how much money the U.S. has committed toward rescuing the economy from the credit meltdown, housing collapse and recession, according to the number-crunching of Barry Ritholtz, chief executive officer of research firm FusionIQ." (thebulletin.us)
Why climbing the property ladder is getting harder: "Not only will there be fewer rungs on the ladder in future, but people may not clamber on until they are in their forties" (timesonline.co.uk)
Mortgage Delinquency Reaches Record High: "Rising unemployment levels helped push record numbers of homeowners into delinquency or foreclosure during the first quarter, according to industry data released yesterday. Early intervention in the housing crisis could have forestalled some of the current probl (washington post)
US attempt to control rates failing: "Roger Wald recently discovered he would save $25,000 a year if he refinanced his five-year mortgage at 4.75 percent. Wald, an auto body repairman in Sarasota, Fla., could have gotten that rate last month. But like many homeowners, he waited for rates to fall further. Now, he's worried he missed his chance." (ap news)
Housing Crisis Is Not Just Bad, It Is Getting Worse: "...between 65% and 75% of modified subprime loans will fall 60-days or more delinquent within 12 months of the loan change... In other words, even if homeowners are given a second chance to keep their homes and enjoy lower monthly payments, they are prepared to walk away." (time)
Housing crisis is bad enough, but wait - it'll get worse: "Think the housing slump cannot get much worse? Martin Feldstein thinks that both home prices and the broader economy can - and very likely will - get a whole lot worse. There are now 12 million homes in the United States with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 100 percent. That's one mortgage in four. The aggregate amount of that is $2 trillion." (thenewstribune.com)
Will it get easier to buy short sale homes?: "Foreclosure, in this recession, has been a lose-lose scenario. Lien-holders make the re-purchase of short sales and foreclosed homes just not worth it to potential buyers. Buying a property as a foreclosure or a short sale has been an exercise in patience, at best." (boston globe)
New worries for housing recovery: treasuries: "The bear market that has been in Treasurys has finally had an impact on something and that's a big deal, said Ader, who heads rates strategy at RBS. It means mortgage rates are going up, and that brings into question and challenges the housing market recovery...and the economy. (cnbc.com)
Housing Bubble: California Foreclosures Reach $2.8 billion in May: "After leveling off in April at just above $2 billion per month, loan values returned to the lenders picked up again in May, reaching $2.8 billion. Foreclosure activity is accelerating, not 'leveling off' as some in the real estate industry have reported. More than $12 billion in loan value in total has been returned over the past ten months." (itulip.com)
The $4 Trillon Housing Headache: "House prices have returned to 2002 levels, but mortgage debt hasn't deflated from its housing bubble highs." (cnn.com)
Troubling Lack of Move-Up Buyers in Housing Market: "One trend that Calculated Risk has been writing about for a while now doesn’t seem to be getting any better — the lack of move-up buyers. Those are homeowners who sell their current abode to buy another home, maybe one with a bigger yard, or extra bedroom, or nicer kitchen." (washington independent)
U.S. Real Estate Still Bleeding: "Home prices continue to fall, commercial real estate is eroding and banks are feeling the pinch. There is a long and treacherous road ahead for the U.S. real estate market and financials." (forbes)
Ethics Of Walking Away From An Upside Down Mortgage: "And that iss how ridiculous this system is. It has logical business imperatives for rich people and corporations and they operate under razor sharp logical profit seeking imperatives. The public, on the other hand is encouraged to do what is 'right' which involves making good on debts there is no legal liability for." (housingcrashhub.com)
U.S. home prices fall 19.1% in first quarter: "U.S. home prices showed no signs they've hit bottom, according to a series of national indexes released today. The Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index showed a record 19.1% drop in home prices for the first three months of this year." (la times)
US consumer confidence sees biggest jump in six years: "The US consumer confidence soared in May to its highest level in eight months as severe strains in the labor market showed some signs of easing, though Americans’ moods remained depressed by historical standards." (dailytimes.com)
Housing Bust: No End in Sight: "The done thing when the Case-Shiller index comes out is to look first at the first derivative — how fast is it falling? Then people look at the second derivative — is the rate of decrease slowing down or speeding up? And if there’s no optimism there, you can always find it somewhere." (seekingalpha.com)
Home Prices or Home Sales? What Matters More? : "There’s no other way to cut it: home prices are falling. But that does not mean that there are not buyers in the market: young couples are scrambling in areas to get bargain-priced foreclosed homes. The question is: which matters more?" (bnet.com)
Is this a bubble within the housing crash?: "As for talk of a resurgent housing market, that's just 'nonsense' says Trevor Kent, former head of the National Association of Estate Agents. 'There are around a million people out there who are wondering when they'll be able to sell their house at a price that isn't distressed.'" (guardian.co.uk)
Home Prices Down 32% from Peak : "Case-Shiller data for March was released today. The picture is still ugly. The Composite 10 and Composite 20 Indices continued to fall, down 2.1% and 2.2% respectively when compared to February. Since the peak of the housing bubble, the composite 20 is now down 32%." (seekingalpha.com)
Housing Still in Trouble?: Fox News Video (foxnews.com)
Job Layoffs Accelerate Home Foreclosures: "The wave of U.S. housing foreclosures is being amplified as once-creditworthy homeowners lose their jobs and fall behind on mortgage payments, experts say." (post chronicle)
Housing Bubble Erupting Across the World Now: "Anyone who is under the impression that Britain was alone in suffering a housing crash should think again. The global financial collapse has sent dozen of the world's property hot spots into deep freeze, research shows." (daily mail UK)
Slump, Internet Put Pressure On Realtors: "With the profession already weakened by the mortgage crisis, the explosion of for-sale listings and information about purchase prices now available online is cutting into the need for traditional real estate agents who once had a monopoly over such information, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday." (post chronicle)
Housing Crisis Unchanged: Not much has changed since February 2009: "Have prices really dropped so much since February? Take a look at this Home Values History chart (courtesy of Case-Shiller) from just four months ago. The power of the chart lies in the message that it sends: Despite all the rhetoric of the last two months, prices are STILL too high, even after a 30% decline." (housing bubble news)
Housing Bubble Cities: "In a compelling analysis, Richard Posner exposes the Fed's complacency as a key source of the nation`s housing bubble and ultimately as a major - if not the major - cause of the ongoing financial mess and economic crisis." (theatlantic.com)
A home, or a ball and chain?: "Relocating in pursuit of new jobs is an American tradition, but the Census Bureau reported recently that a lower percentage of Americans moved in 2008 than in any year since the government started tracking such data in 1948." (boston globe)
The Nouveau Poor: "They are the nouveau poor - thousands of ordinary families who have lost their jobs and their homes as the recession begins to bite. Just a year ago they were living middle class lives with good jobs and in comfortable neighborhoods." (news.com.au)
Reality Check On Housing Market: "The spring home-selling season is well underway, and this week we get the most complete evidence yet of how it's going, with a slew of housing-related data." (washington post)
Signs of real estate recovery an illusion?: "While a recent surge in pending home sales signaled a possible recovery of the Seattle area's real estate market, many of those deals have not actually closed." (seattle post-intelligencer)
Job Losses Push Safer Mortgages to Foreclosure: "In the latest phase of the nation’s real estate disaster, the locus of trouble has shifted from subprime loans — those extended to home buyers with troubled credit — to the far more numerous prime loans issued to those with decent financial histories." (ny times)
The Housing Hurricane Will Howl Again: "WE ARE OUT OF THE EYE OF THE HURRICANE, but here comes the back half of the storm. Many people think that we've seen the worst of the housing crisis. They're talking about green shoots and glimmers of hope, when they should be back in the storm shelter preparing for a flood of inventory that will overwhelm the markets and produce another round." (barrons.com)
Real estate bust turns South Dade suburbs into modern ghost towns: "Prices have plunged more than 53 percent over the past 12 months in Miami-Dade County's far south suburbs, including Homestead, Florida City and neighboring incorporated areas." (miamiherald.com)
90% LTV Loans Are Back: "The credit crunch and the collapse in house prices have put paid to the 100 per cent mortgage deal. However, of late, there has been a thawing of the mortgage market, and a handful of lenders are opening their books once again to higher loan to value (LTV) deals." (independent.co.uk)
New Housing Bubble Video: "What happened? One word... greed." (youtube.com)
Recovery not as close as some say: "We have been down so long, it looks like up to some folks. So they grasp at hints the worst might be over, squint to see green shoots among the weeds and predict recovery in a not too distant future that is as fanciful as any scifi flick. Can you say wishful thinking?" (ajc.com)
An Easier Short Sale Process: "In an effort to smooth out the short sale process, the Obama administration on May 14 unveiled new incentives and uniform standards and procedures for parties involved in short sales." (washington post)
Here Comes the Option ARM Mortgage Explosion: "Subprime is done. All the teaser rates are over, the interest rates have reset and the writing is on the wall. But in the coming quarters, the scenario will play out with other exotic mortgages, Option ARM (pick a pay), Alt A, etc." (yahoo finance)
Moral Hazard and the Meltdown: Everybody felt too big to fail: "Given what we know about the causes of the housing bubble, the main objectives of legislative and regulatory responses should be to encourage market discipline as a means to promote prudence, safety and soundness in banking and securities." (wsj)
Homeownership Isn't Just a Payment, It's a Lifestyle: "Some people are not cut out to be homeowners. I call them NOHOs. What distinguishes them is not their income, their mobility, or where they live: rather, it is how they live." (washington post)
Professor Robert Shiller warns Britain may suffer a double recession: "One of the world's most influential economists warns today that Britain faces the prospect of two recessions in quick succession. Robert Shiller, Professor of Economics at Yale University, said that the recent stock market bounce should be treated with caution." (times online)
The Long and Short Sale of It: "There are some tall stories about short sales that have crept into real estate lore during the housing crisis. These tend to give both buyer and seller a false sense of hope when quite the reverse may be true. " (huffington post)
Inflation Could Be Coming To A U.S. Dollar Near You: "Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told CBS News in March that he saw green shoots of economic recovery beginning to sprout, including in mortgages and business lending. Now it seems like those "green shoots" that were beginning to appear may have been rooted in inflation. " (cbsnews.com)
Foreclosures stymie efforts to revive economy: "More than two years year after the housing market tanked and the foreclosure rate began rising, the ongoing wave of distressed home sales is weighing on house prices and crimping a long-awaited economic recovery." (msnbc.com)
What Does $1 Trillion Look Like? What about the National Debt?: "What would the money allocated to the TARP actually look like? How high would the AIG bonuses pile up if the bills were stacked one on top of another? How big, literally, is the National Debt?" (cnbc.com)
Vital Signs: Can a Housing Recovery Gain Ground?: "On deck: home prices, new and existing home sales, consumer confidence, four regional business surveys, and revised first quarter GDP" (business week)
Forecast says bad times to linger: "A Georgia economist on Wednesday cautioned that many are celebrating a false spring while the job market is still worsening and recovery remains more than a year away." (atlanta journal constitution)
First Time Home Buyer Program Ripe for Abuse: "Amid the buzz the program has generated over the possibility of jumpstarting the sluggish housing market, some worry that monetizing a tax credit - which means providing homebuyers with short-term loans secured by their expected tax refunds, so they can gain quick access to the money - is not quite as simple as it sounds." (washingtonindependent.com)
Market taking Realtors on rough ride: "Meanwhile, the Realtors said, consumers do not seem to be taking full advantage of all the new federal programs designed to help them get into a home or stay in the one they own." (nashuatelegraph.com)
When Will the Rebound End?: "In the worst housing crisis of our lifetimes - with a 9.8-month supply of existing homes on the market and a record 342,000 homes in foreclosure in April alone - who in their right mind is starting construction on a new house?" (howestreet.com)
Some Want Us Forget Who Started the Financial Crash: "It is fast approaching the time Wall Street has been waiting for: the time when the media and the public forget what got us into this economic mess. As massive doses of taxpayer Viagra lift the stock market ticker, we hold out hope that our 401k and pension plans will re erect themselves along with our jobs." (mediachannel.org)
Loan reset threat looms till 2012: "Homeowners nationwide with good credit but artificially low mortgage payments could be forced to pay more to the bank sometime within the next three years, according to Credit Suisse." (mortgage insider)
Obama signs foreclosure and mortgage fraud bill: "The law encourages banks to spare homeowners from foreclosure and cracks down on lenders who take advantage of them. The bill passed Congress earlier this week and Obama bypassed a promised five-day waiting period to make it law." (latimes)
A Battle Plan for Refinancing Your Mortgage: "With mortgage rates holding below 5%, there has rarely been a better time to refinance your home. But with a one-two punch of tighter credit and falling prices roiling homeowners, the process has never been more difficult." (wsj.com)
Don't Believe The Optimists: "The recent optimism that green shoots of recovery will lead to the recession to bottom out by the middle of this year--and that recovery to potential growth will rapidly occur in 2010--appears grossly misplaced, for three noteworthy reasons." (forbes)
New Housing Bubble Chart From Credit Suisse: "Why you should care? You should pay attention because the older chart (from February of this year) showed the pinnacle of resets taking place in 2010. Now take a look at the new chart. That big mountain of mortgage resets has now been projected to not occur until 2011 or 2012 - therefore probably extending the housing crash!" (housing bubble news)
Effect of Household Debt Deleveraging on Housing, Consumption: "Not long ago, the US was once a nation of savers. Now that the housing bubble has crashed and the stock market along with it, the US is poised to become a nation of savers again." (market oracle)
Hopes of US housing recovery crushed: "Hopes that the US housing market is bottoming out have been dashed after the number of new homes being built fell to a record low in April." (telegraph UK)
Residential Delinquencies Reach Record High: "The seasonally-adjusted delinquency rate among residential mortgages reaches a record high in Q109, soaring to 7.9% from 6.3% in the previous quarter, according to statistics calculated by the US Federal Reserve. It marks the 12th quarterly increase since Q106." (housingwire.com)
One Million Foreclosure Filings: "First-quarter foreclosure filings hit a record 803,489, notes the National Short Sale Center; it expects such filings to exceed one million in the second quarter." (americanbanker.com)
Activist Financier 'Terrorizes' Bankers in Foreclosure Fight: "His nonprofit organization, Neighborhood Assistance Corp. of America, has emerged as one of the loudest scourges of the banking industry in the post-bubble economy." (wall street journal)
Concerns About a False Bottom in Housing: "Have foreclosure moratoria—which artificially depressed foreclosures in the fourth quarter of 2008— provided a false sense of security that the worst of the foreclosure tidal wave has passed?" (wsj blog site)
Psychology of Living in the Housing Crisis: "Just as so many thought real estate could only go up from roughly 20001 to 2007 and we became blind to the data that hinted otherwise, it would be naive to now believe that we have reached the end of the housing crisis when the data points elsewhere." (housingbubblenews.com)
Fees up for housing appraisals: "The typical appraisal now runs $350 to $600, up from $250 to $400 as recently as last month. The new rules stem from an effort to fix the inflated appraisals that were a key part of the loose lending climate that led to the housing bubble." (mercury sun)
Who Are These Bad Guys In This Mortgage Mess?: "The housing bubble has burst and left us an ugly stinking mess! Who is responsible? Who can we hold accountable?" (postchronicle.com)
Foreclosure war stories: Two investors share theirs: "One real estate investor has six houses in foreclosure . Another has three. Both had high credit scores and good loans. Now, they are losing it all." (san diego news network)
Squatters Taking Over Foreclosed Homes: "FOR SALE signs hang in the yard of the big, new home on Fillmore Street in Hollywood, just steps from North Lake and the intracoastal. The home is in foreclosure and has a buyer. But it also had a squatter..." (cbs4.com - san diego)
Most home sellers still overvaluing properties: "Despite all the news about the housing downturn, most home sellers continue to overvalue their properties, according to a new report from HomeGain." (dallasnews.com)
$8,000 tax credits will NOT be used for down payments (good news): "Remember that promise that Shaun Donovan, HUD Secretary made at the Realtor mid year meeting on Monday? The one about that the $8000 tax credit being made available for down payments? Well, the promise is broken." (boston.com)
Anatomy of an economic meltdown: "... foreclosures connected to the subprime lending crisis are cresting now. But he expects a second wave of foreclosures linked to unemployment to crest some time next year." (sfgate.com)
The transformation of our unsustainable American lifestyle is underway: "Housing – when subprime loans began hemorrhaging and the housing bubble burst, that house of cards started to cave in. Too many years of greedy practices by both lenders and borrowers caught up with both sides." (opednews.com)
Where the Foreclosures are: "10.4% of Nevada foreclosing, 11.2% of California foreclosing, 9.7% of Florida foreclosing nationwide, 8.5% of homes are currently being foreclosed on." (washington examiner)
Stress Index measures effects of recession across US: "Where is the recession hitting hardest? Which places have been spared from the worst economic pain? Which places are recovering? To answer those questions, The AP is launching an index that will provide monthly, multiformat updates on the economic stress United States down to the county level." (ap news)
Origins of the Housing Bubble: The Riegle-Neal Act of 1994: "The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 can arguably be identified as the origin of the Housing Bubble. (affordablemortgagedepression)
Gains for stocks mask precarious state of economy: Since hitting lows in March, stocks have advanced dramatically. But some experts caution investors not to get too caught up in the excitement. (chicago tribune)
Housing Market Rebound by 2010? Not Likely: "With over $375 billion worth of option ARMs headed for delinquency within the next few years, it appears we are just entering the second wave of foreclosures in the housing market." (seeking alpha)
Interactive NYC Foreclosure Map: Then and Now: The NYT produced another one of its famous and brilliant interactive infographics this weekend, this time showing neighborhood-level foreclosures in New York City. (ny times)
"The Worst Is Yet to Come": "If you are not petrified, you are not paying attention." (yahoo finance)
Will the shadow inventory stunt a housing recovery?: "After every bear market on Wall Street, some investors are reluctant to buy because they believe many other investors will be anxious to sell into any rebound, swamping the market and stunting any housing recovery." (la times blog)
Housing Bubble Still Bursting but no Recovery in Sight: "Nationally, housing prices will likely fall another 17%, for a peak-to-trough decline of 40%. There's no recovery in sight. We are in the over-correction phase, which could last for a long time." (business insider)
Outrageous: FHA Making Down Payments for First Time Homebuyers: "HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told a group of realtors Tuesday that he wants to let borrowers use their $8000 tax credit towards their FHA 3.5% downpayment - at closing." (forbes)
NY Times Reporter Reveals Life Inside Subprime Hell: "If there was anybody who should have avoided the mortgage catastrophe, it was I. As an economics reporter for The New York Times, I have been the paper’s chief eyes and ears on the Federal Reserve for the past six years. (ny times)
Prepayment Penalties Accelerated Subprime Crisis: "Prime mortgages are roughly 98% prepayment penalty free; 70%+ of subprime mortgages had prepayment penalties. " (seeking alpha)
Obama administration to expand housing plan: [will encourage short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure] (yahoo finance)
SEC staff recommends civil charges against Mozilo of Countrywide: "The co-founder and former chief executive of the onetime mortgage giant could face charges of fraud and insider trading." (latimes.com)
Foreclosures: 'April was a shocker': "Foreclosures in April exceeded even March's blistering pace with a record 342,000 homes receiving notices of default, auction notices or undergoing bank repossessions..." (cnnmoney.com)
Peter Schiff: Let the recession run its course: "What we should do is let the recession unfold and allow businesses to fail and asset prices to fall," (nbbusinessjournal)
Mich. lawmakers agree on 90-day foreclosure bill: "Michigan lawmakers struck a deal Wednesday to give homeowners facing foreclosure a 90-day window to stay in their house and potentially work out something with their lender." (forbes)
This is NOT the bottom of the housing crash : "There may be the odd artificial improvement in sales or house prices, but there is precious little foundation for a sustained recovery, particularly while the situation with unemployment remains so uncertain." (lovemoney.com)
Rising Credit Card Losses Are Next Challenge for Banks : "Experts predict that millions of Americans will not be able to pay off their debts, leaving a gaping hole at ailing banks still trying to recover from the housing bust." (nytimes.com)
Short Sales: Banks Blocking Way Out Of Foreclosure Crisis: "The American financial system simply can't handle a collapse of this magnitude. The fates of the banking and real estate industries are intertwined. But they don't work together -- and the result is that they end up working against each other." (huffington post)
Corralling Home Appraisal Fraud : "They (home appraisers) claim that these (mortgage) brokers were strong-arming them into manipulating their value assessments of real property and instead of giving an honest accounting of a home’s value they were pressured to come in at what the bankers needed it to be." (economy now)
Are Banks Making Short Sales a Long Process? : "Short sales are making up a larger percentage of distressed home listings in several of the more harder hit markets around the country. And local real estate agents say banks continue to drag their feet on approval. " (rismedia.com)
State Court Puts 6,300 Foreclosures on Hold: "South Carolina's highest court issued an order Tuesday temporarily barring foreclosures on thousands of homeowners who may qualify for loan modifications under the Obama administration's foreclosure-prevention program." (wsj.com)
Foreclosure wave slams suburbia: "Across the six-county Chicago metropolitan area, foreclosure filings rose 6% in the first quarter to 17,819, the highest one-quarter total since the housing crisis began in mid-2006." (chicago business)
Documenting my short-selling process: "The short-selling process is so primitive because the banks have never dealt with anything of this magnitude before." (housingcrisisnews.com blog)
A closer look at who made this subprime mortgage mess : "Who's No. 1? Countrywide." (tampabay.com)
On Wall Street: Beware of the sucker’s rally: "Bear markets typically end with a whimper rather than a bang, casting doubt on the latest recovery according to Hussman Econometrics, which analysed numerous US market bottoms and bear market rallies. " (inancial times)
Sellers of million-dollar homes test the FSBO market : "A growing minority of high-end homeowners have decided they'd rather pocket the Realtor's commission..." (seattle times)
Countrywide Financial, KB Home accused of inflating home prices: "Countrywide Financial is accused in a new lawsuit of teaming up with KB Home to inflate prices on new homes in Arizona and Nevada -- allegedly hurting consumers by placing them in deals with negative equity without their consent." (lasvegassun.com)
Where's the bottom? Foreclosures mounting : "Home foreclosures along the Emerald Coast are on pace to set yet another annual record, numbers through April show." (NW Florida News)
Homeownership still too expensive for many in Chicago area: "While home prices have gotten less expensive, in a lot of markets they're not necessarily at the point where we can consider them affordable" (chicago tribune)
The Free Market Did Not Cause the Financial Crisis : "Had the market been allowed to work before the collapse, there would have been no housing bubble and no crisis in the first place. " (market oracle)
US housing crisis is far from over: "Almost a quarter of US homes are already in negative equity and there's a second wave of mortgage resets ahead." (dnaIndia.com)
Is Another Mortgage Disaster On Horizon? : "Stay tuned... option arm mortgages are the next to burst." (video - Denver news station)
Unemployment becoming major factor in foreclosures : "The housing crisis may be showing some signs of improvement, but now unemployment is adding to the mix that has left the city with many empty buildings." (wickedlocal.com)
Where can working Americans afford a home? : "The bursting of the real estate bubble has made owning a home more affordable for some... But the majority of essential workers like teachers, police, and firefighters still cannot afford to buy a home in the towns and cities where they work, it added." (csmonitor.com)
Another Sign of Foreclosure Trouble in California : "Here’s another sign that California’s foreclosures could jump in 2009: Delinquencies on dues owed to homeowner associations have risen sharply." (wsj.com blog)
The Worst Case Scenario (Someone Has to Say It): "But what if the experts and politicians are wrong not only on their ever-changing economic recovery timeline, but also on the nature—nay, the very existence—of a recovery?" (fool.com blog)
Nation Ready To Be Lied To About Economy Again: "After nearly four months of frank, honest, and open dialogue about the failing economy, a weary U.S. populace announced this week that it is once again ready to be lied to about the current state of the financial system." (theonion.com)
Job Recovery Likely to Be Slow When Recession Ends : "For one thing, 'economic literacy has gone through the roof,' Godby said... The lack of financial savvy is one of the factors that led to the housing crisis" (iStockAnalyst)
Debt-to-Income Ratios Impact on Residential Real Estate Markets: "If people had continued to put a high percentage of their income toward housing, prices would not have fallen as far as they did. The Great Housing Bubble witnessed a 30% increase in the average mortgage debt ratio..." (yourfinanceguide)
Pioneer in “Smart Growth” Becomes a Pioneer in No Growth : "April 30 was the last day for the planning department of Petaluma, Calif. The city decided to axe the department after it became clear that development activity was not generating sufficient revenue to cover the department’s expenses." (heritage.org)
Stress Test "Adverse" Assumptions Look Optimistic and Short-Sighted : "“How Stressful was the Stress Test?” The Fed assumption of positive GDP in 2010 flies in the face of unemployment trends, contracting global trade and existing credit conditions." (blog)
New Troubles For A Troubled Obama Mortgage Plan : "As the Obama administration attempts to turn around the beleaguered Hope for Homeowners program to fight foreclosures, it faces a nettlesome new headache. The primary lender involved is under investigation by the Department of Justice." (forbes.com)
491,000 US private sector jobs lost in April : "The private sector in the United States shed 491,000 jobs in the month of April, according to the latest ADP Employer Services survey results released on Wednesday." (globalcrisisnews.com)
Ghosts of housing bubble still haunt U.S.: "The virtue of home ownership is much overrated. As an impediment to labour mobility, it is now being blamed for making the U.S. downturn even worse. Fewer Americans moved in the year to March, 2008, than at any time since 1962, suggesting that fewer people are willing or able to move to where the jobs are." (theglobeandmail.com)
Stop Thinking The Stock Rally Means The Bear Market is Done: "Market punditry is a lagging indicator, not a leading one. Pundits are excellent at describing what has happened, not what is going to happen." (Nice charts here.) (businessinsider.com)
Housing Crash Hits SoCal High-end Market : "Pictures document this prime Newport Beach residence that sold for 2.5M in August 2006 and is now for selling for $781,000." (socalbubble.com)
When landlords default, renters need to learn their rights: "Renters aren't immune to the heartache of the housing crisis. When their landlords default on the mortgage, tenants could be squeezed out of a place to live." (PA news)
The True Cost of Homeownership: A Case Study : "'Renting is throwing your money away'. This axiom of American culture persists in spite of the Housing Collapse. The Government and media continue to be hell bent on nudging every American, regardless of income, into pursuing the 'American Dream' and getting their 'piece of the real estate pie'." (blog)
One in five US homes underwater, putting more pressure on banks: "As housing prices continue to fall and more and more homeowners are faced with negative equity or "underwater" positions, banks that hold second mortgage and equity line portfolios may soon feel a crushing blow." (dailyfinance.com)
Banks Fear Housing Market Crash as Mortgage Providers Target 40% Deposit: "Banks are far from predicting the end of the housing slump and are hedging their bets by increasing the number of their best mortgages to those who are fortunate to have a 40 per cent deposit." (market oracle)
Housing Market Crash - Media Deceiving the Public?: "Why is the media misleading the public about housing? The housing market continues crashing." (the market oracle)
Chart: The Housing Bubble - An Economic Crisis Explained : "Based on an understanding of the Housing Bust-Boom dynamic, I continue to believe that Homeownership Rates will decline to below 64% over the next several years to devastating effect." (blog)
FHA Creating the Next Housing Bust: "Everyone knows how loose mortgage underwriting led to the go-go days of multitrillion-dollar subprime lending. What isn't well known is that a parallel subprime market has emerged over the past year -- all made possible by the FHA." (wsj)
‘Green Shoots’ Won’t Lead Economies Out of Woods: "(about 'green shoots') The trouble is, most of them are nonsense. Over the next few months, you are going to hear a whole series of increasingly ridiculous and bogus signals of recovery trumpeted as if they heralded the end of the recession. All will be meaningless." (bloomberg.com)
Ron Paul predicts depression and collapse of dollar: "Ron Paul predicts a 15-year long depression with a collapse of the dollar within 1-4 years." (youtube.com)
Economic casualties pile into tent cities : "[speaking of the newly homeless] The majority were in construction, the housing industry, real estate. There was a direct correlation to the housing market crash." (usatoday.com)
Dramatic one min video presentation: "Dramatic video documentation of the 2000-2008 housing bubble and corresponding crash" (zoyzoy.com)
How the crisis is changing you: "A new set of American values is emerging from the ashes of 600,000 layoffs a month, a lost decade in stocks, and the worst housing crash ever." (cnn money)
In praise of renters: "Over the years, the benefits of home ownership have been mythologised by social commentators. An array of lobby groups – from builders to real estate agents to social housing advocates – have touted its advantages." (australian RE blog)
Next potential mortgage crisis prompts call for 'housing czar': "The next group of mortgage holders likely headed for trouble are those holding five-year adjustable rate mortgages from the housing boom of 2004 and 2005, which are coming due for rate resets." (tuscson biz daily)
U.S. Home Prices May Be Lost for a Generation : "We might be looking at a lost generation for U.S. home values. Far too many analysts are calling a bottom to the housing bubble after home prices in 20 metropolitan areas declined at a slower pace in February..." (bloomberg.com)
VIDEO of Model Homes being demolished by CA Bank: "Guaranty Bank of California pays for the destruction of these 4 brand new model homes!" (vodpod.com)
Housing Market: the end of the beginning: "We're perhaps reaching the "end of the beginning" in the housing crash. A few positive reports doesn't mean that we've hit the bottom..." (seekingalpha.com)
Nouriel Roubini: Don't believe the market rally or bank stress tests : "But the overall message (from the bank stress tests) is that the sector is in pretty good shape. This would be good news if it were credible." (wsj.com)
Decades of Advice Turn Out to be Garbage: For more than two decades Americans lapped up personal finance columns, books, and television shows. We thrilled to stock tips and swooned at sensible strategies for using dollar-cost averaging to invest in no-load index funds. Buy and hold, my friends! The annualized gain for the S&P 500 stock index over time is more than 10 percent! (TheBigMoney.com)
US's Obsession with Speculation Continues: Stocks roared higher today as the high octane stock market continued to climb a massive wall of worry. Many of us have been wondering where the next asset bubble might form. I think we are seeing it right now in plain old equities. (HousingTimeBomb blog)
Interpretive Housing Crash Video: "Yes, the housing crash is happening - but in slow motion. Not as dramatic as a stock market crash, but more of a problem for the economy. " (video)
Thornburg Mortgage declares bankruptcy: The Santa Fe, N.M.-based company has had financial problems since the housing crash began in the summer of 2007. (courthousenews.com)
The Rust Belt: A forgotten housing crisis : "While most attention has focused on the wave of foreclosures sweeping mostly middle-class, suburban Sunbelt neighborhoods from California to Florida, the nation's emptiest neighborhoods have remained concentrated in the same place for nearly a generation: the mostly minority, poor, urban neighborhoods of the American Rust Belt." (MSNBC)
American dream was delusion: "The post-war American dream had a 60-year learning curve. Over the last three decades, its flaws and our decline have been apparent. Phenomena like Bernie Madoff, Enron, the national housing crisis, Wal-Mart and American Idol are recent indications of how heightened our need for fame, goods and fortune has become." (southcoasttoday.com)
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