Housing Blogs

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Sen. Hillary Clinton (pictured) made a political speech today about the foreclosure crisis, and as a political effort, it may prove fairly successful for her. But, thankfully, this is not a politics blog, so my analysis can largely ignore politics and stick to housing and economics.
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Here’s mine:1) Halliburton2) Countrywide3) Wal-Mart4) Microsoft5) General MotorsGet your nominations in and I’ll do a poll……
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This summer, if you’re driving the Enchanted Circle, consider a half day detour for some of the most beautiful scenery in Northern New Mexico. Valle Vidal will provide you with a scenic drive, streams, mountains, meadows and hiking like nowhere else on earth.
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The Chicago Fed’s national activity index isn’t followed very closely. However it is interesting that the Chicago Fed argued that there is “an increasing likelihood that a recession has begun” and that their national activity index has been at recessionary levels for three months (December, January and February).…
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More details about the Bend real estate market:About Randy Sebastian and Renaissance HomesSebastian, the owner of Renaissance Homes, said he is committed to the development located off of Brookswood Boulevard and plans to refinance it with a local lender within 60 days. The Portland resident, who was in Bend on Wednesday for the opening of his company’s design center at 55 N.W. Wall St., said he is not walking way from the development; rather, KeyBank is getting out of the housing market. …
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Best mortgage rates for March 24, 2008 in New Mexico

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The TED Spread from Bloomberg:The TED spread has declined to 1.52% (from over 2% last week). Note: the TED spread is the difference between the three month T-bill and the LIBOR interest rate. Usually the TED spread is less than 0.5%. The higher the spread, the greater the perceived credit risks (compared to “risk free” treasuries).The third wave of the liquidity crisis appears to have peaked. …
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Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. “Existing-home sales…remain 23.8 percent below the 6.60 million-unit level in February 2007. Single-family home sales…are 22.9 percent below 5.80 million-unit level a year ago. Regionally, existing-home sales in the Northeast are 26.4 percent below February 2007. Existing-home sales in the Midwest are 19.5 percent below a year ago. In the South, existing-home sales are 22.0 percent below February 2007. Existing-home sales in the West are 29.2 percent below a year ago.”
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I swear, HP’ers live in an alternative reality.It’s called “truthland”.You gotta love Lawrence Yun and the NAR though - they can spin with the best of ‘em. And you gotta love the copy/paste crowd at our nation’s mainstream media. Why work when you can just report lobby group press releases as news?…
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Read full story for latest details.
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Speaking of the economy, here’s a headline I never expected to see in The Seattle Times, let alone above the fold on the front page of the Sunday paper:
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Read full story for latest details.
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For more, see my earlier post: February Existing Home Sales …
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I linked to a story about forecasters a few days ago but it’s still got me confused.

These days, housing prognostication is big business (I do a little prognosticatin’ myself). There are a few people that I watch closely and in fact, several that I fawn (is that a word?) over. But I was taken aback by the …
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From Yahoo Finance this morning:  [Thanks L!]

Bear’s stock has popped to $10, now that the Fed has caved and Bear and JP Morgan have announced a new, higher-priced deal.
What does this mean?
Among other things, it means tha a…
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Monkeys I tell ya.Monkeys.Go away Hillary. Go home. You’re no longer needed around here.Clinton calls for panel on housing woes…
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I’ve gotta believe there were some in the government who knew of Spitzer’s hooker problem for quite some time. And they leaked it right when they needed to - when he decided to go after the mortgage industrial complex and Bush.Well, at least it was just a public shaming and loss of his job, and not a bullet.
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From AP: JPMorgan raises Bear purchase price JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased it offer Monday for Bear Stears Cos. to $10 per share from a bargain-basement price of $2 per share, hoping to assuage shareholders of the ailing investment bank. …The new agreement also calls for the Federal Reserve — which helped broker the emergency deal to save Bear Stearns from failure — to provide slightly less financing. JPMorgan will bear the first $1 billion of any losses linked to Bear Stearns assets being financed, while the central bank will put up the remaining $29 billion….
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