Breaking news from Reuters: "Authorities in
Philadelphia will suspend foreclosure sales of homes whose
owners have fallen behind on adjustable-rate subprime loan
payments — potential relief for tens of thousands of
struggling debtors."
…
Original Source
Do NOT watch this Leper video if you’re easily offended. Or are saddened at what’s happened to Dallas, Scottsdale, Miami and Vegas, the most disgusting towns in America.
…
Original Source
After the fun filled post the other day on Craigslist, I came across this frustration today.Here is the link:Sorry in advance, but it was type in all caps:THAT I HIRE TO SELL MY HOUSE TO ANSWER MY CALL? OR, AT THE VERY LEAST CALL ME BACK AFTER I LEAVE THEM A MESSAGE!!!!!!! I AM SO SICK OF THESE REALTOR’S TALKING SHIT, THEN YOU SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THEM, AND GUESS WHAT? THEY BECOME A GHOST!!!!!! YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE, AND I AM ABOUT TO FIRE YOUR ASS. YOU ARE, OR WILL BE THE THIRD REALTOR I HAVE FIRED, AND UNTIL YOU GUY’S LEARN HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR CLIENTS, YOU WONT BE THE LAST. YOU TALKED SUCH A BIG GAME, SO BIG THAT I ACTUALLY WENT WITH YOU, RATHER THEN A CLOSE FAMILY FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A MISTAKE THAT WAS. IF THERE IS ANY DECENT REALTOR’S OUT THERE, SEND ME SOME INFO. MY HOUSE IS IN BALTIMORE COUNTY. I AM SELLING. BUT KEEP IN MIND, IF YOU D…
Original Source
From the WSJ: UBS Cutting Value Of Auction-Rate Securities In Brokerage Accounts … UBS AG is marking down the value of the securities in its brokerage customers’ accounts.Until now, customers who were unable to sell securities in regularly scheduled auctions were told that the securities retained full value and would receive higher interest rates….
Original Source
Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Bloomberg, “KB Home, the fifth-largest U.S. homebuilder, reported a fiscal first-quarter net loss was $268.2 million. Revenue fell 43 percent and net orders plunged 75 percent to 1,449 homes, the company said in a statement. Los Angeles-based KB Home recorded $223.9 million in pretax expenses to write down the value of land, joint ventures and options on property.”
…
Original Source
Here is a look at the Real Case-Shiller Index. Real numbers are adjusted for inflation; nominal numbers do not take inflation into account. Almost all the data we hear is nominal but real data gives us a better indication of how real estate as an asset class performs over time.I wanted to see how Portland and Seattle compare to bubble cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego and non-bubble cities such as Dallas and Charlotte. January 2000 equals 100 for all the indices. Click on the graph for a sharper image….
Original Source
(click on the chart for a sharper image)While everyone is banging on about the crashing housing market, no one is paying any attention to the elephant sitting in the corner - the UK current account deficit….
Original Source
We’ve been focusing more on original content here lately, which means that as articles crop up in other local news sources, we haven’t been posting every single one. Of course, there are some interesting things being said about the local housing market in other news sources, so it’s good to touch base with them once in a while.
So, here are excerpts from some of the interesting real-estate-related articles that have been printed elsewhere in the last week.
…
Original Source
Recently I had a conversation with a fellow journalist about government efforts to ease the mortgage crisis. I was explaining to this person that mainstream media accounts of the issue very often ignore the anti-bailout sentiment that dominates blogs like this one. The journalist was confused. Opposition to a bailout? Here in liberal L.A.? On a blog on the L.A. Times website? "Your readers must be rich," she told me.If I had been drinking coffee, I would have spit it out. I explained that, no, as far as I know, that’s not the case. In fact many of them can’t afford to buy a house in Los Angeles, and they’re upset (not the word I used) at government efforts to support inflated housing prices in one of the nation’s least affordable housing markets….
Original Source
The BEA releases Personal Consumption Expenditures monthly (as part of the Personal Income and Outlays report) and quarterly, as part of the GDP report (also released separately quarterly). You can use the monthly series to exactly calculate the quarterly change in PCE. The quarterly change is not calculated as the change from the last month of one quarter to the last month of the next (several people have asked me about this). Instead, you have to average all three months of a quarter, and then take the change from the average of the three months of the preceding quarter….
Original Source
Press Release: KB Home Reports First Quarter 2008 Financial Results“Our industry continues to confront a growing oversupply of new and resale homes, tight mortgage lending conditions and a highly competitive pricing environment. These conditions drove down sale prices and further compressed margins in the first quarter of 2008, prompting us to recognize additional impairment charges and abandon certain land option contracts that no longer made financial sense. Until prices stabilize and consumer confidence returns, we believe inventory levels will remain significantly out of balance with demand. W…
Original Source
From Bloomberg: Fremont Ordered by FDIC to Find Buyer; Curbs Imposed Fremont General Corp., the former subprime lender that raised doubt about its survival earlier this month, was ordered by federal regulators to raise new funds or find a buyer within 60 days. It was just a little over a year ago that I p…
Original Source
The Rio Rancho Observer reports from New Mexico. “According to realtor Cari Barlow with Sunland Realty in Rio Rancho, the housing market is returning to what it was before the big upward rise in prices Rio Rancho experienced several years ago. ‘For those two years it was a seller’s market,’ Barlow said. ‘But, it is back to being what it had always been: a buyer’s market.’”
…
Original Source
Posted By:Diana OlickLike a few of my other blogging colleagues, I have today off. I’ll be back on Monday with new posts. 
…
Original Source
The New York Times is reporting that the FDIC has ruled Fremont General’s banking unit under-capitalized and must find additional funds or sell the unit in two months. Fremont, which should be considered the bastion of terrible underwriting, received default notices related to $3.15 worth of subprime loans. And we’re talking SUBPRIME. Fremont was known as the “get it done” place of last resort for many of the most subprime loans. My favorite was their self-employed borrower guidelines. If you were self-employed and couldn’t prove a) your income or b) you actually owned a business you could state your income (like everyone else) and use 3 letters of reference if you couldn’t produce say a business license or any documentation that you actually were in business for yourself. Seems like good, commonsense underwriting to me!
…
Original Source
(click on the chart for a sharper image)If you want to understand what is happening to house prices, you must look at a chart. Today, the Nationwide produced their monthly survey of house prices. Unfortunately, the media reported this data by producing a battery of misleading percentage growth numbers….
Original Source
Which, as Dave Barry always says, would be a great name for a band.CR posted this shocker yesterday, a memo with a Chase logo attached (which doesn’t mean much in these copy & paste days), sent via e-mail to mortgage brokers in what appears to be a “package” of “training documents,” that provides tips on how to “cheat” and “trick” Zippy, Chase’s AUS (automated underwriting system), into approving loans it would not normally approve. (Or, possibly, allowing loans to be documented or priced in a way they would not have been had the loan been submitted properly. It’s hard to say exactly.)…
Original Source
In today’s Wall Street Journal, an article pertaining to loss severity: Buyers’ Revenge: Trash the House After Foreclosure.Vandals who break into empty houses often smash windows and paint graffiti on the walls, he says. But it takes an enraged, delinquent mortgagor to indulge in a frenzy of destruction, such as the one that took place recently in a three-bedroom, 1,949-square-foot house in a residential and industrial area northeast of the casinos on the Strip….
Original Source
From Bloomberg: Fannie, Freddie May Raise $20 Billion, Regulator Says Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. government-chartered mortgage companies, may raise as much as $20 billion in capital as part of an agreement that allows them to buy more debt securities, their regulator said. …“There’s no specific number,” [James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight] said. “There was a range of numbers. The best way is to say it’s significant.” The amount raised will be “much more” than the $5.9 billion of capital released by reducing the cushion, Lockhart said…..
Original Source
The Oregonian - C…
Suscribe