Housing Blogs

Nelson Schwartz and Floyd Norris provide an analysis of the new regulatory plan from the Treasury: In Treasury Plan, a Reluctant Eye Over Wall Street [T]he proposal would impose the first regulation of hedge funds and private equity funds, that oversight would have a light touch, enabling the government to do little beyond collecting information …The plan hands vast new authority to the Federal Reserve, essentially formalizing what has been an improvised process over the last three weeks. T…
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I’m glad to see that this blog keeps going even when I’m absent - just like an energizer bunny!FYI, we haven’t bought, we haven’t even been to a mortgage broker. In fact, I think we have decided to stay put for the time being. We’ll make it work where we are!It does appear that the market may have turned over the past 1-2 months. Listings are rocketing upwards, sales “appear” to be really low and slow. Realtors are saying that the market has “stabilized”, some are even recommending to not rush into anything. People are talking about the slowing of the market, and friends are advising friends to be careful when looking at purchasing. These are all people that I think were very positive on the market 6 months ago….
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Click Image to PlayConsumer Led Retailer Apocalypse…
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Last night I spoke with a land developer. He just purchased improved land in SoCal for $0.15 on the dollar from a homebuilder (builder’s total cost). The deal closed Friday. The purchase price was less than half the cost of just the improvements (grading, streets, etc)! The deal has no leverage, and the buyers are hoping to sell in 3 to 5 years to another homebuilder. They can wait much longer if necessary. The other details (like buyer and seller) are confidential….
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The North County Times reports from California. “Homeowners in the new Shady Grove subdivision said Friday they were concerned that their upscale houses will plummet in value if the developer of the neighborhood is allowed to shrink the size of most of the homes that are still in the planning stages. Meanwhile, real estate industry analysts said the decision by KB Home to downsize the Shady Grove houses is just the latest example of a regional trend.”
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Foreclosure counseling is becoming a growing industry in the post-housing boom world.

Well, the federal government was the last to the party, but now seems to be trying a full court press to s…
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California, the epicenter of the housing bubble is facing difficult times. It is becoming rather apparent that this housing bubble has the risk of causing a worldwide recession. It is hard to imagine until you look at the facts how this bubble got out of hand so quickly. The foreclosure problem is now hitting squarely on the state. Last month for Southern California over 30 percent of homes sold were distressed properties. This rate is only increasing and will put future pressure on prices on the downside since first, we still have record inventory and it is harder to get a home loan. The latter part, getting a home loan is harder and for the right reasons. Folks simply do not have the incomes to support the prices in many areas. The only way they can purchase homes in these areas is with liar loans or sub-prime products but those are now largely absent and rightfully so. We are left with the reality that prices were fueled by egregious lending practices and lack of income.
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News item from the L.A. Times: "The top two executives of beleaguered Countrywide Financial Corp. will pocket $19 million in stock next week, according to a regulatory filing. It’s the start of a series of multimillion-dollar payments expected to go to the pair before and after the company’s pending takeover by Bank of America Corp."

More: "The largesse for Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and President David Sambol drew immediate fire from Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, whose members have been debating the merits of a government bailout of consumers and mortgage lenders caught in the sub-prime meltdown.
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Readers suggested a topic on current credit trends. “Tightening Credit? Is anyone seeing/feeling this in your area. Some of our local banks are still pushing zero down 100% home loans with a good credit score. Chase is still pushing 0% C.Cards on transfers up to 15 months… 6.9% fixed.Just had that offer last week. COFED Bank of Colorado is sending out a big push for first time home buyers.”
From a lender. “Well, there are loan-peddlers, and then there are lenders. I could shut down my lending window for a number of years, so long as my clientele don’t all simultaneously decide to pay off the principal. Loan-peddling, an occupation even more unproductive than mine, is dying a well-deserved death.”
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What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Price cuts? “James Matey, a Cape Coral builder, leans on the granite counter of an empty riverfront house he built for New York real-estate marketer Ted Kurz. Mr. Matey says the 5,139-square-foot house, with five bedrooms, wood-coffered ceilings and river views, was advertised at $4.2 million three years ago. The asking price is now $2.4 million — which covers only the cost of land and construction.”
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I used to get angry with newspaper headlines pumping up housing market. Articles that twisted the data were a particularly target for my anger. More recently, I just got bored with the media commenting on the market. Besides, since August last year, every piece of economic data indicated that the show was over; prices are coming down. This wasn’t a matter of conjecture or debate; it is a matter of empirical observation.Today, the Express carried a headline - H…
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Man, it’s getting ugly out there now. People are trying to sell their life along with their house.Meanwhile, I think we can now confirm that Vegas is indeed full of hookers, strippers, porn stars, shallow people, unemployed mortgage brokers and screwed homedebtors. …
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I hope the Cromers® realize that the couple of posts this past week wasn’t meant to single them out. What we have stumbled upon here at BMIT is a pattern of speculation on a gigantic scale all done by members of one single profession. And while it remains simply amazing to me how this one group of folks can engage in so much irresponsible financially risky behavior, I am beginning to understand that if such behavior was deemed the norm, if such behavior was ingrained in the culture of that profession, then of course such recklessness would be so commonplace. In short, if you sell the kool-aid and all of your colleagues are drinking the kool-aid, pretty soon you are downing that kool-aid yourself. …
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A report from the Virginia Pilot. “For the first two months of this year, the number of Hampton Roads individuals trying to hold onto a home or other major asset by means of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy jumped 84 percent to 373 from slightly more than 200 for the same period last year, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Eastern District of Virginia.”
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"We paid too much, and now we need help!"
This time the cry isn’t from "bamboozled" subprime borrowers, but from developers who bid too much for state land purchases:

At least three developers who purchased land in northeast Phoenix’s Desert Ridge area when times were good are seeking relief from the terms of their purchase from the Arizona State Land Department.
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Yesterday’s Town of Taos Council Executive Session resulted in the action of Allen Vigil being officially hired as the new Town of Taos Director of Planning.  Vigil has served in this capacity previously, and has experience with the Town’s many demands in this area.
 
At the Special Town Council Meeting also yesterday, the Council approved Human Resource’s national search for a new Town Manager.  This outreach will begin as soon as official public notices/advertisements can be legally arranged.  Check the Town of Taos web site, h…
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Yesterday’s Town of Taos Council Executive Session resulted in the action of Allen Vigil being officially hired as the new Town of Taos Director of Planning. Vigil has served in this capacity previously, and has experience with the Town’s many demands in this area.

At the Special Town Council Meeting also yesterday, the Council approved Human Resource’s national search for a new Town Manager. This outreach will begin as soon as official public notices/advertisements can be legally arranged. Check the Town of Taos web site, h…
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The Federal Reserve was supposed to regulate the lending industry and didn’t. But instead of proposing legislation to disband or rein in the Fed, George Bush and Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson (oops, I mean Treasury Secretary Paulson) want to . Seriously. No, seriously….
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A few notes from some of my research for you to ponder over the weekend…
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Efficient Markets Theory
The efficient markets theory is the idea that speculative asset prices always incorporate the best information about fundamental values and that prices change only because new information enters the market and investors act in an appropriate, rational manner with regards to this information…
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