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The North County Times reports from California. “Residents in a neighborhood on the southeast border of the city said last week a financial agreement between a wireless company and several homeowners could drive down area property values. Not only will an ‘unsightly’ cell phone tower depress home values, but the Hillegeists devalued property values for the entire neighborhood when they sold their home for more than 20 percent less than what area homes were selling for at the time, said June Rady, a Park Hill Lane resident.”
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Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 23:54

Building Castles to the Sky

Here are a couple of interviews with analysts that were wrong about housing (emphasis added) …From a Newsweek interview with ex-NAR economist David Lereah: It’s Going to Get Worse “[I] just didn’t realize the scope, the extent, the magnitude of the loose underwriting—not looking at incomes and wages, just providing so many mortgage loans based on [expected] future price appreciation rather than the creditworthiness of the borrower,” Lereah says. “That got so out of hand, and n…
Original Source

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 23:45

David Lereah Visits The Housing Bust Confessional

It’s Going to Get Worse Newsweek Web Exclusive - snips:Economist David Lereah…
Original Source: bp1.blogger.com/_GMFF5jY6gGs/SCDcqJ1rD7

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 23:43

$4.5 million pot bust in foreclosed house

A bank employee inspecting a foreclosed house in Fontana stumbled upon a thriving business: more than 2,000 mature marijuana plants, part of a drug bust valued at $4.5 million.
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Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 23:37

Northern New Jersey April Residential Sales

Preliminary April sales and inventory data for Northern New Jersey (GSMLS) is in. Please note that this data is subject to revision.
The first graph plots the unadjusted sales data (closed sales) for the counties listed. Please note the lower bound of the graph, it is set to 500, not to zero. I do this to emphasize the seasonal nature of the Northern NJ market.
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Original Source: njrereport.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 23:16

Tighter Lending Standards Are Here

We’ve been talking about the tighter lending standards for a while. Here is a little evidence of it from the MailTribune:The Federal Reserve reports that more banks are tightening lending standards on home mortgages, other types of consumer loans and business loans in response to a spreading credit crisis.The Fed reported Monday that the percentage of banks reporting tighter lending standards was near historic highs for nearly all loan categories.T…
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6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 22:36

Lereah culpa: "None of us realized the magnitude of it…"

Remember David Lereah? The bullish NAR economist and author of "Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust"? Of course you do. Newsweek has an …
Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 21:56

Ex-NAR economist Lereah changes tune

From Newsweek:
It’s Going to Get Worse
Economist David Lereah was once the housing market’s biggest cheerleader. Now he says the bust isn’t near over, and home prices still have a long way to fall.
Let me confess at the start: I spoke with Lereah frequently during the boom, and I always found him to be a smart, thoughtful observer. Sure, his assessment of the real estate market was consistently upbeat, but that’s hardly surprising given that he served as chief spokesman for a trade organization that believes it’s always a good time to buy a home. And the truth is I feel a little sorry for the teasing he has absorbed since the housing bubble burst. Yes, he did publish a book in 2006 with the unfortunate title “Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust”—but he didn’t pick the title, the same way columnists like me aren’t always thrilled by the headlines our editors put atop our stories. And while I thought it was funny when my colleague Daniel Gross and others compared Lereah to Baghdad Bob, the Iraqi information minister who repeatedly announced his army’s military successes even as U.S. tanks were overtaking the capital, I can’t help feeling bad for him. But if you judge from the blogosphere, I’m in the minority with my sympathy….
Original Source: njrereport.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 20:52

New Home Inventory and Cancellations

Inventory numbers from the Census Bureau do not include cancellations - and although cancellation rates are still above normal, the rate has declined from the record levels of last year. As examples, D.R. Horton reported a cancellation rate of 33% for the most recent quarter, down from 48% in the Fall of 2007. And Centex r…
Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/CalculatedRisk

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 20:44

35% Off the Peak

Comfortably Numb — Pink Floyd
Have you become numb to the losses we see here at the Irvine Housing Blog? The dollar amounts we are talking about are almost too large to comprehend. Monday’s property is going to be an over $500,000 loss. Today’s is $140,000, and it is a tiny condo. It can be hard to relate to the size of these numbers, and even harder to relate when it is a big corporation losing most of the money. These losses will continue to mount. If the lenders had to do a market-to-market on all their loans based on the value of the underlying collateral, our entire financial system might collapse. It might anyway. I guess it is a good thing that we have runaway consumer price inflation, or the monetary deflation of all these bank losses would be a real problem. …
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6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 20:34

It Was Not A Very Pretty Meeting

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Bloomberg, “D.R. Horton Inc. reported a record loss as the deepening housing slump forced it to write down $834.1 million of land and inventory. The fiscal second-quarter net loss at the largest U.S. homebuilder was $1.31 billion, almost seven times higher than analysts’ estimates. Revenue plunged 38 percent to $1.62 billion.”
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Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 19:35

Is the National Media being too Harsh?

I came upon this little summary of recent housing data from Realty Times columnist Kenneth R. Harney yesterday. He argues that although recent the data still shows declining sales nationwide, sales and prices are rising again in many markets. Too early to call a rebound, he concludes, but worth noting.

If you only focused on the big headlines in the past week, you probably noticed that home resales were down by two percent nationwide during March. That didn’t sound good — certainly not for the start of the spring selling season.
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Original Source

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 19:29

Lawmakers target mortgage lenders

Lawmakers will probe allegations Tuesday that mortgage lenders and companies that serve loans are misusing the bankruptcy system to impose questionable fees on homeowners facing foreclosure.
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Original Source: money.cnn.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 19:11

No Housing Bottom: Hell Hath Frozen Over. David Lereah Proclaims Housing not Hitting Bottom.

There are moments in history that change the world profoundly. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The industrial revolution and the impact it made on our society. And finally, David Lereah, the former National Association of Realtors chief economist telling us that that things will get worse before they get better? That is correct. One of the most adamant cheerleaders for the housing orgy is now sounding like a housing bear blogger. You know the author of this following book:…
Original Source: www.doctorhousingbubble.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 19:07

Squeeze: Countrywide freezes Vegas HELOCs

News item from Bloomberg News: "Countrywide Financial Corp. has suspended the home equity credit lines of almost all its Las Vegas customers…"
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Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 19:02

Flat, flat, flat, flat: Listing prices unchanged, again

No names will be mentioned, Keith, but a certain commenter (Keith) mocked and ridiculed me a week ago for s…
Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 18:15

April Reporting Roundup

Yesterday I predicted that the local reporting would focus on the paltry month-to-month median price increase, backed up by a plethora of quotes from peppy real estate agents. Today’s reporting, for the most part, does not disappoint.
I’m starting to get the impression as I read some of these articles that the reporters are just as amused by agents’ blatant denial as I am. My sarcast-o-meter is detecting a slight hint of intentional irony in the juxtaposition of facts and figures that paint an increasingly drab picture of the market with upbeat comments from local agents that continue to insist that things are getting better every day. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. You be the judge.
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Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/SeattleBubble

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 17:33

From the Chamber - NM 3rd Congressional District Primary Candidate Forum

Greetings Chamber Members & Friends,

NM 3rd Congressional District Primary Candidate Forum will be taking place this Thursday, 6-9pm at Bataan Hall. See full flyer below. Use >> at top right to enlarge or print.

NM 3rd Congressional District Primary Candidate Forum
Thursday May 8th
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Original Source: galleryrealtyoftaos.com

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 17:24

Is the Housing Crisis Over?

From an opinion piece in the WSJ this morning, hedge fund manager Cyril Moulle-Berteaux argues: The Housing Crisis Is Over The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now. …
Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/CalculatedRisk

6 May, 2008| housingblogs | Comments (0) @ 17:19

UBS to Cut 5,500 Jobs