When you step back and take a look, all these bubbles were really just low-interest-rate-enabled hot-money speculative hedge-fund driven attacks.First they went after the dot-com stocks. That was pretty fun….
Original Source: housingpanic.blogspot.com
Alas, Taos has dropped in standing in no less than the Guinness Book of World Records. It’s a shame too, as most of us probably didn’t even know we were in the book for this record until we’d lost our position.
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Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/TaosRealEstate
OK, really just one city - but three different house price ranges.
Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph show the real Case-Shiller prices for homes in Los Angeles. …
Original Source: bp2.blogger.com/_pMscxxELHEg/SEC8T6_dmz
The fourth this year:First Integrity, National Association, Staples, Minnesota, with $54.7 million in total assets and $50.3 million in total deposits as of March 31, 2008, was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver.The FDIC Board of Directors today approved the assumption of all the deposits of First Integrity by First International Bank and Trust, Watford City, North Dakota. . . ….
Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/CalculatedRisk
Worth reading: This story just posted on the LATimes.com about the market for foreclosed houses, …
Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com
Adjustable Rate Mortgage-holders rejoice, LIBOR not being redefined … for now. Housing Wire covered earlier how changes to the LIBOR could radically impact home mortgage payments for folks with loans whose interest rates are tied to the index. You can all breathe a sigh of relief for the meantime, until the BBA gets around to overhauling the biggest sham of an index that side of the Atlantic.
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Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/typepad
In a press release today, Wyndham Vacation Ownership announces the opening …
Original Source: galleryrealtyoftaos.com
More than 8,100 acres will be added into Suffolk County’s agricultural districts, according to a statement from County Executive Steve Levy.
The 363 new parcels will be incorporated into the county’s six agricultural districts, which afford the owners “a combination of landowner incentives and protections”. The new farmland will bring Suffolk’s total to more than 27,000 acres.
Properties in agricultural districts are exempt from several assessment charges, and are automatically assessed as agricultural land, not vacant, developable land, leading to tax breaks for farmers.
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Original Source: spacedoutli.wordpress.com
Syosset-based Blumenfeld Development Group and Apollo Real Estate Advisors recently inked three new tenants for more than 38,000 square feet at 100 Duffy Ave in Hicksville.
One of the new tenants is the U.S. General Services Administration, which is leasing 17,000 square feet. The building will soon house a new 38,000 square-foot New York Sports Club, currently under construction and scheduled to open this fall.
BDG Vice President Brad Blumenfeld said the group has also begun renovations to 102 Duffy, the five-story, 160,000 square-foot former home of JPMorgan Chase next door, and are currently marketing the space.
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Original Source: spacedoutli.wordpress.com
My day started with my inability to understand a series of statistics reported in Bloomberg this morning.Housing Wire follows up on the “methodology change” that purportedly caused the new defaults and cured loan reporting for April to surge and plummet, respectively, in the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America’s most recent report. I share HW’s sources’ skepticism about the explanation given for this change. It simply sounds like a very large lender has been allowed–heretofore–to report fewer delinquencies and more cures than everyone else does, by using different definitions. As that is not something that sounds very good, I would suggest that MICA needs to come up with a better explanation….
Original Source
From Bloomberg News today: "Newly delinquent mortgage borrowers outnumbered people who caught up on their overdue payments by two to one last month, a sign that nationwide efforts to help homeowners avoid default may be failing."
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Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com
Earlier this week we examined how much home prices have fallen in percentage terms. Let’s now look at things a different way: how far have prices fallen in terms of time? In other words, how long ago was it that prices were last at their current levels?
The accompanying chart attempts to answer this question using the three tiers of the Case-Shiller home price index in addition to the overall index for San Diego. To find the appropriate months, I just took the March value of each index (the most recent available, unfortunately) and noted what prior month was closest to the March figure.
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She Works Hard for the Money — Donna Summer
HELOC abuse is just as prevalent among women as it is among men. With all the free money floating around, it is to be expected that a woman who wanted to have the finer things in life would become accustomed to a lifestyle well beyond her means. Today’s featured property is owned by a woman (as the decor makes obvious,) and she managed to borrow and spend herself out of her home. There is a certain Shakespearian Tragedy element to stories like these. Today’s seller made a series of bad decisions which lead to her downfall. How are we supposed to feel when we see these situations? Part of me is sad that this woman is losing her home, and part of me is not sad because she brought this fate onto herself (and I suppose a little schadenfreude is mixed in as well.) The emotions we all feel when confronted with these stories serve to teach us all not to do what she did.
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It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Valet attendants stand poised at the porte-cochere of the Ritz-Carlton’s first-ever condominium-only project as a doorman ushers visitors toward the marble lobby. Pathways wind through the manicured lawn and gardens, just steps from a new stretch of downtown Baltimore’s waterfront promenade. The builders can only hope their buyers will be as ready.”
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Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com
“I don’t know if it’s going to be a majority or not but I think a large number of the [Alt-A] senior classes are facing downgrade pressure.”Grant Bailey, a senior director at Fitch, May 30, 2008From Bloomberg: Fitch Changes Method of Rating Alt-A Mortgage Bond Fitch Ratings modified how it assesses outstanding securities backed by Alt-A U.S. mortgages by starting to update projections for losses from non-delinquent loans instead of keeping estimates static from the time of issuance. …
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When you look at the current unemployment rate of 5 percent, you would think that our economy would be humming along. Yet the way that they calculate the official unemployment rate is such a joke, you are almost left guessing how many people are really out of work. Are you looking for work and simply can’t find a job and gave up? Consider yourself not counted in the numbers. Are you working part-time although you want full-time employment? Guess what? You are not counted either! It is patently absurd and frustrating to see what kind of gimmicks the government uses to massage the unemployment data.
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Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/DrHousingBubble-HowILearnedToLoveSocal
A few days ago I got an email from a reporter named Luck Mullins from US News & World Report, telling me about his new housing blog: The Home Front. Then yesterday, a story pops up on his blog specifically about Seattle. Looks like someone really wants to get our attention for some reason. Here’s an excerpt from his post: N…
Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com/SeattleBubble
Just a note: I started publishing gas price photos back on April 25, when I passed the station pictured above, which is on Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. A…
Original Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com
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