Housing Blogs

I just returned from the parade on July 4 in Arroyo Seco.  I took a lot of video, and found that I had to edit it down a lot to get a reasonable size of almost nine minutes.  This is my first Seco parade, so excuse me if I missed someone or something that you would like to have seen in the video.
I can see why it’s such a popular event.  The crowd was large and friendly.  There were street vendors and music before the parade began.  We set up chairs in the middle of town, right on the white line edge of the road.  If you like grass roots Americana, give the video below a play….
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The Economist has an interesting discussion on changes in real house prices vs. changes in real consumer spending, see: Collateral damage

Note: the following graph is from the Economist article and is for the UK.

For many years it was taken for granted that there was a strong relationship between house prices and consumer spending (see chart). More recently the Bank of England has cast doubt…
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Happy Independence Day. Reader Tsky pointed out this Reuters story in the comment section, and it’s worth a post: "A lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple against their mortgage lender could have major implications for banks should a U.S. appeals court agree that borrowers can cancel their loans en masse when their lenders violate a federal lending disclosure law."
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Original Source: feeds.latimes.com

Star-Spangled Banner — Francis Scott Key
I hope you are enjoying your 4th of July holiday. Like many others, I am not traveling this year, and instead I am staying near home and spending the day with my family.
When George Washington lead the Continental Army across the Potomac River on Christmas Eve to surprise the Hessian mercenaries camped on the other side, he took an enormous risk to secure the future of our country. He and the soldiers he commanded are heroes to all Americans. Today’s featured property is on Potomac in Irvine. It is a sad story of how corrupted our great country’s financial system has become. The people involved with this property are not heroes.
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Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com

From the Oregonian:The economy is likely to keep stumbling at least through the rest of the year, analysts agreed Thursday, after a disappointing government report showed that payroll jobs fell by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of job losses.”More job losses are coming through the remainder of the year. The economy has lost just over 400,000 jobs since the start of the year and will lose another 400,000 by year’s end,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for forecaster Moody’s Economy.com. “Behind this pessimism are the broad-based job declines across most industries and regions of the country.”…
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It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The construction industry has been hit particularly hard. Sites that were once vibrant areas of future planning are now just desolate fields with a lot of people out of work. And the construction industry is one that Barbara Hartman, of the Career and Service Center of Southwest Florida, says stands out. ‘The other person in that family is required to get back to the work force to earn money,’ said Hartman.”
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Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

Happy Independence Day, everybody.
Here’s an open thread.  Feel free to discuss whatever you want.

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I’m off in Huntington Beach with my family for the long weekend.  I hope you all get to take a breather from the seemingly endless beat of dour news to enjoy this great country we live in and celebrate our friends and loved ones.  See you Monday.

S…
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From the Financial Times: TPG walks away from UK bank rescue (hat tip Terry) Bradford & Bingley shares tumbled on Friday after its largest shareholders were forced to step in and rescue the ailing mortgage lender after TPG Capital, the private equity group, pulled out of a £400m capital increase.

The emergency rescue was triggered after Moody’s, the credit rating agency, late on Thursday night…
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The Sacramento Bee reports from California. “It’s the question faced by thousands making peak 2005 loan payments on a home with 2008 values: Should I stay or should I go? In Antelope, Randy Fatius has had it. He says he’s walking away from the 1,200-square-foot house he bought in October 2005. Fatius made his last payment in March. Until April, he had never missed a payment.”
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Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

From the Financial Times: UBS confirms facing further write-downs UBS on Friday confirmed it faced further heavy write-downs on exposures to troubled US credits, meaning earnings for the second quarter would be “at or slightly below” break even.

Europe’s biggest casualty of the US subprime crisis did not quantify its latest write-downs, which analysts have estimated at up to $7.5bn.
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UBS…
Original Source: feeds.feedburner.com

(and for those of you keeping score at home, add in inflation and that 33% turns into 50% pretty quick)
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Original Source: housingpanic.blogspot.com

Money magazine forecasts home prices over the next year.The housing implosion is nowhere near over. In 75 of the 100 top U.S. cities, prices are expected to fall in the next 12 months according to Fiserv Lending Solutions….Many markets won’t hit bottom till late 2009 or even 2010….
Original Source: bubblemeter.blogspot.com

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here….
Original Source: thehousingbubbleblog.com

This is the time and place to post observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing market, open house reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week but never posted them up, let’s have them. Also a good place to post suggestions, requests for information, criticism, and praise.
For readers that have never commented, there is a link at the top of each message that is typically labelled “[#] Comments“. Go ahead and give that a click, you might be missing out on a world of information you didn’t know about. While you are there, introduce yourselves to everyone.
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Original Source: njrereport.com

It’s been 232 years, and in spite of the excesses of government and citizens in recent years, the United States is still standing.  That’s something worth celebrating.
We’re forgetting the "gloom and doom" around here today.  John is keeping busy with the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo [I hope you're having fun John!]…
Original Source: housingdoom.com

Sometimes when you find the right house, you just got to get it…414 Camino Hermoso, San Marcos, CA 92078–4 beds, 3.0 baths, 2,358 sq ft …
Original Source: bubbletracking.blogspot.com

With each passing month, the inflation numbers are getting worse. As the numbers deteriorate, the options available to central banks are becoming narrower; either raise rates and take the inevitable hit on growth and financial stability, or let the problem slide and watch inflation slip further. With double-digit inflation hovering on the horizon, some central banks are beginning to act.Does the idea of double-digit inflation sound too alarmist? Last month, the RPI inflation rate was only at 4.3 percent; at least 5 percentage points south of a double-digit rate. Looking at today’s inflation rate is like trying to drive by only looking in the rear view mirror. Inflation is a forward-looking phenomenon, and therefore central banks should look at expectations when formulating policy. In the absence of a credible policy response to rising prices, private sector expectations are adjusting rapidly upwards. …
Original Source: ukhousebubble.blogspot.com

The market for oil is undergoing a fundamental change. Previously, the OECD was the primary consumer; today, demand is shifting towards emerging market economies.Compared to a year ago, OECD countries demanded about a million barrels of less today. However, non-OECD countries more than made up the shortfall, demanding an additional 1.5 million barrels. The net effect was to increase overall demand by 0.5 million barrels a day….
Original Source: ukhousebubble.blogspot.com

For more than two years, the skeleton of the Elevation Chandler project has stood near the Chandler Fashion Mall, a monument of sorts to the late, great real estate market in Phoenix.  Now it looks like Chandler could have another "ghost development" just down the road: [Thanks M!]

Construction equipment is off and workers have left what was supposed to be a 21-acre project called Chandler Piazza, a Tuscan-style mall with a hotel, shops, restaurants and offices….
Original Source: housingdoom.com