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Schadenfreude: The Psychology of Housing Retribution and Justice. The Fan
2007-12-18 18:21:00
Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave after Alan Greenspan?s recent comments regarding the housing market. For those of you who don?t know, Alan Greenspan was heavily influenced by the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Part of the ?Class of 43? Greenspan supposedly followed the principles of lassiez-faire capitalism, individual rights, and ...
More About: Justice , Schadenfreude , Housing , Psychology , Holo

California Examined: The Deep Budget Impact of the Mortgage Crises.
2007-12-16 10:25:00
Since Governor Schwarzenegger took office in October of 2003, he rode in promising no tax hikes and sent a very unpopular vehicle fee out the door along with Gray Davis. He has faced issues with budget delays but nothing like the current short fall. The Governor announced plans for declaring a fiscal emergency ...
More About: California , Mortgage , Deep , Budget , Crises

Screw This Housing Market! Black & Decker Sucked into the Housing Abyss.
2007-12-15 18:44:00
I was talking earlier in the week with a colleague in the construction business in Orange County. He currently has work but tells me that ?he has no pending projects lined up after this one is done.? There is a decorum that we have and I don?t go telling everyone about the ...
More About: Market , Black , Housing , Decker , Screw

A Tale of 5 Cities: Not All Bubbles Burst at the Same Time.
2007-12-13 22:23:00
Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink other men’s thoughts, to speak other men’s words, to follow other men’s habits. -Walter Bagehot To turn on the television or read a national newspaper, you would think that each housing market has suddenly burst in perfect unison. It?s ...
More About: Time , Cities , Burst , Bubbles , Tale

Real Homes of Genius: That Ben Bernanke is Funny! Sesame Street Cerritos
2007-12-12 19:44:00
Oh that Ben Bernanke, aka Boom Boom, aka Helicopter Ben, aka Big Baller, aka credit liquidity magician. After talking to the market with a stern voice and demonstrating that he does have some restraint with rate cuts, he follows the next day by opening up a corner loan shark store. While they don?t ...
More About: Funny , Sesame , Street , Homes , Real

Foreclosure Avoidance: A Society that is Psychologically Bent On Avoiding
2007-12-11 00:43:00
Most will agree that as a society, we cannot spend our way into prosperity. In fact, many even the most ardent bulls will acknowledge that we have some serious issues to address in our current economy. From preliminary reports, this rate freeze will have a very minimal impact on the overall housing market. ...
More About: Society , Foreclosure , Logi , Holo

Hope Now Alliance: Press 1 for Subprime, Press 2 for Spanish. Looking at
2007-12-08 22:29:00
There has been a torrent of information shrouding the new Hope Now Alliance proposal that was offered up this past week. We?ve heard outraged battle cries of ?no government bailout? and we?ve also heard the argument that this plan does not go far enough to help those facing foreclosure. Aside from the philosophical ...
More About: Press , Spanish , Subprime

Et tu Subprime? Why This Mortgage Proposal is Hot Air?As of Today.
2007-12-07 00:16:00
I?ve been digging deeper into the current Bush plan and if this doesn?t smack of political posturing with no meat, I really don?t know what does. Let us refresh your memories of what Mr. Bush said in August of this year: WASHINGTON — President Bush said Thursday concern should be shown to those who’ve lost ...
More About: Proposal , Today , Mortgage , Subprime , Prop

Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute La Mirada. Housing has Entered Stag
2007-12-05 19:10:00
The casualties of the housing market are hitting Southern California even in middle class neighborhoods. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo is pushing for Fannie and Freddie to raise their caps to $625,000, in a push to socialize the housing bubble. This is on the back of a previous request of raising rates to $850,000. ...
More About: Today , Housing , Homes , Real , Salute

Hope Now Alliance: Not to be confused with Apocalypse Now Mortgages.
2007-12-03 20:30:00
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sounded a call screaming ?here we come sub-primers to save the day!? From what we know so far, since hardly any major details have been released, this is what the Orwellian named Hope Now Alliance will include: · Reaching out to struggling borrowers ...
More About: Mortgages , Apocalypse , Mort

Real Homes of Genius: Lakewood Redux. The Art of NINJA Loans.
2007-12-01 23:46:00
Driving around this weekend, I was listening to a local real estate radio show that I?m sure many of you have heard. One of the calls again demonstrates that we are nowhere near the bottom of this housing bonanza. The call went as follows and I do paraphrase: Host: ?How can we help ...
More About: Loans , Ninja , Homes , Real , Genius

Short Sale Report Volume 3: Another Week and Another Record. SoCal Short
2007-11-30 19:09:00
If you haven’t noticed the DOW is up 4.5 percent from its correction point that was hit at 12,743 earlier in the week. You would think fantastic information is coming out but there are only two good pieces of news if you can call it that: 1. The Fed is practically elbowing us, wink wink, that a Fed rate cut is a foregone conclusion. 2. Oil Prices are trending lower. But is this really enough good will to cause this mini rally? Are we really at a point where housing is going to correct? Clearly the government is going to try to bailout this market at any expense to tax payers. And make no doubt about it, this is corporate welfare for Wall Street. None of these plans are going to help the people facing foreclosure in any measurable way. We’ve talked about the plan of offering legislation that will support cram downs and I’ve heard rumors that this may be an avenue that is being actively pursued.  This is the only solution that will force lenders to suck on their bile th...
More About: Report , Sale , Week , Record , Short

Foreclosure Shrugged: The Issue with Finding an Exact Foreclosure Number.
2007-11-29 09:50:00
There is no doubt that foreclosures are increasing at an alarming rate. In a positive market, foreclosures are normally picked up by incoming buyers and the monthly numbers simply replenish themselves. Nationwide we were seeing steady monthly numbers in 2005 with an uptick in 2006 and a large jump in 2007. Take ...
More About: Foreclosure , Issue , Number

The Greatest Heist of the Century: Stealing and Mortgaging the United Stat
2007-11-27 09:33:00
It is becoming commonplace to hear negative news regarding the housing market. Dollar signs get thrown around in conversations with no real practical sense for the public to grasp the magnitude of the problem. HSBC for example announced that they are pumping $35 billion into their ailing SIVs to avoid a fire sale ...
More About: United , Stat , Stealing , The G , Century

Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Compton. $90,000 in Los Angeles
2007-11-26 09:43:00
As the Thanksgiving food wears off and shoppers take a respite from hitting the malls at 2AM searching for rock bottom deals on stainless steal microwaves and diamond studded toilet plungers, we enter the last week of the month. From preliminary reports, it seems that the American Consumer? should not be underestimated. Yet ...
More About: Los Angeles , Today , Homes , Real , Salute

Kindergarten Cop Mortgages: 4 Reasons Why the Governator?s Foreclosure Pla
2007-11-23 23:23:00
Great acting comes from great genius. And our Governor has just demonstrated to us, at least in regards to housing policy, that he is striving for an Oscar in public policy. This week he announced that he had worked out a magical plan with four lenders to bailout subprime lenders, I mean borrowers ...
More About: Foreclosure , Mortgages , Reasons , The Go , The G

Wrong and Wronger: Compounding the Mortgage Mess with Bigger Mortgages.
2007-11-21 18:04:00
It doesn?t seem like the mortgage cowboys are learning any lessons. On Tuesday Freddie Mac, a government sponsored entity, reported a staggering net loss of $2 billion. If this wasn?t enough to make your day, they also announced a decrease in fair value of net assets dropped by approximately $8.1 billion. In ...
More About: Mortgage , Mortgages , Wrong , Mort , Mess

The Foreclosure Story Number 2: $136,000 a Year Income to Foreclosure.
2007-11-19 22:40:00
You may remember the foreclosure story I wrote in July of this year about a professional real estate couple with a combined income of $130,000 a year. Most people welcomed the story since it provided a detailed look of a couple living in Orange County and how the real estate downturn will be a ...
More About: Story , Foreclosure , Income , Number 2 , Year

Real Homes of Genius: Riverside 40 Percent Off! 980 square foot home for
2007-11-17 21:16:00
Much has been said about the Inland Empire of Southern California. In fact, the Inland Empire is the largest region in Southern California and includes cities such as Ontario, Temecula, Riverside, and San Bernardino. Riverside and San Bernardino Counties have over 4 million people combined. We also know ...
More About: Home , Homes , Real , Genius , Foot

Heart of Foreclosure Darkness: Every County in Southern California is now
2007-11-15 08:01:00
The last wall of housing Jericho has crumbled. What seemed to be the most stubborn county in the face of humankind, has finally come to terms with the current housing market. Even last month, Los Angeles County was still carrying a positive year-over-year median price tag even in the face of the growing ...
More About: California , Foreclosure , Heart , Southern

How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust: Interview with Author John
2007-11-13 08:00:00
Today we are going to have an interview with Mr. John Rubino, author of  How to Profit from the Coming Real Estate Bust: Money-Making Strategies for the End of the Housing Bubble and owner of the website Dollar Collapse.  I’ve been in touch with Mr. Rubino for well over a year on a weekly basis.  ...
More About: Real Estate , Interview

The Super Mortgage Market Birth Story: CDOs, Mezzanine, Unrated Tranches,
2007-11-11 03:14:00
There once was a boy named Tim who lived in a small rural town in the United States.  Tim had ambition and dreams larger than any town could contain.  In fact, it was well known that when Tim was only seven years old, he sold lemonade via IOUs with a 10 percent note to thirsty ...
More About: Story , Market , Super , Mortgage , Birth

War of the Housing Worlds: 3 Reasons why the Bubble Spread; War of the Wor
2007-11-08 20:01:00
Social epidemics are something to marvel at. You have bellbottoms in the 1970s and multicolored shorts in the 1980s. Sometimes you look back and wonder, ?how in the world did I ever think that was a smart thing to do?? Things ebb and flow and hindsight has Lasik precession of showing us ...
More About: Housing , Worlds , Reasons , Bubble , Spread

A Trip down the Housing Graveyard: The Casualties of the Housing Bear Mark
2007-11-07 17:15:00
Housing has taken a toll on the credit markets and is starting to create a whisper that we may be heading toward a recession. There is now chatter that the next sub-prime market may occur in the credit card markets. This is not good news as we are in the top 2 shopping ...
More About: Graveyard , Housing , Trip , Mark , Casualties

Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Burbank. $549,900 for Bank Owne
2007-11-06 09:19:00
As the onion layers peel back and we slowly start to realize which Wall Street firms and banks gambled on the mortgage party of the century, the memo apparently hasn?t arrived here in Southern California. Prices are still so high, we may need to go to Malibu for a little weekend rehab to come ...
More About: Today , Homes , Real , Bank , Salute

Keep Housing and Monetary Policy in the National Debates: Donate to Dr. Ro
2007-11-05 18:02:00
Today Dr. Ron Paul, the Republican candidate for President of the United States has brought in $1.4, $1.87, $2.1, $2.5, $2.8, $3 $3.87 million and counting. The mainstream media is having a hard time ignoring such growing momentum. In fact, how can a politician with a supposedly 1 percent rating ...
More About: Debates , National , Monetary Policy , Donate , Policy

3 Things I Learned from Watching Property Ladder: Lack of Fundamental Anal
2007-11-04 07:13:00
I?m sure many of you have seen TLC?s Property Ladder show.  It is a similar show to Flip This House except I?ve noticed that Property Ladder is more willing to show flips that have gone bad.  If you haven’t seen the show the premise is simple.  Someone buys a home, has a budget and time ...
More About: Things , Watching , Fundamental , Lack

It Wasn?t Me. 3 New Trends: The Housing Lawsuits Begin, Prevention, and S
2007-11-02 17:34:00
As human nature would have it, we love hearing stories in narrative form.  From our evolutionary history, story telling has always been a way of passing on the past to future generations.  We are good at this.  In fact, that is why we thrive in reading novels and movies with a consistent arch and are ...
More About: Lawsuits , Trends , Prevention , Housing , Suit

The Short End of the Stick: Examining Short Sales in Southern California
2007-11-01 19:07:00
It doesn?t come as a surprise that the Fed cut interest rates yet again this week. As the asset backed securities market is freezing up in tandem with falling home prices, the Fed is trying everything it can to inject any sort of liquidity into the housing market. The major policy shift that ...
More About: California , Sales , Southern , Southern California , Short

Real Homes of Genius: Culver City Pricing Dysfunction! Prices all Over th
2007-10-31 15:21:00
Recently I?ve started seeing an interesting tactic used by agents trying to move stagnant properties. The tactic is rather simple and uses techniques suitable for selling grilled cheese sandwiches with spiritual images on eBay. Folks are now pricing homes in the $150,000 to $299,000 price range to create bidding wars. This tactic ...
More About: City , Homes , Real , Genius , Prices