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Reverse Mortgage To Foreclosure In Less Than Three Years
2009-09-11 17:34:00
Anyone who’s ever watched any late night television has seen those commercials for reverse mortgage.  They are always touted by older celebrities claiming how safe these things are.  For those who actually believe that there’s little risk to a reverse mortgage, here’s a cautionary tale from our faithful longtime correspondent in Tucson- M.R.: Recently I passed a vacant house with a NOTS posted on the front fence. I know the owner of this property — she’s an elderly lady who took out a reverse mortgage in 2006. The NOTS gave the amount, $285,500. Twist, in no way, even during the height of the bubble, was that place ever worth that much. Very few places in zip code 85705 are. Furthermore, the lady was known for feeding every stray cat in the area, and for allowing them into her house. You can just imagine what the place smelled like. After she got the reverse mortgage, she went on a truly baffling spending spree. We’re talking things lik...
More About: Foreclosure , Mortgage , Years , Reverse Mortgage

Op-Ed Friday: Help Save Arizona- Eat Out
2009-09-11 17:24:00
  It’s Friday , and we finally have a solution to stabilizing the housing market- eat out.  After all, a bad economy makes for a bad housing market, and dining out will help fix that:  [Thanks L!] Gov. Jan Brewer took the stage Thursday with rocker and restaurateur Alice Cooper to convince Arizona ns that dining out is good for the state. Announcing a three-month public-awareness campaign called Dine 4 AZ, they said going to restaurants  supports businesses and helps preserve jobs. Brewer noted that restaurants generate 10 percent of Arizona’s tax revenues. "We are working hard to lead the Grand Canyon State forward and out of this recession, and Dine 4 AZ fits perfectly into our plan," she said. "Please treat your family to a meal and we’ll get through this together." According to Stephen D. Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association:   We’ve been hit hard by unemployment, immigration issue...
More About: Save

Foreign Cenbank Holdings of US Obligations Weekly Update — to September 9
2009-09-11 09:01:00
Moody’s said in a report it doesn’t expect any downgrades of countries with triple-A ratings — the highest possible — in the "near future," adding that only a sustained increase in government debt over several years, which it doesn’t anticipate, would warrant such a decision. - WSJ1 Well, the good news is that this week’s Reuters report2 suggests if the US wants to sell a lot more debt, foreign central banks might not be in a mood right now to buy the stuff. The report was, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.3 Here is Doom’s updated CSV version4 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings data set. The Puplava number barely budged. The Fed’s own holdings of mortgage-backed securities rose a mere $0.025 billion. Cenbanks sold a modest but significant $3.003 billion of Treasury Debt last week. Could this sputtering pattern presage a top? Agencies fell by $2.656 b...
More About: Update , Foreign , Weekly , September , Holdings

New Home Market “Stabilizing”? Maracay Homes Doesn’t Thin
2009-09-10 15:39:00
  You can watch the news to find out how the new home sale market is "stabilizing" and homebuilder sentiment is "improving", or you can do like I do and take a peek into L’s junk mail for a more realistic view of where builders think the market is headed: [Thanks L- it's great to have you back!] When the market was hot, the homebuilders wouldn’t give agents the time of day.  When the market cooled and builders were stuck with bloated inventories, they started offering higher commissions, gas cards and other perks.  Guess which mode Maracay is in?
More About: Market , Home , Homes

“… computers don’t manipulate markets, people do”
2009-09-10 12:47:00
The problem, of course, is that people have been given new, trading tools of mass destruction.. - WSJ1 This must-read article has just about every gun lobby trick of rhetoric deployed in defense of high-frequency trading. And as a special added bonus, they slide in that silent assumption, that’s been saturating the story arc, that Sergey Aleynikov actually did something. —————&mdash ;—– [1]: "Peering into the Black Box: Was Lehman Murdered by a Thousand Trades?", by David Weidner, Wall Street Journal [corrected -- thanks JMF! - jm], September 10, 2009.
More About: Computers , People , Markets

Phoenix Rental Prices Dropped 15% In The Past Year
2009-09-09 09:01:00
Rental prices are low in the Phoenix area- and are headed lower: Rent prices are likely to fall significantly in the coming months as a growing number of commercial real-estate investors buy up struggling apartment communities, according to some local real-estate analysts. The same phenomenon that has driven down home-sale prices appears to be occurring in the apartment market, they said, with cash buyers lowering prices as much as is necessary to attract paying customers. As a result, average rent prices have dropped an estimated 15 percent or more in the past year, and they could fall another 15 percent in the coming year, one local analyst said. Because cash investors don’t have a loan to repay, there really is no bottom line at which to hold their rent prices, said Jim Kasten, a Phoenix real-estate analyst and investor. The problem for apartment owners who do have mortgages is that they’ll have to lower their rent prices, too, if they hope to remain competitive,...
More About: Rental , Past , Year

Igor’s Dungeon
2009-09-09 00:25:00
Doom Transcripts: Index & Guide This is an open thread for the Housing Doom Page Transcript Index & Guide, a collection of navigational aids for Doom’s collection of transcripts of web audio / visual resources. Pages are not set up to have their own comment threads, so it was necessary to create a separate thread where comments on the Guide could be posted.
More About: Igor

Pending Sales No Longer Good Indicator Of Future Sales
2008-06-09 20:01:00
According to CNBC this morning, Housing Market Is Showing Signs of a Turnaround: Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes unexpectedly rose in April to the highest level in six months as foreclosed properties flooded the market and drove prices sharply lower, a real estate trade group report showed. The National Association of ...
More About: Realtors , Future , Sales , Housing Bubble , Good

Crack of Doom: Feeling Poorer?
2008-06-09 09:03:00
It’s Monday, and if your wallet seems thinner to you these days, there’s a reason: The net worth of Americans fell $US1.7 trillion in the first quarter - the biggest drop since 2002; the amount of equity people have in their homes fell to 46.2%, the lowest level on record (and house prices are still falling); ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Crack , Doom , Feeling

Las Vegas May Home Sales: Inventory and Sales Up, Prices Down
2008-06-09 09:01:00
The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) has released their May numbers.  The biggest news is the median price, which declined from $301,352 to $236,692 for a 21.5% drop. According to the Hubble Smith of the Review Journal:
More About: Sales , Housing Bubble , Home , Inventory

Phoenix Realtors Jumping From A Sinking Ship
2008-06-09 04:57:00
In 2005, you couldn’t throw a rock in Phoenix without hitting a Realtor, but that isn’t the case any more.  Apparently a lot fewer people are signing up for real estate school these days. [Hat tip Asset Hunter!] Connie Ross wonders a little when people tell her they want to enroll in real-estate school. Ross, a ...
More About: Realtors , Housing Bubble , Ship , Jumping

Portland: Not a ?bubble?, but still a bust
2008-06-08 14:25:00
  We keep hearing how the "Gloom and Doomers" are overstating the problems.  After all, the pundits tell us, "All real estate is local,"  so not all markets are feeling the pain.  There are still "bubble-proof" markets like Portland , Oregon: NORTH PLAINS, Ore. - Here at the western edge of the Portland metro area, green fields ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Bust , Bubble

Government Is No Good At ?Flip That House?
2008-06-07 15:01:00
Even some of the sharpest folks [Or perhaps I should say ESPECIALLY the sharpest folks] in real estate have gotten out of house "flipping". In a declining economy, with a glut of homes on the market, and financing difficult- it’s next to impossible to have flipping make financial sense.  That doesn’t stop government from wanting ...
More About: House , Government , Housing Bubble , Market trends , Good

Make Sure Your Real Estate Agent Is Really An Agent
2008-06-07 09:01:00
Real estate fraud hasn’t died, it’s just shifted gears a little. A brazen scammer working in Round Rock, north of Texas showed his "customers" several properties before renting out a home- that wasn’t for rent: Timothy Alonzo Nero did everything he could to convince customers he was a legitimate real estate agent, Round Rock police ...
More About: Agent , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Agent , Real

Op-Ed Friday: Banks Experiencing Subprime Losses
2008-06-06 14:48:00
It’s Friday , and with mounting foreclosures and rumblings at Lehman Brothers, I couldn’t help but think that Doomers would enjoy this video: We welcome your comments on subprime losses, or anything else housing related.
More About: Banks , Housing Bubble , Losses , Subprime

Canada: Old, Frozen Commercial Paper Becomes New Again
2008-06-06 09:01:00
From Bloomberg yesterday: June 5 (Bloomberg) — A Canadian judge approved a plan to convert C$32 billion ($31.5 billion) of frozen commercial paper to new notes that mature within nine years over objections of noteholders who have indicated they will appeal to retain their right to sue sellers of the debt. ...
More About: Commercial , Canada , Housing Bubble , Paper , Frozen

Tax Those Vacant Properties Away!
2008-06-05 14:04:00
Washington, D.C. has an unusual solution to all those vacant properties- double their taxes! [Hat tip M!] The D.C. Council voted Tuesday to double the tax rate on vacant properties and make permanent some of the tighter enforcement rules the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has been practicing since early last ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Vacant , Properties

Workouts AFTER Foreclosure
2008-06-04 09:01:00
I had an interesting conversation with an Austin attorney yesterday. He said that many of his clients are, shall we say, less than sophisticated.  He has had several that have come to him AFTER they were foreclosed on, trying to save their house.  Surprisingly, more often than not, he says it’s possible. There are a lot of ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Foreclosure

Will Home Prices Turn Before You Know It?
2008-06-03 15:03:00
The real estate pundits are out and warning that you should buy before prices start to go up.  From Irwin Kellner, chief economist for Marketwatch and Capital One Bank: Housing could shift from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market before you know it. Now don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that all is ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Home , Turn , Prices

Phoenix Home Sales: May Preview
2008-06-02 15:55:00
While the official numbers from ARMLS will not be out until the 15th, we thank M as always for our early preview of Phoenix home sales.  This month it appears that sales are down year-over-year, but only slightly: Active      53,104 UC      
60;     8,304 Sold      & #160;   5,605 According to ARMLS, 5795 homes sold in May 2007. Our unofficial inventory stood at 54,705 last ...
More About: Preview , Sales , Housing Bubble , Home

Crack of Doom: Today?s Ugly Graph
2008-06-02 14:56:00
It’s Monday, and do you know what your Fed is doing?
More About: Housing Bubble , Today , Crack , Doom , Ugly

Two Years Of Doom: Happy Birthday To Us!
2008-06-01 10:01:00
On June 1, 2006, Doom went online with its first post.  Much to my amazement, two years and 1,404 posts later, we are still here. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who makes Doom possible. It was my intent from our inception to have HousingDoom be a forum and a resource, rather than ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Happy , Birthday , Years

Greenspan Apparently Suffering From ?Bubble Blindness?
2008-05-31 16:06:00
From Reuters yesterday: MONTREAL (Reuters) - Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Friday that he does not expect another "bubble" in world markets for a long time, and that central banks at any rate do not control the long-term interest rates that can be related to bubbles.
More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Suffering , Bubble

Builders: ?Agents Drag Your Customers Way Out Here, We?ll Pay Your Gas?
2008-05-31 15:37:00
For developments far from the center of town, apparently the potential of a large cobroke isn’t enough to entice agents any more. More and more often, the builders are offering to kick in with gas money- this D.R. Horton offer being the most I’ve seen so far.  Usually the builders just offer a one trip ...
More About: Agents , Customers , Housing Bubble , Builders , Drag

In Parts of CA, Lenders Have Lock On Resale Market, Resellers Out Of Luck
2008-05-30 15:28:00
Thinking of putting your house on the market in Stockton, CA?  Good luck getting an agent to represent you: In some areas of California, so many foreclosed homes are available to buy on the cheap that real estate agents are discouraging prospective sellers from even putting their houses on the market. Perhaps the most ...
More About: Market , Housing Bubble , Parts , Luck , Lock

Newly Delinquent Borrowers Outnumbering Those Catching Up Two-To-One
2008-05-30 09:01:00
Defaults and delinquencies show no sign of slowing: May 30 (Bloomberg) — 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. In April, 73,880 homeowners with privately insured mortgages fell more than ...
More About: Housing Bubble

Foreclosure is rarely fair
2008-05-29 16:57:00
From CNBC’s Diana Olick: [Hat tip L!]   I was moderating a panel of two governors and an economist today on the foreclosure crisis. It was much of the usual stuff until Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell made a bold proposal. He said that in addition to the legislation making its way through Congress to ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Foreclosure , Fair

Senate Doesn?t Want Borrowers Walking
2008-05-29 16:19:00
About the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 just passed by the Senate : Buried in the proposed legislation is something new and revolutionary, an effort to stop mortgage walk-aways. According to author Peter G. Miller: The Senate legislation addresses the walk away issue by saying that before borrowers can get FHA financing they must ...
More About: Housing Bubble , Walking

Banks Choking Home Sales? Should Have Done It Earlier
2008-05-28 09:01:00
Darn those banks, anyway.  More and more they are insisting that buyers be able to afford the homes they purchase, and that the homes be worth what is being paid.  This isn’t sitting well with everyone: It’s not that people don’t want homes, it’s that they can’t buy them under the stricter lending standards. That’s ...
More About: Banks , Sales , Housing Bubble , Home

MLS Now Open To Online Real Estate Brokers
2008-05-28 05:11:00
Thanks to everyone who gave me a heads up, and to G.H. who sent this link to the Arizona Star: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department gave a boost today to online real estate brokers — and potentially their clients — by forcing new industry policies that give Internet-based agents access to home listings they ...
More About: Estate , Real Estate , Housing Bubble , Open , Brokers