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Blog Details for "HousingDoom"
HousingDoomHousingDoomExpert news and opinion on the US housing market. A must read for anyone who is interested in real estate or considering buying or selling a home. In addition to timely posts on analyzing subjects ranging from subprime mortgages to national home sal Articles
How do you run an HOA when there are only a couple of you in the neighborho
2008-04-16 09:01:00 In June 2007 I was checking out new communities in Gilbert, and looked into Stratland Estates. I thought it looked like a neighborhood in trouble with too many specs. A check of records at the Assessor’s office showed five sales at the time. Stratland Estates sounded wonderful on their website- here’s how the builder describes it: This ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Couple
Foreclosure Rate In U.S. Accelerating
2008-04-15 15:10:00 From Bloomberg this morning: [Thanks G!] April 15 (Bloomberg) — U.S. foreclosure filings jumped 57 percent and bank repossessions more than doubled in March from a year earlier as adjustable mortgages increased and more owners gave up their homes to lenders. More than 234,000 properties were in some stage of foreclosure, or one in ... More About: Housing Bubble , Foreclosure , Accelerating , Rate
CEO of ARMLS Responds To ?Secret? Bonus Remarks
2008-04-15 09:01:00 On April 12 we posted a news story done by Brahm Resnik on the practice by the Arizona Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) of forbidding any bonuses offered to buyers agents not being permitted in the realtor remarks. Yesterday Bob Bemis, CEO of ARMLS, posted a response. In fairness to Mr. Bemis, I thought I would ... More About: Realtors , Housing Bubble , Secret , Bonus
Phoenix Median Home Price Down A ?Stable? 17% In March
2008-04-14 09:01:00 Dr. Jay Butler of ASU Realty Studies has released his home sales report for March , and we’ll start with my favorite quote: The median home price remained stable at $220,000, in contrast to last year’s $265,470. It’s true that month-to-month, the median was unchanged, but it’s also a 17% YOY drop. In most circles that brings ... More About: Phoenix , Housing Bubble , Home , Price
Lenders Starting To Make ?Walkaways? Feel The Pain
2008-04-14 05:47:00 As more and more homeowners are deciding to just walk away from homes that they either can’t afford or are no longer willing to pay for, lenders are starting to fight back: [Thanks L!] The country’s two largest sources of mortgage money have a blunt warning for anyone thinking about joining the growing "walkaway" trend, ... More About: Housing Bubble , Pain , Make , Feel , Lenders
Jury Finds Buyer Was Adequately Informed By Agent
2008-04-13 09:01:00 On April 3, we discussed the story of the Ummels, the unhappy homebuyers that were suing their realtor. The jury has ruled, and they are saying "caveat emptor": Friday, April 11, 2008 | A jury sided Thursday with Carlsbad real estate broker Mike Little in a closely watched lawsuit that pitted a local couple ... More About: Agent , Realtors , Housing Bubble , Buyer
Word On Arizona MLS Secret Agent Bonuses Getting Out
2008-04-13 03:17:00 Kudos to Brahm Resnik for giving this story wider coverage: [Doom’s own M contributed to this story.] More About: Agent , Realtors , Arizona , Word , Secret
Twist: My Email Is Back
2008-04-12 13:32:00 I was apparently the victim of a "Zip Bomb", which had the effect of holding most of my email hostage for the past several days. Because some of my email was getting through, I was unaware that this was happening. I get rather a lot of email these days, so it may take me a day ... More About: Email , Back , Twist
Las Vegas: Median Price Down 20.3% In March
2008-04-11 09:01:00 There are two big trends in the Las Vegas housing market this month. One is that while sales are declining, they are not declining as quickly has they have been. The same cannot be said for prices, however. Price s continue to decline in the double digits. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors released their report ... More About: Housing Bubble , March
?I Will Not Have Anyone Putting Holes In The Walls?
2008-04-11 09:01:00 A bitter homeowner is losing their home to foreclosure in Maricopa, AZ and is selling out to the walls- but at least is exhibiting some scruples: **You must professionally uninstall all fixtures, and or items. I will not have anyone putting holes in the walls or damaging the existing structure to remove these items. ... More About: Market trends , Putting , Holes , Walls
Phoenix Foreclosures: If Not A Crisis, Pretty Close To It
2008-04-10 17:43:00 Phoenix can take comfort, I guess, that the foreclosures in some other markets are worse: More than 4,000 notice of trustees sales, the first step in the home foreclosure process, were recorded in Maricopa County in March, but the area is not facing a crisis, according to Default Research. The Mt. Pleasant, Pa., ... More About: Phoenix , Foreclosures , Housing Bubble , Close , Pretty
Bailout Bills Are Bad Policy And Won?t Work
2008-04-10 09:01:00 My apologies for the video quality, but Nicole Gelinas, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute makes some interesting points on bailout legislation: More About: Housing Bubble , Work , Policy , Bailout , Bills
Don?t Expect Much From Tax Credit This Time Around
2008-04-10 07:17:00 In this evening’s Washington Post, Senator Johnny Isakson, (R-Ga) defends the proposed $7,000 tax credit: I take exception to the assertion in the April 7 editorial "A Pro-Foreclosure Bill" that the $7,000 tax credit in the Senate housing measure will encourage home foreclosures. I was in the real estate business for 33 years, and, ... More About: Credit , Time , Housing Bubble , Expect , Tax credit
February Pending Home Sales: Not a ?slip?, but a ?slide?
2008-04-09 09:01:00 Pending home sales numbers released yesterday by the National Association of Realtors were at their lowest level since the NAR started reporting these numbers in 2001: The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in February, slipped 1.9 percent to 84.6 from an upwardly revised reading of 86.2 in January, and was ... More About: Housing Bubble , Slide , Slip
Federal Reserve Can?t See A Bubble Coming Or Going
2008-04-08 15:13:00 Alan Greenspan, who only saw housing getting a little "frothy" in the first place, doesn’t seem to understand what it takes for prices to stabilize, nor how long this process is likely to take: April 8 (Bloomberg) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the drop in U.S. home prices will probably end “well before” ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Bubble
Crack of Doom: Subprime Contagion Hitting Botox Market
2008-04-07 09:01:00 It’s Monday, and it looks like nothing is safe from the subprime contagion: [Thanks L!] It used to be a high point of Goldy Anthony’s life. Every six weeks or so, as a kind of personal morale booster, she and a group of girlfriends would make appointments to see a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon ... More About: Market , Housing Bubble , Crack , Doom , Botox
Short Sale: ?Tenant Hasn?t Paid In A Year?
2008-04-07 09:01:00 L sent me the following listing, and it’s priceless: Short sale opportunity - tenant hasn’t paid rent in a year - eviction unsuccessful. Hired an attorney and made false claims about who owned the property and got the eviction quashed. No time or money to fight it - giving property back to bank. ... More About: Housing Bubble , Sale , Paid , Year
San Antonio: Pictures Of A ?Hot? Market
2008-04-07 05:26:00 In today’s cooling real estate market, I guess "hot" is a relative term. According to Thursday’s San Antonio Business Journal, San Antonio is "Hot": San Antonio has been named one of America’s top cities for residential real estate investing for the first quarter of 2008. That’s at least according to a report by Dallas-based HomeVestors of ... More About: Pictures , Market , Housing Bubble
Lehman Brothers- Victims Of Short-Sellers Or Their Own Bad Practices?
2008-04-04 09:01:00 The stock of Lehman Brothers has been hurting the past couple of weeks, and Lehman is blaming the shorts: Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers provided information to the Securities and Exchange Commission that could show hedge funds were abusively short selling the company’s stock, according to a report in the Financial Times. The SEC, in ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Sellers
Unhappy Homebuyer Suing Realtor
2008-04-03 16:55:00 This is one case worth watching. If these buyers prevail, it could have implications for the entire industry: [Thanks Trisha!] Anyone who bought a home near the peak of the once-sizzling real estate market no doubt has found it painful to watch prices tumble with no end in sight. But in the case of ... More About: Housing Bubble , Realtor
Twist Is In Las Vegas
2008-04-03 09:01:00 I’m in Las Vegas today, and anxious to get out and see the housing market. I’ll be at my computer less than usual while I get out to see the "real world". Since I’ll be out and about, we’d especially appreciate any news, links or comments you might have. Please be courteous of other posters- Igor ... More About: Housing Bubble , Twist
Rescue Bill: It Ain?t Gonna Work
2008-04-02 13:35:00 From CNBC this morning: Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate agreed Tuesday to draft a housing rescue bill that could deliver billions of dollars to homeowners facing foreclosure and help steer the economy away from a deep recession. Democratic leaders want the federal government to pay for more mortgage counselors, rehab projects ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Work , Rescue , Bill
Are Your Mortgage Applications Safe?
2008-04-02 09:01:00 In January 2007, Doom received information that a mortgage office had shut down- and that the contents were being sold at auction. Files remained in the cabinets and the hard drives were not wiped. Mortgage files contain a great deal of personal information, and with the large number of lenders that have gone under, the ... More About: Applications , Housing Bubble , Safe
Phoenix March Home Sales Preview
2008-04-02 09:01:00 Many thanks, as always, to M for pulling the numbers from ARMLS for our March preview. Do remember that agents have a couple of days to add sales in, so this number may be slightly lower than the number ARMLS releases at the middle of the month: ARMLS is reporting home sales of 3445 in February, ... More About: Phoenix , Preview , Sales , Housing Bubble , Home
New Quarter, New Writedowns
2008-04-01 15:33:00 Wait a minute, weren’t the subprime writedowns supposed to be over? Just two weeks ago Businessweek was reporting: Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services believes that the bulk of the writedowns of subprime securities may be behind the banks and brokers that have already announced their results for full-year 2007. There may be some additional ... More About: Housing Bubble , Quarter
Investors have not left the market- but that doesn?t mean they are the ?sma
2008-03-31 15:16:00 Today we’ll try and unravel the twisted logic of Realty Times’ Blanche Evans and Lawrence Yun of the National Association of Realtors . According to Evans: This latest report should put the notion to bed that the housing boom was largely driven by speculators. The National Association of Realtors annual Investment and Vacation Home Buyers ... More About: Market , Housing Bubble , Market trends , Left
Mortgage Payment Revolt in Philly
2008-03-30 09:01:00 From Reuters last Friday: PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Authorities in Philadelphia will suspend foreclosure sales of homes whose owners have fallen behind on adjustable-rate subprime loan payments — potential relief for tens of thousands of struggling debtors. Sheriff John Green said on Friday he would halt sales of foreclosed properties in April and would ... More About: Housing Bubble , Mortgage , Payment , Philly , Revolt
Phoenix: Developers Want A Bailout Too
2008-03-29 14:27:00 "We paid too much, and now we need help!" This time the cry isn’t from "bamboozled" subprime borrowers, but from developers who bid too much for state land purchases: At least three developers who purchased land in northeast Phoenix ’s Desert Ridge area when times were good are seeking relief from the terms of their purchase ... More About: Housing Bubble , Developers , Bailout
A Toll Tale in Gilbert, AZ? With a Hair-Raising Haircut
2008-03-29 08:01:00 Power Ranch is a nice master-planned community on the far east side of Gilbert, AZ. The largest homes in Power Ranch were built by Toll Brothers in "The Enclave", the largest model being "The Terraza." Not everyone in the Enclave has been happy with their home, but it’s a very nice neighborhood. The market slowed ... More About: Housing Bubble , Hair , Tale , Haircut
Federal Reserve to be given sweeping new powers
More articles from this author:2008-03-29 04:10:00 I (along with many others) believe that the housing crisis was brought on, in large part, by poor policies and planning on the part of Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve . So who does the Treasury Department feel is best qualified to take over crisis management? You guessed it– the Fed: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. ... More About: Housing Bubble , Powers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
