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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 much is your agent being paid to sell you a house?
2008-03-28 08:01:00 The following ad was in M’s junk mail yesterday: Note this is a "Realtor communication" - not intended for general consumption. Coincidentally once more ARMLS reiterated their policy on listings yesterday- no talking about bonuses: ***************************************** ********************************* Inappropriate Language in MLS Listings Policy Therefore, all inappropriate language, as reviewed and deemed to be inappropriate by the Arizona Regional ... More About: House , Agent , Realtors , Housing Bubble , Paid
Op-Ed Friday: Will the job market come to this?
2008-03-28 08:01:00 It’s Friday , and with all the talk of recession, we have to ask ourselves if the job market will come to this: [Thanks L!] More About: Market , Housing Bubble
The ?Bell Curve Of Doom? Is Ringing For Recent Home Purchasers
2008-03-27 15:02:00 A friend forwarded me a copy of a report "The Bell Curve of Doom? - The Case - Shiller Price Index." I thought the following paragraph from this report did a great job of putting price declines in perspective: According to the Case-Shiller Composite 20 (metro areas) index, the price of an existing home peaked in ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Home
Phoenix Rise In Home Sales Not ?Unexpected? Or ?Sign Of Market Bottom?
2008-03-26 08:01:00 It’s spring in Phoenix - that time of year when we celebrate an "improvement" in the housing market, whether the market is showing real improvement or not. According to Catherine Reagor in the Arizona Republic yesterday: [Hat tip CC!] Existing-home sales climbed unexpectedly in February, as home buyers took advantage of low interest rates, falling home ... More About: Market , Sales , Housing Bubble , Home
?Banks walk away. The homeowners are gone, and the property is still there.
2008-03-25 14:33:00 There are times when foreclosures make sense. It can get an underwater borrower out of a difficult economic situation; it can readjust the market price of a property so that it can be purchased by someone who can afford it. I have to question the sense of this scenario though: In western New York, the city ... More About: Property , Banks , Market trends , Walk , Homeowners
February National Existing Home Sales: Sales Off- So Is Yun?s Grip On Reali
2008-03-25 08:01:00 The National Association of Realtors released their numbers for February Existing Home Sales yesterday, but any correlation between the NAR’s analysis and the data is purely coincidental. According to Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the NAR: WASHINGTON, March 24, 2008 - Sales of existing homes increased in February and remain within a fairly stable range, according ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends
?Welcome to Bailout Nation?
2008-03-24 16:40:00 From Yahoo Finance this morning: [Thanks L!] Bear’s stock has popped to $10, now that the Fed has caved and Bear and JP Morgan have announced a new, higher-priced deal. What does this mean? Among other things, it means tha all that jawboning from Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson last week about how the government wasn’t bailing ... More About: Housing Bubble , Nation , Bailout
Crack of Doom: Mission Accomplished
2008-03-24 08:02:00 Many thanks to "Rational Expectations" who sent us the following image and explanation: The mood on Wall Street seems akin to that on the USS Abraham Lincoln soon after the invasion of Iraq. My abilities with graphics packages are not very good, but perhaps you will see the irony. Mission accomplished!! I hope Doom ers enjoy this one ... More About: Housing Bubble , Crack
The Fed to buy or not to buy MBS? That is the question
2008-03-24 08:01:00 There were three interesting articles recently on Bloomberg, all speculating on MBS purchases by the Federal Reserve. First there’s the case for "Maybe they will" today: Forget lower interest rates. For the Federal Reserve to keep the financial markets from imploding it needs to buy troubled mortgage bonds from banks and securities firms, say ... More About: Question , Housing Bubble
Happy Easter From HousingDoom
2008-03-23 08:01:00 To all of our posters, readers, and contributors: A blessed and happy Easter . More About: Happy
The Credit Crisis: Storm over, or eye of the hurricane?
2008-03-22 15:30:00 We’ve heard a lot from the analysts and government officials on the effectiveness of the Fed’s intervention. While there is still plenty of concern, the general mood seems to be "Whew! We dodged that bullet!" Take this example from CNBC yesterday: Well-known banking analyst Richard Bove even delivered a report on the financial sector Thursday ... More About: Credit , Housing Bubble , Storm , Crisis , Hurricane
Op-Ed Friday: An Open Letter
2008-03-21 18:21:00 It’s Friday , and I thought I’d take a moment and respond to "Wilson" who’s multiple comments were in Igor’s clutches this morning. I rarely let Igor have his way with posters, but I thought I’d respond with this open letter, so Wilson will know why he’s the exception: Wilson- As you suspected, your comments will ... More About: Housing Bubble , Open , Letter , Open Letter
If Americans don?t read beyond the headlines, we deserve the information we
2008-03-20 14:49:00 No wonder we keep getting sloppy mainstream media reporting. It is all we can expect if readers aren’t going to take the time to give the information they are given a hard look. Case in point. R.L. Brown, a new home analyst in the Phoenix area, was quoted in an Arizona Republic article yesterday entitled Valley ... More About: Information , Housing Bubble , Read , Americans , Headlines
Your opportunity to rid the elderly of unwanted equity
2008-03-19 15:28:00 Here’s your chance to help the elderly rid themselves of unwanted equity, and make money doing it! More About: Housing Bubble , Opportunity , Elderly , Equity
Mesa, AZ: Collectors Seeing Less Garbage As More People Leave
2008-03-18 07:01:00 Tracking population trends can be a bit tricky, so different metrics are often used– driver’s license applications, home sales, etc. Here’s a new one: garbage collections, and it appears that Mesa’s population may be declining: [Thanks to M and L for this one!] The city’s solid-waste manager told the City Council last week that foreclosures and ... More About: People , Housing Bubble , Market trends , Leave , Garbage
J.P. Morgan finds Bear Stearns a ?well run bank?
2008-03-17 06:06:00 This unbelievable quote brought to us by Reuters yesterday evening: [Thanks L!] NEW YORK, March 16 (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase said on Sunday that it found Bear Stearns Inc. a well run bank with good risk control. A JPMorgan executive said on a conference call that 200 employees scrutinized Bear Stearn’s books over three days. More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Bank
?We have all the ingredients for a major market meltdown?
2008-03-17 00:57:00 Feeling a little nervous about the market tomorrow? So is Peter Schiff: [Thanks L!] More About: Market , Housing Bubble , Ingredients , Major
Should/Could Institutional ?Debt Junkies? Go Cold Turkey?
2008-03-16 07:25:00 From today’s Telegraph: Central banks are trying to calm jitters by pouring billions of dollars into money markets to increase liquidity. Last week another $200 billion was dropped into the system. That was quickly swallowed up amidst screams for yet more emergency injections. Debt junkies, like heroin addicts, demand ever bigger fixes. And this brings us ... More About: Turkey , Housing Bubble , Cold , Institutional
?Integrity Has Been Stripped From The System?
2008-03-15 14:15:00 We keep watching an interest rate tweaked here, a program enacted there, and know that what is being done will not "save the markets"- housing or otherwise. Minyanville this morning though, offered this rather sane observation: The problem is liquidity, solvency, and something more: faith. No one wants to buy the bonds, SIV’s etc etc ... More About: System , Housing Bubble , Integrity , Stripped
Las Vegas: One Couple, Over 200 Overpriced Properties, 400 Straw Buyers, 1
2008-03-15 08:01:00 One Las Vegas couple has brought mortgage fraud to new heights: [Thanks L!] U.S. Attorney for Nevada Gregory Brower says Eve Mazzarella, 30, and her husband, Steven Grimm, 45, were indicted Wednesday on bank fraud, money laundering and aiding and abetting charges. Grimm was arrested Thursday in Las Vegas and is due to appear ... More About: Housing Bubble , Las Vegas Market , Couple , Buyers
Phoenix: ?Public Lender Foreclosure Auction? Tomorrow. Anyone Going?
2008-03-14 23:44:00 U.S. Home Auction is auctioning off 375+ homes in the Phoenix area tomorrow and Sunday: More About: Public , Housing Bubble , Foreclosure
S & P: Thanks for the heads up guys!
2008-03-14 21:57:00 A big hat tip to The Big Picture for this laugh of the day: Standard & Poor’s cut some of its credit ratings on investment bank Bear Stearns Friday following news of the bank’s cash crisis and emergency bailout. S&P cut its long-term counterparty rating on Bear Stearns to "BBB" from "A" and its ... More About: Housing Bubble , Market trends , Guys , Heads
Fiancial situation of Bear Sterns has ?significantly deteriorated?
2008-03-14 15:24:00 From CNBC this morning: Bear Stearns said its financial situation had "significantly deteriorated" during the past 24 hours and is receiving short-term financing from JP Morgan Chase to shore up confidence in its operations. J.P. Morgan will provide a secured loan facility for an initial period of up to 28 days, allowing Bear Stearns to access liquidity ... More About: Housing Bubble , Situation
Consumer Inflation Moderates In February? Really?
2008-03-14 14:17:00 It looked as though Lawrence Yun had started writing for Marketwatch this morning. The headline was Consumer inflation moderates in February : WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Led by a quirky decline in energy costs, U.S. consumer inflation moderated in February, opening the door for the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest rates to support flagging economic growth. The consumer ... More About: Inflation , Market trends , Moderates
Op-Ed Friday: Can You Get A Loan?
2008-03-14 08:05:00 According to CNN yesterday, tighter lending standards have made it more difficult, and more costly, for even the best borrowers to get loans: The credit crunch has finally hit the traditional mortgage market. Investors are now shunning mortgage-backed securities issued by government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been critical in keeping ... More About: Housing Bubble , Loan , Friday
?Subprime? Tent City?
2008-03-14 08:01:00 According to BBC News, tent cities are now springing up outside of Los Angeles- filled with victims of the subprime crisis: Certainly these are people who have been hit by economic woes, but from the interviews, it sounds more like unemployment, not foreclosure, is the real culprit. The fully employed can rent. More About: Housing Bubble , City , Subprime , Tent City , Tent
House in foreclosure- selling everything
2008-03-14 08:01:00 When this Craigslist ad from Laveen, AZ says "House in foreclosure, selling everything"- they aren’t kidding. Here’s the picture with the ad: More About: Selling , Housing Bubble , Foreclosure
Phoenix February Median Home Price Down 15% Year Over Year
2008-03-13 08:01:00 Jay Butler of ASU Realty Studies has released his February housing report for Phoenix for the first time since the housing market began its decline in Phoenix, the median price declined at a greater rate than sales. Sales were down 11%: MESA, Ariz. — February is a short month, and it is traditionally not a ... More About: Housing Bubble , Home , Price , Year
Tucson Home Prices Experiencing A Long Term ?Blip?
2008-03-13 08:01:00 The headline in yesterday’s Arizona Star was Home Price Median Here Below $200K: The Tucson real estate market hit a milestone in February: The median price dipped below $200,000 for the first time in almost three years. The median price dropped to $199,900, down about 9 percent from $219,500 in the same month last year, ... More About: Housing Bubble , Long , Term
Yun?s Solution For Housing
More articles from this author:2008-03-13 02:13:00 Many thanks to L for the best laugh I’ve had all day. Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors has offered his own solution for rising foreclosures across the country. In his proposal he uses the level of mathematical logic we’ve come to expect from the NAR and their economists: Referring to other ... More About: Housing , Solution 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
