Phoenix Real Estate: Foreclosures surge in January
• AZcentral.comIn Scottsdale, 35 percent of existing-home sales are foreclosures; the foreclosure rate for Maricopa County is 52 percent.
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Housing
Robert Shiller: House Prices Still Way Too High
• finance.yahoo.com/Despite the 25 percent nationwide decline since the 2007 peak, U.S. house prices have still only fallen halfway to fair value. So whatever you think of Obama's plan, don't count on a quick housing-market turnaround.
Housing aid won't solve U.S. crisis
• International Herald TribuneAbout 28 percent of mortgage borrowers now owe more than the value of the houses, according to Zelman & Associates. And with equity stocks down 45 to 50 percent, their assets have shrunk more alarmingly, making them less good risks.
Predatory Legislators
• Peter Schiff for LewRockwell.comThe ringleaders are still at-large and are, in fact, busy hatching a plan to dwarf the earlier mistakes.
So Cal Real Estate: Median Price Down 50 Percent from Peak in 2007
• DoctorHousingBubble.comThe housing situation is deteriorating even further with the recent report showing that the median price is now back to $250,000; at this level we would have to go back to February of 2002 which means we have erased 6 years of price gains. And we ar
No Housing Recovery Before Further Price Declines
• Ritholtz.com/blog/But given the remorseless rise in unemployment, which, if anything, is destined to accelerate in the months ahead, the simple fact that so many people are too strapped to afford to buy a home, is, we believe, the most formidable barrier to even a tep
So Cal Real Estate: 58 Percent of Existing Home Sales are Foreclosures
• thetruthaboutmortgage.com/That pushed the median price paid to $224,000 last month, a 10 percent decline from $249,000 in December and a 41.5 drop from $383,000 in January 2008.
Homes: Still Too Pricey to Stabilize
• Ritholtz.comAssume that this couple are late 20s/early 30s, and are making decent — but not 6 figure — salaries. Can they afford that starter house? If not, then the entire real estate chain is frozen.
Foreclosure Epidemic: Obama's Housing Plan May Lead to Longer Crisis
• Ritholtz.com/blog/One minute video. Report and analysis by Peter Cook of Bloomberg News (Morning Call)
Home construction drops far more than expected
• finance.yahoo.com/news/Construction of new homes and applications for future projects both plunged to record lows in January as all parts of the country showed big declines in building activity.
Phoenix, Arizona: Existing Home Prices Crash Back to Jan. 2001 Level
• AZcentral.comPreliminary same-home resale data from Arizona State University show the Valley's median home price fell to $130,000 in January, equivalent to the median price in January 2001.
a NEW method of 'Real Estate Ownership! (patent pending)
• Doug Nusbaum himself!If implemented, it would, for those families who have some reasonable income, halt in its tracks the current wave of foreclosures.
Major Lenders Halt Foreclosures (long enough for a photo op)
• APThe White House said President Barack Obama on Wednesday will outline his much-anticipated plan to spend at least $50 billion to prevent foreclosures in a speech in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.
Grab Your Torch ‘n Pitchforks!
• NBCNewYork.com via e-mail from 'Winslow Joan**On Sunday, hundreds of angry homeowners ... protested outside Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack’s multi-million-dollar mansion to tell the wealthy finance czar how they really feel.
Ivy Zelman Explains Why Housing Will Not Bottom This Year
• blogs.WSJ.com/RealtyTrac, the foreclosure research firm, recently found that 70% of the bank-owned homes it reviewed in Florida, California, Wisconsin and Maryland were not listed for sale on the multiple listing service.
U.S. housing market bottom within sight
• Reuters[as long as bottom means another third drop in value] U.S. housing markets from Florida to California have suffered price drops of 50% or more from their peak, but now, at long last, a bottom is within sight, likely in the fourth quarter nationally,
How Low Are US Home Prices Headed?
• Jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/We would tend to treat 1995 as a 'lower bound' which might be more valid for those areas which had appreciated the parabolic increases from the bubble period.
Why can't my bank show me the DEED to my HOUSE ?! O Yah its not there!
Written By: • LetterStay Put Produce the note window.google_render_ad(); Follow the law Wall Street and its co-conspirators on Main Street had a great plan. Step 1: Ram predatory loans down the market with fraud and deceptive marketing.
Read Letter
New Home Sales Crash to Lowest Level in 46 Years
• CNBC.comThe Commerce Department said sales tumbled to a 331,000 annual pace, the lowest since it started keeping records in 1963.
Arizona: Fulton Homes seeks protection from creditors, files Chapter 11
• AZcentral.comPhoenix analyst Jim Belfiore of Belfiore Real Estate Consulting said home builders were expected to pull only 6,000 to 10,000 building permits in the coming year, a far cry from the 55,000 permits issued in 2005.
Residential Real Estate: California saw 423,962 Notices of Default in 2008
• CalculatedRiskblog.comThere were a record 423,962 NODs filed in 2008, breaking the old record of 254,824 NODs in 2007.
Housing and "Ghost Inventory"
• Calculatedriskblog.comThere is probably even more excess housing inventory gumming up the market than current statistics indicate, thanks to a wave of foreclosures that has yet to hit the market.
Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit<br>by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
• CounterpunchFor a picture of the US real estate crisis, imagine New Orleans wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, and before the waters even begin to recede, a second Katrina hits. The 1,120,000 lost US retail jobs in 2008 are a signal that the second stage of the real
Squatters take over seven-story Park Lane houses worth £30 million
• Telegraph.co.uk via Rense.comSquatting is not illegal if entry is not forced and no criminal damage is caused to the premises.
U.S. Homebuilder Confidence Drops to Record Low of 8 on a Scale of 100
• Bloomberg.comThe National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence dropped to 8, lower than forecast, from 9 in December, the Washington-based association said today. A reading below 50 means most respondents view conditions as poor.
National Association of Home Builders: Prices to Fall 29% in 2009
• CalculatedRiskblog.comCrowe said he expects prices to fall another 29 percent this year and new home sales to decline 14 percent.
Congress considers using TARP and 'Eminent Domain' to acquire mortgages
• HousingDoom.comTaylor and the NCRC are proposing a new government program, using TARP money, whereby the government would “use its power of eminent domain to take troubled properties/loans from mortgage servicers and lenders, so large numbers of loans...
Average Mortgage Rate Hits 5%, Lowest in Decades
• Washington PostWhat is not clear, however, is whether rates are attractive enough to lure a significant number of home buyers back into the ailing housing market. Interest rates on conforming mortgages dropped to an average of 5.01 percent for the week ending Jan.
Citigroup Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home Loans
• Washiington PostThe startling turnaround reflects the changed political and economic realities of the nation's deepening recession. Citigroup abandoned its long-standing opposition to let bankruptcy judges modify the terms of mortgages
“A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis” (FlowingData)
• Ponder ThisJust came across this site and its really solid flow chart on the roots of the financial and economic crisis. This is pretty spot-on.
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