Category: US Housing
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Horrid US Economic Data on Housing Market, Jobs and Durable Goods / Economics / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are looking at weekly unemployment claims . In the week ending Sept. 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 493,000, an increase of 32,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 461,000. It is estimated that the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and the effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas added approximately 50,000 claims to the total. The 4-week moving average was 462,500, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised average of 446,500. The spin above blames hurricanes. I do not buy it, at least to the extent claimed. The fact of the matter is this economy is rapidly falling apart.
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
Bush's Housing Market Rescue Plan Full of Dry Rot / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Adrian_Ash
"The reality of the situation is that an open, competitive, and liberalized financial market can effectively allocate scarce resources in a manner that promotes stability and prosperity far better than governmental intervention..." – Hank Paulson, speaking at the China-US Strategic Dialogue in Shanghai, 3/7/2007
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
Value of Housing Markets in USA and UK Past, Present, and Future / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Andrew_Butter
The nationalization of Fannie and Freddie signaled that the valuations of assets used to secure loans to which these companies were exposed, were suspect.
"Legally" Fannie and Freddie were solvent. But no one believed the valuations, first the market didn't, and finally, neither did the regulators. This was an extraordinary admission of failure of the system of valuation, past and present.
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
US Housing Bear Market Nowhere Near a Bottom / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: John_Mauldin
- The Headwinds to Growing Your Wealth
- The Wealth of Nations
- Housing: Are We at the Bottom?
- Alt-A is the New Subprime
- 3.5 Million Unemployed and Counting
This week we look at the housing market in some detail. When can we expect it to turn around? Part of the problem is that a new wave of foreclosures is coming due, and this time it is not subprime. And that means more problems for the large financial companies. Also, as predicted here, consumer spending is taking a hit as consumers are finding it increasingly difficult to get credit and a deteriorating labor market is dragging down total spending. There are some very interesting details in the data that was released this week. And we take a quick peek at the outlook for inflation. What is in the pipeline, so to speak? It should make for an interesting letter.
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Friday, September 12, 2008
U.S. Foreclosures Shock Wave Ripples Through Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Peter_Schiff
Bloomberg is reporting U.S. Foreclosures Hit Record in August as Housing Prices Fell .U.S. foreclosure filings rose to a record in August as falling home prices made it harder to sell or refinance homes to pay off the mortgage, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
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Friday, September 05, 2008
UK Housing Market Crash Now at Minus 12.8% For August / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Halifax's latest house price data shows that the housing market crash continued to accelerate into August, plunging by 1.7% that saw another £3000 wiped off house prices following the £3,300 write off for July to stand at down 12.8% on the year to August (on a non seasonally adjusted basis). UK house prices have now fallen by more than 8% since April. If a fall of 8% in 4 months cannot be considered a crash in UK house prices than I do not know what can. No wonder Chancellor Darling virtually threw in the towel during the weekend in his famous "I give up, please let me spend more time with my family" speech.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Chancellor Darling's Panic Move on Stamp Duty Freeze to Rescue Housing Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Telegraph is reporting Chancellor raises stamp duty threshold to £175,000 . Buyers of homes worth up to £175,000 will not have to pay stamp duty, Alistair Darling has announced, as he promised the country would "get through" the economic downturn.
In a surprise move to try to revive the housing market, the embattled Chancellor said that the £125,000 threshold at which buyers pay 1 per cent stamp duty will be raised from tomorrow and frozen at the new level for one year.
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Monday, September 01, 2008
When Will Southern California House Prices Bottom? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
Inquiring minds are wondering about California home prices. My friend "BC" pinged me recently with the following thoughts: Were the Kuznets Cycle to confirm to past patterns, real median CA house prices will not again return to the '04-'06 levels for another 15-20 yrs., if then given the longer-term demographic profile, normalized lending standards, and likely slower real GDP growth trend (2% vs. 3-3.5%).
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Sunday, August 31, 2008
Fed Rate Cuts Fail to Halt US House Price Crash / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
Feldstein says low Fed rates may not stimulate growth
“Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, a member of the committee that charts American business cycles, said the Federal Reserve cannot count on low interest rates to buoy economic growth.
“‘Lower interest rates are not going to get us anything more,' said Feldstein, who retired in June as president of the National Bureau of Economic Research. ‘The economy has really shown one sign after another of weakening.'”
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Friday, August 29, 2008
US Real Estate Another Bottom in Sight? / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Peter_Schiff
Once again, real estate market watchers have pounced on a shred of seemingly positive news to proclaim that the long sought “bottom” is in sight. The routine is becoming extremely stale, but somehow the media never seems to tire of it. This time the “good” news was that the percentage declines in national home prices (according to Case Shiller) in July where not as large as they were in June. Although the report contained many other negative data points, including increased inventories and a spike in foreclosure sales, it was the slowing declines that got spotlight. Talk about grasping at straws. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The US Housing Market Mess the Experts Missed / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Stathis
The latest data on housing continues to worsen on most fronts.In fact, the data is now showing strong indications of bold predictions I mad in 2006 and as recently as May 2008 – the prime mortgages would be next. For those of you who did not read my May 13, 2008 article, “NAR's Yun Continues to Mislead on Housing” I have reprinted it below. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Recently Congress passed the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act., also known as the Housing Bill. Its passage was lauded by many who are legitimately concerned about foreclosures and the housing market in our country's economy. I was asked how I could vote against a bill to help American homeowners, but I found this bill to have more to do with helping big banks than helping average Americans.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, August 08, 2008
The Day That Alt-A Mortgages Died / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
Bloomberg is reporting Fannie Mae, Battling Losses, to End Alt-A Mortgages . Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. mortgage- finance company, will stop buying or guaranteeing Alt-A home loans, such as those that require little or no documentation of borrower incomes or assets, by yearend.
The company announced the changes when reporting its fourth straight quarterly loss today. The second-quarter net loss of $2.3 billion, or $2.54 a share, included $5.3 billion in credit- related expenses.
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Sunday, August 03, 2008
US Housing Market Crunching Banks, Earnings and Economy / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Prieur_du_Plessis
Housing, credit and labor … oh my! -“Recent data releases and reports suggest that the consumer will continue to be pressured on all fronts: income (or cash flow), wealth and credit. Consumers can spend using any of these buckets. However, with the labor market continuing to weaken, housing continuing to deteriorate and credit harder to come by, the outlook for spending remains bleak despite recent declines in gasoline prices. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
US House Prices Suffer Record Falls In Case-Shiller Home Index / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
The May S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices are now out. New York, July 29, 2008 – Data through May 2008, released today by Standard & Poor's for its S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show annual declines in the prices of existing single family homes across the United States generally continued to worsen in May 2008. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Paulson's Covered Bond Proposal to Rescue US Housing Market / Interest-Rates / US Housing
By: Mike_Shedlock
Many people are asking about Treasury Secretary Paulson's Covered Bond Plan .Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. threw their support behind Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's effort to spur covered bonds as a new source of mortgage financing.
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Friday, July 18, 2008
Federal Housing Administration Mortgage Market Ticking Time Bomb / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: The fundamentals of economic strife based on the disastrous collapse of the U.S. housing market will not get better any time soon. In fact, what's being pushed through both houses of Congress, even as you read this, is so dangerous that it should be immediately abandoned and revealed for what it is - a ticking time bomb labeled with the initials FHA. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 14, 2008
Fannie & Freddie Bailout: Truth or Consequences / Companies / US Housing
By: Mike_Stathis
Amidst speculation that Freddie and its big brother Fannie are facing insolvency, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson said the primary focus was supporting Fannie and Freddie "in their current form as they carry out their important mission." Well, the fact of the matter is that “carrying out their mission” is what got them into this mess to begin with. Paulson delivered the subtle message that has been interpreted by most that he won't bail the GSEs out. But if the GSEs aren't able to raise sufficient capital, it's going to initiate a printing frenzy by Bernanke, with or without a conservatorship. Before we consider exactly what Paulson's statement means, have a look at the following excerpts I put into print in 2006. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Finally the Truth on the US Housing Bear Market / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Mike_Stathis
You've all probably seen or heard about the recently released Harvard Housing study. Among other things, the report discusses the fact that the median wage-earner is unable to afford the median priced home and forecasts a drop in real estate prices to the 1999 level. The fact is that the study comes about one year too late for investors and consumers. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, June 29, 2008
US House Prices Forecast 2008-2010 / Housing-Market / US Housing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
US House prices continued to plunge for April 08 data, reaching an extreme low reading of down 16.3% on a year earlier as measured by the S&P/ Case-Shiller Composite-10 and down more than 19% from the mid 2006 peak. The rate of decline is the worst since the Great Depression and signals further distress in the real estate linked credit markets and therefore a continuing drag on the US economy in the face of the continuing deleveraging of the mortgage backed derivatives markets. Read full article... Read full article...