Paul Sarbanes must have put something extra in the coffee. "Weeks not months" indeed. Just nine days after the Sept 20 Senate hearing "Calculated Risk: Assessing Non-Traditional Mortgage Products", the agencies have released their new guidance.[1]

This is from the Appraisers of Las Vegas Website.  I need to use the Dave Barry disclaimer here- I am not making this up!  The appraisers ask the question, Hey Lenders!  Why Do you need an Appraisal?  The answer:

Have you found any respectable housing related links, Lereahisms, lyrics, limericks, enLightenment? 

Las Vegas boasts the hottest housing market! was the title of an article yesterday from KVBC TV.  On the other hand, Las Vegas was also featured prominently in yesterday’s Bloomberg article:  Homebuilders Offer Garages, Sod to Lure Buyers Amid U.S. Housing Slump.  When you read the articles though, it appears that  "hottest" and "slump" seem to be synonymous. From KVBC:  In addition to being the casino capital of the United States, Las Vegas also boasts the hottest housing market. Home inventories continue to grow after more than a decade of red-hot activity – up 17-percent during the month of August.

It is reasonable to assume that the housing market is going to be driven by the most motivated players.  Sellers are the ones that currently have the pressure on to blink first- and the one’s most likely to blink are sellers of vacant properties.  Curious then on how many sellers fall in this "extra motivated" catagory, I decided to keep tabs on the local  vacancy rate.  On August 5, Housingdoom’s favorite realtor gave us the vacancy rate and total listings for the Phoenix metro area.  Total listings:  46,338Total vacant:  20,414% vacant:  44% Now it’s 52 days later, and I was…
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On September 20, the US Senate held a very important hearing titled "Calculated Risk: Assessing Non-Traditional Mortgage Products".  I’ve started writing a guide to the resources on the hearing site.  It’s located in the Doom "Pages" list, upper right of our home page.  Look for Study Guide: Senate 20Sep06 Exotic Mortgages Hearing. The intention is to provide a resource with links to key news reports and resources, and a guide to the three hour long audio transcript. There is a tremendous amount of good stuff packed in the hearing site, and much of it may prove to be of enduring value….
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DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!  Professional driver on closed course!  Wait a minute, we’re talking about selling a home, not racing a car, but you would think from some of the warnings you hear that you were involved in a similarly dangerous activity.  Realtors have been warning folks for years that FSBO isn’t something you want to do on your own.  Here’s a couple of examples:

Maintained by John M. On September 20, the US Senate held a very important hearing [1] titled “Calculated Risk: Assessing Non-Traditional Mortgage Products”. Press coverage was pretty extensive considering it was just a hearing hosted by two obscure sub-Committees of the Senate Banking Committee. The main theme was new non-traditional, “toxic”, mortgage products like interest-only or option-ARM loans. Witnesses were a half-dozen director-level loan regulators (all but one female, for what it’s worth) and five mortgage industry / consumer group representatives (all male). The Senators hammered away seeking assurance that the new loan products would not go out of control…
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Exotic, or toxic mortgages have been under fire recently.  It has become apparent that the mortgages that helped people get into a rising market, are causing a lot of pain in a declining one.  What is not getting a lot of press is the "toxic lease-option."  Lease-options can be useful in certain instances, but can be harmful to the uneducated tenant.

On Thursday, Nadia Chernyak wrote a sensitive story [1] for The Cornell (University) Daily Sun. I’m presuming she is a student herself or someone in touch with that generation. The piece goes beyond the chronic housing problems for the many students in Ithaca NY to look at affordability issues for ordinary folk in the region. It notes that the underlying problem will take years to work out. I believe it will be people like Ms Chernyak who will ultimately dig us out of the problems arising from the burst of the housing bubble. Below I’m reproducing my response to her…
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John and I love hearing from Housingdoom readers- we learn a lot from your insights.  Today we thought we would share several recent emails we received from around the country- they have all rated their own posts today.  We hope you’ll keep sending us your observations, links, and research.  In addition to the three posts, this is an open thread for Housingdoomers to have their say today.

We received the following from Michael, who has shared several insights with us in the past.  I thought we would share this one with our readers: On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs had a meeting to discuss Assessing Non-Traditional Mortgages. There were 11 witnesses.  The testimony of all 11 witnesses is worth reading, though many of the witnesses had very similar things to say.  I am pointing out one testimony in particular because of the objectivity of  the witness.  Her name is Kathryn Dick and she is a Deputy Comptroller at the Office of the Comptroller…
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It is easy for those of us from the "frothier" cities of the nation, to forget that we aren’t the only one with housing bubble issues.  Many thanks to Mike from Minnesota, who shared the following:  I’ve been reading a lot lately about how builders are offering free upgrades or other incentives to purchase new housing stock.  However, here in Minnesota, they aren’t messing around.  Rottlund Homes, for example, has been running full-page color adds announcing "FALL SAVINGS — save up to $35,000" on new condominiums and single family homes.  The ad is not just for one project; it offers…
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Many thanks to reader Ron for providing us with his own study on Ridgefield, a neighborhood in South Phoenix.  Housingdoom looks a lot at Gilbert, AZ  because that’s my backyard, and that makes it easy to track.  We appreciate reader’s contributions- you see what’s happening in your neighborhoods better than anyone, and help us paint a better picture of where the market is headed. Here’s what Ron’s comments and spreadsheet:

One of the most prominent features along the Las Vegas Strip, besides the hotels and the casinos, is all of the cranes and construction–much of which is for new condominiums.  A number of condominium projects are under construction or in the planning stages.  With all the concerns about the current housing market, it is important to consider the direction of the market, and whether or not these projects will supply a genuine demand, or add to an already oversupplied market. Two analysts have recently said that they believed the Las Vegas housing market to be 28% to 41.8% overvalued.  Data…
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