Last May 1st, Anshe Chung became the first imaginary RE investor to appear on the cover of BusinessWeek, when she was also featured in that issue's cover story.[1] I remained blissfully unaware of her (non-)existence until yesterday, when it was reported that she in the meantime she had become the first virtual person to achieve more than $1 million in actual US dollars. [2] [3] I find the whole concept extremely weird and more than a little appalling. Furthermore, taken together with the US re-fi bubble and mortgage finance, the very idea of similar things happening in online games with…
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Once again you can catch Twist live. Local Doomers can tune into 1100 KFNX AM in the Phoenix area, 7:00 a.m. MST on Thursday November 30.  Folk like me from Outer Doomness can catch the show on the KFNX website. See you there!

The U.S. Census Bureau released its New Residential Sales report for October which states: Sales of new one-family houses in October 2006 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,004,000, accordingto estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and UrbanDevelopment. This is 3.2 percent (±11.2%)* below the revised September rate of 1,037,000, and is 25.4 percent(±10.0%) below the October 2005 estimate of 1,346,000. The median sales price of new houses sold in October 2006 was $248,500; the average sales price was $309,700.The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the…
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This will be a bit different. Last night Twist alerted me to the scheduled release today of the Commerce Department’s latest new homes numbers.[1] As of about 10:30 AM Phonenix time, this story is the 11th ranked Google News cluster, with 27 stories. While Twist works on some charts arising from the numbers, I thought I would gather a list of reference links to some stories and just present them with a few representative quotes.

Yesterday a Real Estate Industrial Complex (REIC) mantra, House Prices Always Go Up, finally died. The National Association of REALTORS(tm) (NAR) itself reported [1] a record 3.5 percent drop in median house price from October 2005 to October 2006. Even baby-GSE regulator Federal Home Finance Board’s (FHFB’s) statistically tortured "average US house price" measure fell marginally in the same period.[2] [3]

The National Association of Realtors (NAR)  has released their existing home sales report for the month of October: Existing home sales rose slightly from September- 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 6.24 million units.  Year-over-year sales, however, were down 11.5% below last year’s 7.05 million-unit level.  Inventory of unsold homes, however, rose 1.9% to 3.85 million units- the second highest total on record. Median home prices, while up slightly to $221,000 from last month’s $220,000 is down 3.5% from last year’s $229,000. This is the largest year-over-year decline on record. According to the NAR’s Chief Economist David Lereah:

This from the "maybe I should have asked this earlier" department- In the Sunday Arizona Republic was a Q and A in the real estate section. (Page RE1- no link available) Ilyce Glink answered the following question: I’ve just bought my first rental property.  Do you have any advice for me on renting it out? Any recommendations on books I should read? Here in part is Glink’s advice:

We are nearly to the end of November, and we’re looking forward this week to the Existing Home Sales report from the National Association of Realtors for the month of October.  We here at HousingDoom, however, are always anxious for early hints as to where the market is headed.  That is why we appreciate receiving the following unofficial info on the Phoenix resale market this morning.  A number of sales tend to close at the end of the month, so we may be looking at a jump in this number.  But November is shaping up like this:

Doom is pleased to announce Leftover Turkey  Sandwich Week in America.

Sovereign Default Lite? Poole Targets GSEs Fannie and Freddie have been on a roll lately. First, their traditional friends, the Democratic Party,[1] are set to take over both houses of Congress. Then, their regulator, OFHEO, run by Bush confidant James Lockhart, has frozen the $417k conforming limit for GSE mortgages in the face of declining median US house prices. This could well allow them to win back much of the MBS business they lost to private label lenders over the last few years. Finally, 30 year fixed rates are at multi-year lows,[2] so they stand to get lots of re-fi…
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Hat tip to L, who forwarded us this unbelievable offer he received:   Good morning all, First let me wish you a Very Happy Thanksgiving. I am very excited about a program that is now available for both purchase and refinance. It is a 30 year fixed loan with a pick a payment option. Unlike most option ARMs, this loan is fixed and fixed for 30 years. It does not adjust monthly with the applicable index. The base rate varies based on the borrower’s credit from 1.95 to 2.25%. The borrower can also set a higher base rate which can…
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Courtland Homes has come out with this month’s list of inventory specials, and the list is showing an interesting trend.  In October, Courtland was offering realtors a 7% cobroke- in November it is offering 10%.  That in and of itself is not surprising.  What is surprising is that the buyer is subsidizing the cobroke increase, as the actual prices of the home has gone up from last month. This is not stated as an increase however. Either it appears to be a lesser incentive, or the "base price" is increased to keep the discount appear to be higher.I compared the…
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A couple of weeks ago, a Doom reader posted a long comment from California.  This effort was sufficiently impressive I thought I’d republish it here.

It’s the day after Thanksgiving, and the twists are full of turkey and football. More than likely, a few of them are out shopping. "Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the ‘official’ beginning to the holiday season. Most retailers will open very early and usually provide massive discounts on their products."  

Today I’m trading in my laptop and spreadsheets for my apron.  My girls and I are going to spend the day cooking, while Mr. Twist and the boys stay out of our hair watching football. It has been almost six months since Housingdoom put out the welcome mat.  I’m grateful that John agreed to come on board- his research, insights and hard work have made all the difference in maintaining Doom. I’m grateful for the behind the scenes help from contributors and family- HousingDoom is more a group effort than I think it appears. I rely very heavily on the…
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