AEI’s Subprime Seminar – I Last month’s roundtable [1] at the American Enterprise Institute and co-sponsored by the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association was chock full of good stuff. From the opening remarks by moderator Alex Pollock to the final question by the Chief Economist of FDIC, nearly every minute of the two hour seminar yielded up a new insight into the subprime mortgage meltdown and its spreading ramifications. AEI has posted a wealth of resources on the event site, papers and slide-decks by the presenters and both a video recording and MP3 audio download of the complete seminar (the…
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In a post on RealtyTimes, Sean Brown quotes an anonymous agent, who says of the Las Vegas market: The market is not "depreciating," it is "correcting." This is normal and is actually a positive thing to keep sales steady. [4/6 Edit:  Sean Brown's original post referenced a letter that was critical of his position on the Las Vegas market.  This quote is part of that letter, and was not given as the opinion of Mr. Brown.  My apologies if this appears to be the case.] If "correcting" is a "positive thing," Las Vegas should be very happy. The median price…
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According to Yahoo Finance this morning: Stocks surged Tuesday on signs of an improving housing market, with falling oil prices contributing to the rally. The Dow Jones industrials gained more than 120 points. The data reassured investors that the housing sector, while weak, is not being pummeled by the struggling subprime mortgage sector. Fears that mortgage problems will spill over into the rest of the economy have been a big factor behind the market’s volatility of the past several weeks, and the uptick in sales came as a pleasant surprise. Here’s what the NAR says in their press release: David…
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I’ve seen several "You pick out the house and I’ll lease-purchase it for you." ads recently.  A recent Craigslist ad gave more detail than most of these ads, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to analyze how good these "deals" are.  Here’s this offer: I buy a resale or brand new home that you help pick out and we sign a Lease-Purchase Agreement where you can purchase the house in 12-18 months. (This gives you time to save money to purchase it and/or clean up your credit.) The rent-to-own lease requires a Down Payment of usually $2,500…
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I received a call from CNBC this morning.  They  would like a chance to speak with someone who is facing foreclosure due to issues with either an adjustible rate mortgage reset, a  subprime mortgage, or predatory lending practices.  They specifically need someone who is currently facing foreclosure, not someone who has had a problem in the past, or has refinanced out of the situation.  This would be for a story they are doing for "Business Nation," dealing with subprime and predatory loans. CNBC requests that if you meet this criteria, you contact either Lauren Kesner @ (201) 735-2370 or Diane…
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The South Pacific isn’t the only place experiencing underground tremors. Last week another little piece of Fannie rattled off the table. They pulled the plug on their "Fannie Mae LIBOR" Indices, and who knows what traction that will now give lawyers trying to wiggle out of their clients’ ARM resets.

Hat tip to Phxagent for our first March sales number, and to M for an additional update. Phxagent posted on the evening of 3/31 that sales for March in the Phoenix metro area were at 5798.  In the usual fluid way of the MLS however, M reported that by Sunday morning sales had crept up to 5,927.  [It is possible to go in and edit the close of escrow by hand, so the number can change even after month's end.]We won’t have an "official" number until ARMLS releases their report in a couple of weeks, but it appears that sales…
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In January of this year, Catherine Reagor drew the attention of Arizona government with her article on mortgage fraud: A wave of mortgage fraud is rippling through pockets of the Valley, inflating home values through scams called cash-back deals. Left unchecked, cash-back deals cost homeowners and lenders millions of dollars and could erode confidence and values in Arizona’s real estate market. The fraud involves obtaining a mortgage for more than a home is worth and pocketing the extra money in cash. Neighbors may then discover home values in the area are exaggerated. Homeowners stuck with overpriced mortgages may never recover…
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