Many thanks to L, who as always brings us some of our best links. This video on debt in America is pretty sobering.  It’s also on the long side- but it’s worth a look.  

Usually M and I look at the previous months numbers on the first day of the month- but I’ve been anxious to see these figures since the first week in August.  ARMLS will release their official numbers generally on the 15th of the month. We couldn’t bring ourselves to wait, and so here’s what M says: As of this morning we had 3,176 sales for September.  Obviously, there will be no official closings on the weekend but there may be a few more that trickle in because a few agents entered the 29-30th as COE.  This will leave Phoenix with…
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Yesterday the San Jose Mercury News highlighted a growing problem- renters who have to find new housing when their landlords lose the property to foreclosure: With foreclosures at near-record levels in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, Wright is one of many tenants who this year will find themselves suddenly scrambling to find new rentals because their landlords lost their properties to foreclosure. In nearly all cases, renters of residential houses, condos or duplexes must vacate a property after it’s been foreclosed upon and a new owner – be it a bank or an individual – takes possession. Nearly 9,500 California properties…
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According to Yahoo Finance this afternoon: [Thanks L!] WASHINGTON (AP) — NetBank Inc., an online bank with $2.5 billion in assets, was shut down by the government on Friday because of an excessive level of mortgage defaults. It was the largest savings and loan failure since the tail end of the industry’s crisis more than 14 years ago. Federal regulators appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as a receiver for Alpharetta, Ga.-based NetBank. So what’s the difference between this one and the rest of the list at Implode-o-meter?   While dozens of mortgage companies have closed due to soaring defaults…
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I had thought we were through with Jim Cramer videos- but when he’s this bearish, I just can’t resist:     We’re also up for whatever you might have to share with us as well, links, videos, thoughts, whatever.

Foreign central banks were net buyers of US obligations in the week ending September 26. A modest selloff of treasuries (following on last week’s huge purchasing) was more than offset by a continuing fairly healthy buy of agencies. Once again thanks go to Twist for the updated chart and graph.

Maybe some 97 new homes in Casa Grande and Maricopa will finally find owners when they go on the auction block October 14th.  The reserve is not being disclosed, but prices are starting at $41/sq. ft.: [Thank you L for the heads up!] These homes have a storied past.  According to a March article in Casa Grande’s TriValley Central:

Here are a few of this mornings new home sales headlines: [Thanks L!] New-home sales plunge 8.3% to seven-year low [Marketwatch] New-Homes Sales Tumble in August to Lowest Level in 7 Years [AP] August new homes sales fall more than expected [Reuters] To which Doom replies, "Wait until you see Septembers figures!"  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  According to AP:   WASHINGTON (AP) — New-homes sales tumbled in August to the lowest level in seven years, a stark sign that the credit crunch is aggravating an already painful housing slump. Sales of new homes dropped by 8.3 percent…
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I’ve indexed this one under "Housing Bubble" and "Realtors", as we don’t have a "Fantasy" catagory:    

Many thanks to our Santa Cruz reader that told us about Countrywide’s new policy.  No more paper statements.  If you want to check your account and you don’t have internet access, well… [Hyperlinks on ad are not functional.]  

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the National Existing Home Sales Report issued by the National Association of Realtors doesn’t paint a pretty picture: WASHINGTON, September 25, 2007 – Existing-home sales fell in August when mortgage availability problems were peaking, according to the National Association of Realtors®. Total existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – were down 4.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 5.50 million units in August from a level of 5.75 million in July, and are 12.8 percent below the 6.31 million-unit pace in August 2006.  Lawrence Yun, NAR…
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This was one of the Associated Press headlines this morning: US: Mortgage Default Rate Stabilizing That was news to me, so I read on: SINGAPORE (AP) — The default rate on U.S. mortgages is stabilizing, an American housing official said Monday, adding she didn’t expect last week’s cut in U.S. interest rates to significantly affect the number of defaults. Speaking on the sidelines of a forum in Singapore, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Assistant Secretary Darlene Williams said the U.S. Federal Reserve’s bigger-than-expected half-point cut of its key rate last week signaled that authorities were taking action to support the…
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Subprime is easy. This is hard. Well, with a large wad of poetry thrown over my left shoulder, it’s back to housing trends — at least for the moment. Funny about Rollover Week, it seems to have been mislaid among the other crises.

Many thanks to John who put the They cried wolf, they were right article on the sidebar yesterday.  I was particularly struck by this quote: Some in the real estate industry say the early cries of bubble should be called to account on the grounds of intellectual fairness. If the boosters have to acknowledge they were wrong when they provided justifications for prices that were, well, unjustifiable, then the doubters should also own up to the fact that they were too negative, too early. “Even the people that were talking about booms busting, my goodness they were talking about it…
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