It’s Friday, and the markets continue to ignore a weakening economy and focus on possible interest rate cuts:   U.S. stock futures rose on Friday, indicating stocks would open extending gains for a fourth day straight, with neither a speech by from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke nor economic data derailing expectations of interest rate cuts. "Bernanke hinted as much by placing significant emphasis on the recent deterioration in consumer spending and on signs of softening in labor market conditions, as well as financial conditions, which appear to have sealed the deal on a rate cut and raised the possibility…
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Hat tip to M for this one from the Arizona Republic this morning- the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, the mortgage regulator for the state of Arizona, has a mountain of fraud complaints, but no money to tackle them: Arizona’s mortgage regulator has shut down a handful of Valley firms for fraud and other illegal lending practices this year, but at least 40 other investigations are stalled because there is no money to fund them. A wave of mortgage fraud and other bad lending practices that spread across metro Phoenix led to a record number of consumer complaints against mortgage…
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I’m not generally inclined to cite Cramer, but when he’s right, he’s right. [Many thanks to Jim Baird for forwarding me his article yesterday.] Baird says of Cramer: Jim Cramer, the boo-yah yelling financial advisor of CNBC’s Mad Money, recently left Wall Street and went out to California. What he saw there was a housing market in full-blown crisis. Touring the Inland Empire, Cramer viewed the decimation created by the current housing and mortgage meltdown: in street after street, neighborhood after neighborhood the homes sat with no buyers. The only noticeable occupants were the mosquito’s whose eggs found safe harbor…
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OK, maybe the last three didn’t make the list, but according to Blanche Evans of Realty Times today, a recent Harris poll indicates that people don’t consider real estate agents in a "prestigeous" line of work: Congratulations to teachers and firefighters. Condolences to real estate agents and bankers. Were they undercut by the bursting of the so-called housing bubble or because they simply don’t treat people with enough integrity? While the survey only measured 23 professions, it’s no surprise that scientists ranked higher than actors. But it is surprising and delightful that over 60 percent of adults believe firefighters have…
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The National Association of Realtors has released its October report.  Sales are down, prices are down, but inventory is up:   Sales of existing homes fell further in October even as more homes came on the market, driving the supply of homes to the highest level in 22 years, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.   Sales dropped 1.2% to a 4.97 million seasonally adjusted annualized pace in October, the real estate advocacy group said. The sales pace is the lowest since 1999, when the group began tracking combined sales of single-family homes and condos. Sales are down 20.7%…
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Hat tip to L for what has got to be today’s wierdest link. Global Homes, a Florida homebuilder, has apparently found a way to diversity and maintain their profits in a slowing housing market- by giving homes to folks who  grow marijuana for them: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Port St. Lucie police seized 420 pounds of marijuana and 400 marijuana plants during an 18 home grow house raid in St. Lucie County Tuesday morning. Investigators arrested 10 people in the raid, including the owner of Global Homes, a home building company that police said has connections to several houses…
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Hat tip to Austrian Economist, who sent us a link too good to just add to the sidebar. Yesterday I posted on Roubini’s article discussing how the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) has been bailing out Countrwide.  Countrwide isn’t the only "subprime lender" however [or perhaps I should say "subprime institutional borrower," as the odds of Countrwide and many other institutions meeting their obligations is remote] who’s bailout is likely to come at the expense of the American taxpayer: For those who have been speculating on how the government might bail out participants in the collapsing US subprime mortgage market,…
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According to Economist Nouriel Roubini this morning: The letter by Senator Schumer questioning  the $51.1 billion that Countrywide borrowed from the Federal Home Loan Bank system  (specifically the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta) has finally revealed the little dirty secret  – that was known only to a few insiders and was noticed on this blog a month ago – that Countrywide, the largest US mortgage lender, has received a massive stealth public bailout that has put at severe risk taxpayers’ money. Here is Countrywide – the premier poster child financial institution of the reckless and predatory lending practices of…
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Jay Butler of ASU Realty studies is not exactly sounding like a bear, but more bearish than usual:

The holiday season is on, but behind this year’s festive feeling is uncertainty about the housing market, the credit market, the economy, and more cautious consumers. For those of us who figure the season is not about the money, we’ll keep a positive outlook while we look at the links, the ideas and the comments that Doomers have. We always enjoy whatever you may bring us- and don’t forget to feed Igor his word- it keeps him happy and quiet down in the dungeon.

M sent me this blog post by John Wake, an oft-quoted agent in the Phoenix area.  As M suspected, I’m going to have to beg to differ with Wake on this one.  He stated: Maybe you harbor this secret thought, “I should have sold my home at the peak. I would have made more money.” Where would you live?! If you bought another home at that time, it’s price would have also been at it’s peak, and today you would be in the exact same situation. Don’t forget that when you buy at the peak of the market your selection…
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According to Catherine Reagor of the Arizona Republic today: Home prices in metropolitan Phoenix took a healthy drop in October. No one who owns a home wants to hear that, including me. But real-estate analysts say home prices in many parts of the Valley need to come down after climbing too high during the frenzy of 2004-05. The decline will help the market stabilize, they say. More buyers will get off the fence, and many sellers will still make a profit. The median price of an existing Valley house fell to $242,000 last month, reports the Realty Studies department at…
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Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, has become infamous for the large amount of stock he’s been selling, and is currently being scrutinized by the SEC.  In this video, however, we hear Mozilo’s defense–he’s got a big family and needs to pay for college for all of his grandkids:   According to North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore, Mozilo has sold between $300-$400 million over the past few years.  I was wondering just how much college that would pay for:

Many thanks to J for the following contribution: I remember you had a story about how there were several years worth of $1M+ properties in the East Valley awhile back.  I couldn’t find the story today so I don’t have the exact numbers [You can see it here.- T.] but it made me think of what things must be like here in north Scottsdale.  Even in a melting real estate market, people here are snapping up high end real estate just to have new appliances and granite counter tops, right?  Actually, the numbers are quite shocking.  In north Scottsdale, which…
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Today Op-Ed Friday is Black Friday- the biggest shopping day of the year.  We’ll see if consumers are out in force when the HELOCs and credit cards are tapped out. In the meantime, enjoy Oc-Ed’s Thanksgiving contribution, and if you’ve got any great links, stories, ideas- we’d love to see them: