Igor says

I have acquired a great deal of knowledge from your site that helped me mention a few items concerning the foreclosure crisis.

The link’s been added to the sidebar. : )

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/vacanthomes03072008-CR.html

This is an incredibly massive problem. Are any of the precriptions reasonable, realistic or even workable? It will be as it will become. Most people have no idea how dire things really are.

We have been steaming along on the Titanic. Then bump. No need to worry the captain is in control. Turns out only a very few life boats are available. Ask yourself “Do you feel lucky?” Better yet “Whose your Daddy?”

Agnostic, it sounds like you are a Star Trek fan. You know I am.

I was out walking with my sister and News Channel 12 interview us concerning the negative neighborhood effects that foreclosures will have on residences/neighborhoods. It is on AZ Central.

Yes, that’s the sound of the trench-mortar under all the artillery. What happened was the spread on agencies suddenly widened to levels not seen for about 22 years, and an anonymous Treasury Dept spokeswoman disclaimed the government’s implicit guarantee on senior GSE debt. Then Jim Cramer suggested (thanks for the tip, twist) that FNM and FRE could go to zero (that’s a signal to Paulson to contradict that spokeswoman — like now!)

Maybe it’s just a temporary glitch because hedgies like Carlyle are dumping agencies because they can’t dump anything else, but there is now a real possibility that even the conforming mortgage market will simply stop until Congress nationalizes Freddie and Fannie.

About $6 trillion dollars worth of MBS paper is being guaranteed by the capital of two companies whose stock price has dipped about 30 percent in the last month. It’s like AllenM says: “Someday this war’s gonna end.” America’s sovereign debt is a lot bigger than Congress thinks, and the war never was affordable.

My brother works at a wholesale lender, so, I keep an eye on them. They have jumped about 1.25% since late January. That could be a reason the buyers have dissappeared. If the cost of borrowing money goes up roughly 20-25%, I would imagine that would have an effect on demand.

BTW, I am living proof. I live in the San Antonio area since Sept 2007 and am renting. I would like to buy this summer, but, if the math doesn’t pencil out, may have to wait for a little while. From my tracking of the market, the lower priced homes and REO sales are leading the market lower.

Kenny

A 46 year-old could have voted for Senator Goldwater in 1980.
AuH20 for President ’64 would obviously require 16 more years.

Surak, is your piece linked on this page?
http://www.azcentral.com/12news/

- manageable loss, not management loss.

As I’m sure you and your audience well know, you were very wise to get out of the market when you did.

I also thought the prices couldn’t last, but what I failed to realize was that people buying at market value for regular home loans — not sub-prime, not condo — would also be affected by the market correction. Shame on me.

I need to move, not because I’m behind in payments or anything like that — I just got a better job in another state.

This might sound like a radical reaction, but at this point I feel that if I get out of this situation somewhat financially whole (break even or take a management loss), I never want to borrow money again, not even for a home.

Homes should be homes, not investments; investments are for money you can afford to lose, not for money you are borrowing.

I’m prepared to face whatever happens, of course. I made my bed and I’ll lie in it. But it’s really amazing how fast and hard this has all happened. At least to me.

I’ve been hearing that pendings and activity is up. Buyers have heard there are deals out there, and they are looking– but sales in San Antonio in January were at their lowest level since January 2004.

It is tougher to get a loan now, depending on the type, and anecdotally I’m hearing the lenders have swung the other way on appraisals.

It’s hard to know if it’s that buyers won’t or can’t, but either way, I expect sales to be lousy this year- even in Texas.

I have been very realistic (resigned really) about my prospects, but my realtor said lots of agents had called her after the showings to say they would probably be submitting offers, but none seemed to follow thru. One finally did last week (wanting another 10% off, which I took a pass on). But in the last 10 days, I’ve had only 2 showings. Did something – like the other shoe dropping – happen while I wasn’t looking. At this point I feel safer financially staying put and I’m just going to let the clock run out on my listing contract, so please, no advice about cutting the price further. But I’m curious. Did it suddenly become impossible to get a loan? The offer I got made it sound like the lender could not be approved for a bigger loan because the house had been appraised at the lower value. My realtor tut-tutted that idea and said it was just a bargaining tactic. But I wonder if at long last the banks are getting serious about appraisals. (When I bought this place in 2004, I offered $165K with the asking price being $180K, but the initial appraisal was only $150K. It took nothing to get them to revise the appraisal to $165K).

I really have an eerie feeling about the economy at this point, and I wonder if the average American is finally pulling his/her head out of the sand.

I don’t think I ever actualy voted for Goldwater, as I recall, I only had one chance and I was pretty steamed at him for something.

And Indians hardly ever voted for Goldwater.. he did do some good work for folks on the reservations, but his party was the party of ‘Termination’ and nobody in their right minds forgets that.

Although, god it seemed like he was one of the topics at dinner for forever… when I was growing up! I only met him a couple of times. I think he thought I was a smart mouthed kid.

Nice ham radio setup, though.