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.