From Reuters yesterday: MONTREAL (Reuters) – Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Friday that he does not expect another "bubble" in world markets for a long time, and that central banks at any rate do not control the long-term interest rates that can be related to bubbles.

For developments far from the center of town, apparently the potential of a large cobroke isn’t enough to entice agents any more. More and more often, the builders are offering to kick in with gas money- this D.R. Horton offer being the most I’ve seen so far.  Usually the builders just offer a one trip gas card: [Thanks L!]

Thinking of putting your house on the market in Stockton, CA?  Good luck getting an agent to represent you: In some areas of California, so many foreclosed homes are available to buy on the cheap that real estate agents are discouraging prospective sellers from even putting their houses on the market. Perhaps the most extreme example of this is Stockton, about 85 miles east of San Francisco, where roughly three of every four homes for sale are in or on the path to foreclosure. The city’s resale market is "pretty much gone," said Cameron Pannabecker, owner of Cal-Pro Mortgage. "I…
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Defaults and delinquencies show no sign of slowing: May 30 (Bloomberg) — Newly delinquent mortgage borrowers outnumbered people who caught up on their overdue payments by two to one last month, a sign that nationwide efforts to help homeowners avoid default may be failing. In April, 73,880 homeowners with privately insured mortgages fell more than 60 days late on payments, compared with 39,584 who got back on track, a report today from the Washington-based said. Mortgage insurers pay lenders when homeowners default and foreclosures fail to cover costs. Foreclosure filings surged 65 percent and bank seizures more than doubled in…
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From CNBC’s Diana Olick: [Hat tip L!]   I was moderating a panel of two governors and an economist today on the foreclosure crisis. It was much of the usual stuff until Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell made a bold proposal. He said that in addition to the legislation making its way through Congress to save troubled borrowers, there should be additional provisions that protect borrowers from having their credit rating destroyed when they go through foreclosure. I understand where he’s coming from. “This is not for people who took risks,” he says. “This is for people who were legitimately duped…
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About the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 just passed by the Senate: Buried in the proposed legislation is something new and revolutionary, an effort to stop mortgage walk-aways. According to author Peter G. Miller: The Senate legislation addresses the walk away issue by saying that before borrowers can get FHA financing they must certify that they have not intentionally defaulted on any debt, not just their current mortgage. Lying about this issue can be considered perjury, and perjury can result in a jail sentence. No less important, if a homeowner has walked away from an FHA loan,…
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Darn those banks, anyway.  More and more they are insisting that buyers be able to afford the homes they purchase, and that the homes be worth what is being paid.  This isn’t sitting well with everyone: It’s not that people don’t want homes, it’s that they can’t buy them under the stricter lending standards. That’s how the National Association of Realtors explains the 17.5 percent drop in sales from April 2007, and eight percent drop in housing prices. But the problem is worse than even the NAR says it is. Lenders are turning the clock back to 1975, requiring larger…
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Thanks to everyone who gave me a heads up, and to G.H. who sent this link to the Arizona Star: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department gave a boost today to online real estate brokers — and potentially their clients — by forcing new industry policies that give Internet-based agents access to home listings they were previously denied. The tentative settlement, which still requires court approval, could save consumers thousands of dollars when buying a home. Online real estate agents often charge discounted commission fees and let buyers review listings at their own pace. Essentially the deal requires the 800 multiple…
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From Reuters this morning:   Prices of U.S. single-family homes plunged a record 14.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, marking a pace five times faster than the last housing recession, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller national home price index reported on Tuesday. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 2.2 percent in March from February and plummeted 14.4 percent from March 2007. This is the largest drop on record:

I rarely take a full day off, but when my computer goes out on Memorial Day weekend, I take that as a sign. [Yes I have a spare, but it has issues.] I’m  going to just hang with the family for a  couple of days.

Alas, what goes up, must come down- even in Canada.  After months of the MSM reporting that the Canadian housing market would not go the way of their neighbors to the south- the Canadian housing market is going the way of their neighbors to the south:   Canada’s long-running housing boom has ended, with the formerly bubbling markets of Calgary and Edmonton already having gone from hot to not, and with the current hot spots of Saskatoon and Regina to follow, a major Canadian bank says. Mortgage-market innovation delayed the inevitable but couldn’t prevent it, Royal Bank of Canada said…
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JPMorgan Chase economist Michael Feroli said that existing home sales were "No worse than expectations".  If you want to be positive, that’s about as good as it gets.  According to Reuters this morning: WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – The pace of existing home sales in the United States fell 1 percent in April to a 4.89 million-unit annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Friday that was slightly better than expectations. But inventories of unsold homes rose measurably, surging 10.5 percent to 4.55 million units at the end of April. At the current sales pace…
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It’s Friday, and in Arizona, home equity is "slip-sliding away": [Hat tip MR!] New figures Thursday from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight show the value of an average home in the state slid 5.5 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period a year earlier. So a home that was worth $200,000 a year ago is now valued at just $189,000. That’s the fourth biggest drop in the nation and the largest for Arizona since the federal agency has been reporting numbers since 1985. The drop is not bad news for everyone however. …
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On May 5, we heard from Jacque, who hadn’t received her funds a month after closing.  We heard again from Jacque yesterday- the loan funded at last: Sorry it took so long for me to post an update, but things got a little crazy for awhile. The good news is, the loan finally funded and all the checks were issued, but getting there was a nightmare. After getting the runaround, I finally did the research and called the title company, and the bank which was buying the loan and funding it. As it turned out the finance company lied to…
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For areas now experiencing high levels of foreclosures, here’s a great instructional video from the city of Dayton– How to make boarded up properties look less like they are boarded up.