They were frugal and waited for home prices to fall.  They bought a foreclosure- and now they are feeling guilty about it: [Hat tip Mr. Twist] LAS VEGAS — Right about now, Anya Sanko should be enjoying the thrill of being a first-time home buyer. She bided her time, saved her money and jumped into the market in time to snap up a 1,785-square-foot home with a pool for $143,000. Yet Sanko, 37, is having a hard time celebrating. Her parents lost their house in Michigan to foreclosure after her father lost his job, her sister’s home equity has evaporated…
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So what does it take to keep property values from falling?  I wonder if the government will get desperate enough to try this:  [Hat tip John!] Aug. 29 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. naturist property market has survived the global recession because the majority of house- buyers in unclothed communities are older and don’t need mortgages, the Financial Times reported. Naturism has grown to a $450 million industry from $400 million five years ago, primarily because of real estate values, the newspaper said, citing a spokeswoman for the American Association for Nude Recreation. House prices in naturist communities haven’t dropped as…
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From Karl Denninger at Market Ticker via Freedom’s Phoenix comes this reasonable question: How about a little honesty from commentators in the mainstream media? "Liquidity conflagrations" happen when people discover they have been lied to. Anyone remember Bear Stearns?  "We’re well capitalized" on CNBC?  "Everything is fine"?  Cramer’s pumping of them on his show as "safe"? Market participants in fact knew everything was not fine.  There were statements flying around (that turned out to be true) that some counter-parties had begun refusing to novate deals with Bear.  It was the discovery of the lie that caused the run on Bear…
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It’s Friday, and thanks to cpgone for sharing Clusterstock’s Brief update on the mortgage collapse.  They have a bunch of interesting graphs that pretty much look like a collection of hockey sticks.  Here’s one we were told we’d never see:

Volume in Fannie and Freddie also started to pick up around that time. Investors traded 7 million shares of Fannie on Aug. 4. The next day it was 117.1 million. Fannie trading has gone higher recently, hitting 831.4 million on Monday. The same day Freddie jumped to 386.5 million. For a bit of context, in late July and early August, Freddie volume was in the single-digit millions. [ / / ] We asked our crack squad of Dow Jones math ninjas to crunch the numbers on these five stocks to find out exactly how much of the entire market action…
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Is Bernanke the devil?  Here’s what Peter Schiff has to say: [Hat tip Freedom's Phoenix!]

In typical "bad news is good news" fashion, Bloomberg news was rejoicing at the increase in new home sales [MOM anyway] in July: Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Purchases of new homes in the U.S. jumped more than forecast and demand for long-lasting goods such as autos and computers climbed, reinforcing signs the economy is rebounding from the worst recession since the 1930s. Home sales increased 9.6 percent in July, the most in four years, to a 433,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. Another report from the department indicated bookings for durable goods climbed 4.9…
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A 15.4% drop year-over-year home prices doesn’t seem like much to celebrate, but it’s making the markets happy this morning.  According to Bloomberg: Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — Home prices in 20 U.S. cities fell in June at a slower pace than forecast, signaling the real- estate crisis that triggered the worst recession since the 1930s is dissipating. … “The sharp freefall in prices is over,” said Michelle Meyer, an economist at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York. “People are entering the market and that is starting to normalize prices. It’s a clear positive.” Here’s a graph of the 10 City…
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HOEPA was enacted in 1994 in response to Congressional concerns over “reverse redlining.” [PDF] According to the Senate Banking Committee report accompanying the legislation, “reverse redlining” is the practice of targeting residents of specific disadvantaged communities for credit on unfair terms, and in particular by second mortgage lenders, home improvement contractors, and finance companies. These lenders were felt to “peddle high-rate, high-fee home equity loans to cash-poor homeowners.” … [1] American Bar Association analysis, vintage August 2007 I’m working through the Q&A session of AEI’s October 11, 2007 Subprime II seminar, and around 1:34:00 on the tape there’s a fascinating…
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Actions by the SEC over recent decades have, perhaps unintentionally, encouraged the development of markets which seem to favor the most technologically sophisticated traders. The current market structure appears to be the consequence of regulatory structures designed to increase efficiency and thereby provide the greatest benefits to the highest volume traders. The implications of the current system for buy-and-hold investors have not been the subject of a thorough analysis. I believe the SEC’s rules have effectively placed "increased liquidity" as a value above fair execution of trades for all investors. [1] quoting a memo from Senator Edward E. Kaufman (D-DE)…
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A few weeks ago, "experts" were touting the "recovery" of the Phoenix real estate market: The median home resale price in metro Phoenix increased in June for the first time since 2007 — a direct result of increasing trends of multiple offers on properties and a large reduction in active listing inventory, especially bank-owned properties, according to Fidelity National Title and The Cromford Report. Even though home sales are near their 2005 peak, one agent says it’s still tough to sell real estate in Phoenix: [Thanks L!]

Timmie, Ben and anyone else that can be spared from Jackson Hole, we’d be most grateful for a bailout later today.  Just bring your own buckets Should the sidebar become a bit quiet today you can check out CBC Maritimes Storm Centre to see how things are going in the vicinity the Castle Annex. LATER: so far so good.  No photographers at the Public Gardens this afternoon (every bride goes there), but it’s always a good time to promote Laura Nyro

  From Realtor.com yesterday:  [Thanks L!] How much real wealth have Americans lost so far in the real estate crash? The Federal Reserve estimates that the total market value of U.S. homes fell 18 percent from $21.9 trillion to $17.9 trillion or about $13,000 per person from the end of 2006 through March 31, 2009. The Fed also estimates that homeowner’s equity has declined 40 percent from the peak and now accounts for just 41.4 percent of real estate values. By comparison, after the last slump in the 1990s, home equity levels remained in the high 50s.