For the moment the rebuilding Doom’s sidebar has alphabetic ordering instead of the reverse-order-by-add we all knew and loved over the site’s first four years.  Those prefixes to the sidebar stories aren’t actually an editorial comment on the number of days left of Geithner’s free money pouring into whatever worthy projects Congress, in their responsible wisdom, wish the GSEs to do (well, it’s that too ); it’s really just a desperate expedient to at least get the day’s crop of finds to sit together at the top of the list. But we’ve discovered that putting things in alphabetical order sometimes…
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One major world government which is usually quite touchy about things going on that it can’t monitor seems quite blasé about all this.  Igor is wondering why … PCWorld (8/6 ’10): “RIM Facing Government Pressure to Open Up” Press reports indicate that BlackBerry maker RIM seems to be under increasing pressure to open up its encrypted communications from customers to governments, who are increasingly concerned about security. It seems that officials are worried that criminals – and terrorists too – are using the encryption to their advantage since there is no way to monitor transmissions.

Hat tip to ZeroHedge for the link and the analysis.  Further hat tip to twist for sober second thoughts and debunkers (following — looks like capitulation is still a go ): CalculatedRisk (8/5 ’10): “Nonsense Rumor on Fannie and Freddie” Reuters grownups (8/5 ’10): “U.S. Treasury- no change to Fannie, Freddie policy” Millions of American homeowners have now realized that it’s a bit pointless to keep manning the pumps when there’s no prospect in the medium term that the gunnel’s going to rise above the waterline again. _______________________________________________________ UPDATE (6/8 ’10): Hello! … (hat tip twist for the link) HUD.GOV…
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Real estate used to be considered a boring, safe asset.  Your ROI might not be spectacular, but your exposure to loss was minimal. Not any more. In years past, an increase in affordability would have meant an increase of people in the market, not any more.  Owning a home as gone from being considered a safe investment to a risky one: The National Association of Realtors calculates a housing affordability index by calculating how much income is needed to purchase a median-priced home at current mortgage rates. Back in 2006 when housing was peaking, the NAR says, the composite index…
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The number one question I’m asked is “When do you think the housing market is going to recover?” Teunis Brosen, an economist with ING Bank NV in Amsterdam says 2 1/2 years, and here’s why: In a note last week, Mr. Brosen estimated that as of the second quarter of 2010, there are 2.4 million units in the country’s “excess supply” of housing, a glut that consumers must make a significant dent in before housing can recover. Mr. Brosen’s formula for calculating “excess supply” is interesting: ignoring seasonal vacancies and second homes, he combs U.S. Census data to try and…
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Countrywide, the poster child lender for irresponsible lending practices, has settled with it’s shareholders: [Thanks L!] Countrywide Financial Corp., which epitomized the home-loan industry’s boom and bust, has agreed to pay $600 million in the largest settlement yet of shareholder lawsuits stemming from the mortgage meltdown. The agreement, given preliminary approval Monday by U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles, would end several class actions brought on behalf of investors in Countrywide stock. This is working out well for their executives:

I couldn’t resist posting on this after Mrs. M. discovered it yesterday in our local paper.  This Windsor Nova Scotia company has been supplying “aspen baskets and fruit boxes” to the Annapolis Valley and beyond for a century.  Their problems make ours seem trivial, but it looks like they’re getting back on their feet. If you need a hand basket (and where this economy is going it looks like we will all need a few) these are the go-to guys. Chronicle-Herald (8/2 ’10): “A basket full of sacrifices — Burgess Baskets is finding modern ways to make and sell an…
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“Nancy” was featured in the AOL front-page teaser to their month-old  “Buy or Rent? Which Is Right for You?” earlier today.  I’m just wondering how many of those 2,500 BoA-promoted programs survived the FinReg.  My S.W.A.G.?  Every last one of them.  All I’ve got to say is the spider-to-fly ratio around the world wide web is getting pretty extreme.

Mr. Twist and I decided to take advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon and go for a drive. We stopped whenever we saw a house for sale and a box with a real estate flyer. Without exception the prices on these homes were higher than I would pay. I couldn’t help but think that without all the government efforts to prop up home values, prices might actually be closer to where buying a property was not such a risk. Michael David White forwarded us a recent article. White always has interesting stuff, and great charts. If you wanted to sum…
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We know just how he feels  “Greenspan: Modest economic recovery ‘in a pause’ “, AP, August 1, 2010. WASHINGTON — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says he thinks the economy is having a modest recovery, but right now there’s a “pause” in that recovery, so it feels like a “quasi-recession.” No beating around the bush, Housing Doom Bubble Blog has been down! Now we’re starting to recover a bit, and rebuilding this site from the ground up.  Igor thinks we’ll be up to speed long before housing prices recover.  What do you think?

recent paper by Mark Zandi and Robert Shiller offered up some sobering data on underwater borrowers: [arrow_list] 19%, or 14.748 million of the 77.570 million US households, are in negative equity. 30.6% of the 48.243 million of homeowners with first mortgages are in negative equity. 21.8% of the 67.578 million in owner-occupied single family homes are in negative equity. 4.133 million of the 14.748 million of underwater homeowners are underwater by 50%+, meaning the owe more than 50% more than their homes are worth. [/arrow_list] Of the 50%+ underwater category, the worst states are California (672K), Florida (423K), and Texas…
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[fancy_box] Aubade Awake, my love, it’s nearly seven and one of Carew’s chirpy friends just telephoned the news that an eighty-nine year old Chalmers Doane will be sharing insights into ukulele later on today. Awake, my love, it’s nearly five past seven. World Report reports Ignatieff reporting that the Liberals are the Center, I say again, Center of Canada now. “Indeed,” repeat Barry McKinnon, the Fredericton School and that great Cloud of Witnesses Michael’s Uncle Georges stretching back all the way to a War when this Province collected tolls from Maine. More Carr than Carman, they reflect. Awake, my love,…
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