According to CNBC, Pending Home Sales Fell Fell More Than Expected In January: Contracts for pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell faster than expected in January to the slowest pace in three months, data from a real estate trade group showed on Monday. The National Association of Realtors [NAR] Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed in January, declined 2.8 percent to 88.9 from a downwardly revised index of 91.5 in December. That is the second straight monthly decline and the slowest pace since October. Economists polled by Reuters ahead of the report were expecting pending home…
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It’s sad that AP had to choose a headline for a story that seems to want to increase racial tensions.  There’s a story out this morning titled Foreclosures helping change the color of some suburbs.  You might think that minorities are buying foreclosures in white neighborhoods and causing resentment.  That’s not where the resentment lies however: [Thanks L!] SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Three years ago, Lamar Grace left Detroit for the suburb of Southfield. He got a good deal — a 3,000-square-foot colonial that once was worth $220,000. In foreclosure, he paid $109,000. The neighbors were not pleased. “They don’t want to live…
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This intervention is what Vince Reinhart means by controlling the narrative, and it was downright brilliant: WSJ (4/18 ’09): Volcker: ‘We’re in a Great Recession’ … while the current downturn isn’t like the Great Depression of the 1930s, “we’re in a Great Recession for sure.” In fact our situation is much, much worse than in the 1930s, but it’s going to take considerable mental work to figure this out for ourselves. Say at Year 0 an index stands at 100, then at Year 1 it stands at 1 and at Year 2 it stands at 2.  How will the MSM…
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Hat tip to twist for getting me to look at this. I don’t know if this is a coincidence or Geithner told the gnomes of Mahwah that he didn’t want to see the total market cap for FHFA’s conservatorship GSEs go much below a billion dollars. Anyway, last Friday the value of common shares for the two Enterprises closed as follows: Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie) — $623.27M Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie) — $376.52M total (approx) — $999.79M … which, if my mental arithmetic is working today, differs from $1B by around $210k — about the value of…
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It’s Sunday, and that used to mean that most North Americans would be attending a house of worship.  Well, some of us die-hards still do, and Rev. Brian has come up with a new scheme to keep us choir members awake during the sermon Knox Presbyterian Halifax Service Feb 20 2011 (about 10 minutes from the middle) Some older Doomers may be getting flash-backs from a time when they participated in something like this.  Obviously our government doesn’t think we’re very relevant anymore but that burning bush window is pretty impressive and the same contemporary artist has two more works…
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Housing News for Friday through Sunday, most recently added first. Feel free to contribute your own finds in the comments CTRY-STATE- Source (date): Title Article quote; and/or, [comment by Igor, Doom Castle's spam-eating pet dragon] Xinhua (2/27): China eyes 7-pct annual growth, focusing on living standards [America was hell on wheels by the late 1870s; no reason this cycle should differ] Reuters (2/27): Warren Buffett’s enthusiasm for U.S. could boost markets CNBC (2/23): Warnings Aplenty From the ‘Father’ of Securitization MS- Hattiesburg American (2/26): Officials: Job market improving ABC (2/26): NGA Chair: States Are ‘Fragile,’ Can’t Afford a ‘Hiccup’ in…
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The Thirteenth District’s minumental Doctor ^NOT scandal is slouching towards its inevitable conclusion: Kabuki theatre pitting cunning rogue (Tim LaHaye / the old crabby Irving Kristol) against evil genuis (Isaiah Berlin / the young crazy Irving Kristol). Our creaky Freedom of Information process actually brought forth hard evidence of cover-up and forgery enabling secret political second guessing of opaque bureaucratic decisions. The opposition is trying to score political points, but doesn’t really want to get to the bottom of the case (by questioning relevant office staffers) because when it’s again their turn in power they intend to get back to…
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So John Q. Borrower paid too much for a house, or borrowed too much against his house and is now underwater.  To add insult to injury, his income has deteriorated to the point he can’t afford the place.  In times past the solution would have been for Mr. Borrower to downsize or move in with relatives, but apparently the Obama administration finds that solution unamerican.  Instead, Obama wants banks to reduce the principal and eat the losses. [Thanks L!] The administration wants a commitment from loan servicers to reduce loan balances for borrowers who owe more than their homes are…
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Housing News for Monday through Thursday (oops! looks like I can’t count), most recently added first.  Feel free to contribute your own finds in the comments CTRY-STATE- Source (date): Title Article quote; and/or, [comment by Igor, Doom Castle's spam-eating pet dragon] Boston Globe (2/24): Ramp up housing credit or foreclosures will double, mortgage pioneer warns CA- Long Beach Post (2/24): Report: Housing Market Still A Mixed Bag AP (2/24): Sluggish new-home sales drag on economy’s growth BL (2/24): Sales of New U.S. Homes Fell More Than Forecast in January BL (2/24): Economy: Jobless Claims Fall, Consumer Confidence Climbs Inman (2/24):…
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Much as John and I try, we just can’t mine all the information out there, so we really appreciate our contributors who send us links.  I had some great ones from M, L, and John this morning, when MR sent me a HufPo article, Case-Shiller:  Home Prices hit Post-Bust Lows In Most Big Cities.  I looked at the headlines and realized I needed to take a screen shot to let one picture say a thousand words: Here’s what the Walmart article said about it’s customers: The American consumer has split distinctly into two groups, Feldman said. Higher income earners face…
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In Phoenix, home prices have been declining at a slower rate.  ASU professor Karl Guntermann who studies the Phoenix housing market, feels that 2011 might be the year the market turns around: “Given the pattern that is emerging, it is likely that declines will continue for at least the next several months,” Guntermann said. However, he noted that the current housing market was far less volatile than it had been. “To put things in historical perspective, from December 2007 to December 2008, average Phoenix-area home prices dropped 33 percent,” Guntermann said. “From December 2008 to December 2009, they dropped another…
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Well this doesn’t happen every day. UPDATE: I’m beginning to suspect that Amanda’s authoritative tone may have led me to mis-parse the “we” in the below quote.  I’ll link **here** on receiving clarification [FURTHER -- clarification received, Amanda was a Provincial staffer and isn't associated with Oda's office.]  Right now I’m on the fence between whether this is direct evidence or merely brilliant analysis.  In any case it certainly points to a way forward in cracking the case. Big hat tip to commenter Ruth at “Crux of the Matter” blog for the dig “Stuff Occurs” blog (2/19 ’11): “Minister Oda…
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Maclean’s (2/18 ’11): More ado about Oda [Canadian Minister for International Cooperation Bev] Oda’s explanation, that she ordered the insertion of the word “not” in the document in order that she could then reject its recommendation by signing it, makes no earthly sense. If she had wanted to reject the recommendation, all she had to do was refuse to sign it. The fact that the document does bear her signature suggests she signed it before the document was altered: that is, that she initially accepted the recommendation, approved the funding, then changed her mind — or had it changed for…
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Following the old axiom “Turnabout is fair play”, a homeowner, frustrated with what he felt was a lack of response from Wells Fargo, decides to foreclose- on Wells Fargo:  [Hat tip Freedom's Phoenix.] A Philadelphia homeowner started foreclosure proceedings on a Wells Fargo mortgage office after winning a rather strange legal judgement against the bank. After Patrick Rodgers got no reply to three letters asking why he was being forced to pay a home insurance premium for a $1 million house when he bought his 3-story Victorian home for $180,000, he decided to force his mortgage company to pay attention,…
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In a week when online security was demonstratively in a shambles just about everywhere the Thirteenth District doesn’t seem to have even mastered physical security for its own documents. (I should add by way of disclosure that I share the same circle of friends and same shrinking Presbyterian denomination as Rev. Ken Stright, and am thus part of that motley and increasingly irrelevant array of old fashioned establishment Christians4 whose ox is being gored in this farce.  I haven’t yet spoken with Ken on this issue, by the way.) I did get some harmless fun out of watching the minister…
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