Speed up foreclosures to fix the housing market?  How heartless is that?  Many, like Senator Merkley of Oregon, believe that the administration should do more to prevent foreclosures: WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday urging him to address the nation’s devastating foreclosure crisis as part of a new plan to create jobs. “We can and should adopt an aggressive strategy to reduce foreclosures nationally,” Merkley wrote. “There are as many as 5 million foreclosures anticipated to come — this is a huge tragedy for individual families but it is also a…
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I’ve seen agents roll their eyes and wring their hands when discussing short sales.  Dealing with the lenders is not often easy, and the process can be complex.  Even still, short sales are on the rise: [Thanks L!] Short sales are increasing as a percentage of home sales in many states, helping some neighborhoods and homeowners avoid the more devastating impacts of foreclosures. Short sales — when lenders allow financially strapped borrowers to sell homes for less than their unpaid mortgage — accounted for 12% of home sales nationwide in the second quarter. That’s up from 10% in the same…
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I’m an avid animal lover, and one of the sadder parts of the housing bust for me is how many animals have been abandoned along with the houses.  Las Vegas is especially having a tough time with a large number of “foreclosure kittens”: According to the Las Vegas Sun hundreds of former pets have been roaming the Las Vegas valley in recent years and by some counts this year has turned out twice as many. The Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has formed a “Feline Foster Force” to help connect cat lovers with deserted pets and…
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The Fed’s own holdings of MBS inched down $0.219 billion and the cenbanks’ holdings of US obligations were pretty flat as the loonie and dollar converged and the authorities took the opportunity of victory and looming disaster to surge unseen towards North American union with a quiet giant paw forward in the dirty oil pipeline. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings data set. Treasury Debt holdings retreated $3.423 billion Agencies reversed course,…
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I’ve been AWOL vacationing for the last few days.  Mr. Twist, our youngest and I decided to take a road trip from Austin to Connecticut.  I’ve been enjoying the break from the Texas heat and checking out “shadow inventory” along the way. We’ll be back in Texas and back to work in a couple of days.  In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the your summer!

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS fell a modest $4.716 billion and the cenbanks’ holdings of treasuries marched strongly up despite all the sound and fury in the world. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings data set. Treasury Debt holdings surged $10.592 billion Agencies continued down registering shrinkage of $1.767 billion *Agen-FM: The dotted line is the foreign central banks’ Agency Debt holdings reduced by the level of the Fed’s own MBS…
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As of now the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log is still in abeyance, having come to a screeching halt on June 2nd just a few days before it became obvious that the prior updates constituted nothing more than a lame coverup of a dire situation all the insiders were privy to within hours of 3/11. Meanwhile there appears to be a near-embargo by the MSM on any new developments affecting the situation at the crippled nuclear power plant, such as the powerful earthquake that struck the area a few hours ago. Irish Times (8/19 ’11): “Strong…
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New home sales are slow and homebuilder confidence is down, but Toll Brothers has found a way to keep its model homes busy– they are being used as a backdrop for a movie scheduled to come out next year, “The Brass Teapot”. PRLog (Press Release) – Aug 15, 2011 – Horsham, PA, (August, 2011) —Toll Brothers, Inc., the nation’s leading builder of luxury homes, is honored to have been selected by Atlantic Pictures as a location for their movie. The Brass Teapot is shooting at the spectacular Harding Country Manor model home in Toll Brothers at Four Corners this week…
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Fannie Mae says that if you are facing foreclosure, they are “here to help”.  The question is, helping whom? In Michigan, it isn’t the homeowners. Michigan leaders in the fight against the foreclosure crisis reacted strongly Sunday to revelations that mortgage giant Fannie Mae appears to have been pushing banks to foreclose on homeowners rather than continue negotiating loan modifications. The story broke in the Detroit Free Press, which reported it had been given some 2,300 internal records and memos from Fannie Mae. Those documents included indications that lenders should proceed to foreclosure sales rather than allow any time for…
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Las Vegas still leads the nation in foreclosures.  For most of us, foreclosures are just statistics, but not for these folks:  [Thanks L!]       And the beat goes on. . .  

Diana Olick talks about a growing phenomenon.  More people are now asking, “Why waste money on a mortgage if you can rent?” Investors are still interested, but more “regular folks” aren’t interested in the risk.  

Would you buy a used currency from this man? MarketWatch (8/15 ’11): “Gold-standard debate back, 40 years after Nixon” LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Exactly 40 years ago Monday, the U.S. dollar formally became a fiat currency, as then-President Richard Nixon “closed the gold window” and ended the greenback’s precious-metal guarantee. It was about the same time that Johnson and Nixon diverted the unaffordable cost of the Vietnam War onto the newly semi-privatized housing GSEs Fannie Mae and (newly created for the purpose) Freddie Mac. With the costs of the present wars added to their books, the newly semi-unprivatized F&F make…
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The Fed’s own holdings of MBS were unchanged again and the cenbanks’ holdings of treasuries added a bit of growth in a week when central bankers probably didn’t want to do anything dramatic they didn’t have to. Since last November 17th the treasuries number has grown at a rate of slightly less than half a billion a day, only about half what we’ve come to expect. This week’s Reuters report1 is, as usual, based on the weekly update from the NY Fed’s H.4.1 table site.2 Here is Doom’s updated CSV version3 of the agencies and treasuries foreign central bank holdings…
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Last week Catherine Reagor of the Arizona Republic wrote about the recent drop in foreclosures in the Phoenix area: [Thanks L!] Foreclosures continue to drop in metro Phoenix, a trend signaling the housing market is slowly getting in position for a recovery, according to many real-estate analysts. [I wonder who these "analysts" are?] In July, lenders foreclosed on 3,176 Phoenix-area homes, according to the Information Market. That compares with 3,887 in June. The last time Valley foreclosures, or trustee-sale numbers, were this low was in December, when major lenders, including Bank of America, had foreclosure moratoriums in place to check…
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Our thanks as always to Doom friend MR of Tucson, who keeps us abreast of the nation’s “sickest” housing market. MR has been tracking a property for us in Tucson since March.  It was purchased by an investor in 2007 and occupied by renters until the property went into foreclosure.  Now the home is being marketed by Freddie Mac– sort of. Here’s the “For Sale” sign.  As you can see, it’s not exactly displayed prominently. [MR said that you have to trespass on the property to see this sign.  It is very discreet.] If you go to the HomeSteps website,…
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