The Fed’s own holdings of MBS dropped an accelerating $12.814 billion and foreign central banks resumed their headlong rush to the exits, bringing their hoard of US Treasury Debt held in trust at the NY Fed to levels last seen six months ago in late May. 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.   After last week’s respite treasuries got crushed again, plunging $19.132 billion in the third largest Treasury Debt…
Read more…

Feeling tired and rundown because you have an out of shape mortgage?  The FHFA is working on a plan for you to shed those excess dollars on your mortgage: WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was reviewing a proposal to help troubled homeowners by forgiving a portion of their outstanding mortgage debt, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday. The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the mortgage-financing companies, met with 19 Democrats and discussed a proposal that would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce principal amounts…
Read more…

From the website of PMI Mortgage Insurance: [Hat tip L!] To all policyholders, insureds, and servicers: On August 19, 2011, PMI informed you of regulatory decisions that impacted our ability to write new commitments of insurance. Specifically, PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. (“PMI”) was required to cease writing new commitments. Today, we are informing all policyholders, insureds, and servicers of loans insured by PMI that the Director of the Arizona Department of Insurance obtained an “Order Directing Full and Exclusive Possession and Control of Insurer” (the “Order”) with respect to PMI. Under the Order, the Arizona Department of Insurance now has…
Read more…

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS dropped $8.808 billion and foreign central banks increased their treasuries holdings by over $10B, but it will take more than one week to stop the selling trend. 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. Treasuries swung to a $10.079 billion gain, but that didn’t represent much more than half of just last week’s selloff. Agencies slipped $0.723 billion, killing about half of last week’s modest…
Read more…

The proliferation of “too big to fail” banks may be playing havoc with our economy, but at least we can have fun singing about it.  Here’s the latest video from our friends at VersusPlus:   IPO, anyone?

It’s been awhile since we’ve looked at sales data out of Phoenix.  One of the more interesting trends I’m seeing in sales is actually how it relates to rental data. [Thanks L for the data!] Rental data from ARMLS (The Phoenix area MLS service) is not as comprehensive as the sales data.  Many homes and apartments are not rented through the MLS.  However, I believe that for comparisons over time, the information is useful.  Here’s how the data compares: Note that even though there have been significant swings in home sales over the past 11 years, rentals have grown in…
Read more…

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS were again unchanged and foreign central banks’ holdings of agencies rebounded into mild positive territory, but the treasuries number again blasted down, this time by the fifth largest amount in the data set after the record dump two weeks ago. 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 Treasuries again plunged, this time by $17.747 billion. Clearly the yellow line has established a top. Agencies rose by $1.357…
Read more…

Foreclosures have slowed and home prices are remaining relatively flat.  These sobering statistics, however, show why it’s still too early to think that the housing market has bottomed: – Median household income has fallen for three straight years, declining 6.4 percent from $52,823 in 2007 to $49,445 in 2010. –The portion of households living in poverty grew to 15.1 percent last year, encompassing a record 46.2 million people. For a family of four, that meant income of less than $22,314. – More families are “doubling up” because of the economy. The number of combined households rose to 21.8 million this…
Read more…

I’m a little early for the fall color, but I’m in New England this week. Look for more regular posts starting next Monday.

I couldn’t help but be struck by the similarity of these two articles this past week.  It appears that on both the federal and state (AZ) level, foreclosure assistance is going begging. First this federal program for the unemployed: The federal government can’t even give money away to help the unemployed pay their mortgage. A $1 billion program to assist the jobless will likely end up spending only half the funds, at most, because so few people met the strict criteria. The Housing Department, which had to approve the applications for the Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program by Friday, expects that…
Read more…

The Fed’s own holdings of MBS were unchanged and foreign central banks’ holdings of agencies suffered a moderate sell-off. But after the largest weekly dump of Treasury Debt ever treasuries selling came to a sudden and (almost) complete halt. Have we just experienced the start of the T-bill version of the anomaly in agencies that started in January of ’09? Tune in over the next few weeks as we speculate over PR’s appetite for the world’s safest investment 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…
Read more…

Doom contributors and I have often noted that commenters on MSM articles are often smarter than the reporters. [Granted, commenters are often dumb as a post too, but we can't have everything.] Even when comments aren’t stellar, you can get a feel for reader sentiment by perusing them. In 2006  commenters in the Arizona Republic overwhelmingly ridiculed the idea that housing could crash.  Today, we’ve seen that sentiment reverse.  Today Catherine Reagor, reporter for the Republic wrote about foreclosures being down in September and a slight uptick in the median home price.  To her credit, Reagor did admit that one…
Read more…

A lot of folks don’t believe that “It’s always a good time to buy or sell a house” anymore. Homeownership is at its lowest point in years.  This is a trend that is likely to continue for awhile.  People don’t see a lot of reward, and are worried about the downside.

According to yesterday’s New York Times, Foreclosures Are Killing Us.  The article was written by Craig E. Pollack, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Johns Hopkins and Julia F. Lynch, associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. If you believe the article, losing a house isn’t just an economic issue, but a health issue– and they describe the situation as “epidemic”: Foreclosure is not just a metaphorical epidemic, but a bona fide public health crisis. When breadwinners become ill, they miss work, lose their jobs, face daunting medical bills — and have trouble making mortgage payments as…
Read more…