The Fed’s own holdings of MBS were almost unchanged, dropping a measily $34 million, while the foreign cenbank holdings of agencies were pretty flat. On the other hand, the treasuries number went completely bonkers. Now the pay-walled financial media are becoming nearly as secretive as the cenbanks, but there seems to be a consensus that a BoJ desperate to control the upward spiral of the yen bought about $100B of Treasury Debt on Halloween, which would seem to imply that while in the aggregate we’re looking at a record weekly buy of treasuries, if you take away Japan there was…
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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…
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The Fed’s own holdings of MBS dropped an accelerating $5.723 billion and foreign central bank holdings of treasuries dramatically plunged ending a long winning streak, following up on last week’s dramatic sell-off in agencies. However, ZH has been reporting very strong demand for treasuries over the last couple of days, which doesn’t seem to make a great deal of sense except, perhaps we’re starting to see some odd effects coming out of the debt ceiling “crisis” … WSJ (5/26 ’11): “Treasury Prices Rise As T-Bills Shortage Drives Demand Into Notes” Indirect bidders, which include foreign buyers and central banks, expressed…
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Like all Arizona eighth graders, I took Arizona government. [We won't go into how long ago that was.]  I remember having to learn how a bill progressed through the legislature.  I don’t, however, remember that a bill could proceed like SB 1259 has.  SB 1259′s proposed effect: Provides a chain of ownership during foreclosure proceedings and allows reimbursement of lawyer fees for injunctions or court cases that fail to prove ownership. In other words, lenders would have to be able to actually prove that they owned a mortgage before they could foreclose on a property: You see, the Arizona State…
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(Crossposted at Doom Network) The Standard and Poor’s/Case-Shiller numbers for January have just been released today and they show some dire trends. Reuters has a copy of the S&P data here. While the eternal optimists kept saying, “See, the market’s recovering!” when the prices were climbing in 2009, many bubbleheads knew better — and it turns out we were right. The numbers indicate the market is heading toward a double-dip. Who know’s how low it’ll go this time. Reuters reports: U.S. single family home prices fell for the seventh straight month in January, bringing prices to just above April 2009…
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(Crossposted at Doom Network) While many bubbleheads have known for some time that the housing market is doomed and is nowhere near a recovery, it seems the mainstream media is finally catching up. MSNBC reports: Two high-profile reports on home sales this week confirmed that the housing market is still mired in a deep slump with prices still falling and sales activity sluggish at best. In fact, the market may be in much worse shape than even those numbers suggest. Figures from the National Association of Realtors that are among the most closely watched indicators on the housing market have…
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Cross-posted at Doom Network. DailyFinance reported today that a former Balboa Insurance Group employee has leaked sensitive internal documents and e-mails that allegedly implicate the Bank of America subsidiary in force-placed insurance fraud. The information was released via the website BankofAmericaSuck, which is the handiwork of the ‘Anonymous’ hacker group. The informant’s allegations taken from BankofAmericaSuck include: Balboa Insurance/Countrywide [is] knowingly hiding foreclosure information from federal auditors during the federal takeovers of IndyMac Federal (a subsidiary of OneWest) and Aurora Loan Services (a subsidiary of Lehman Bros Holdings), falsifying loan documentation in order to proceed with foreclosures by fixing letter…
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It looks like the aging former Rat Pack Sahara hotel-casino in Las Vegas is closing (and shuttering) its doors in May 2011. The hotel-casino was purchased back in 2007 (shortly after the bubble had peaked) by Sam Nazarian, a Los Angeles nightclub owner and businessman. Nazarian had promised to make the aging casino more appealing to Las Vegas visitors. According to the L.A. Times: Nazarian, who also owns L.A.-area watering holes MI-6 and Hyde Lounge, purchased the Sahara at the tail end of the two-decade-long Las Vegas building boom. He intended to transform the run-down property into a hot spot…
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Suppose you are underwater on your mortgage, and can’t afford to make your house payments. You don’t want to walk away, and you don’t have the $100K+ over and above what your house is worth to bring to closing. You’ll probably want to try a short sale then, where you can sell a property for less than you owe with lender approval. What do you do though if you can’t close a short sale? This is a big problem in California, where a recent survey of California realtors showed that short sales aren’t closing 43% of the time. Here’s what…
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The Las Vegas government has announced approval to build an amusement park along the strip. Not content with the usual garish, over-the-top theme prevalent throughout the rest of Sin City, the developer has decided to construct a 500-foot ferris wheel, making it the third-largest wheel of its kind in the world, and the largest one in the western hemisphere. In addition to the Ferris Wheel, it would include six additional rides, a 20,000+ square foot conference center and nearly 150,000 square feet of new retail space. Apparently, it’s not enough to be the gambling mecca of the Northern Hemisphere –…
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A half-finished office skyscraper dominates the skyline.  It was built during the construction boom, but was abandoned during the bust.  It sat empty for years before squatters decided to move in.  The location?  Caracas, Venezuela. The U.S. is also now dotted with partially completed construction projects. The partially completed Centerpoint Condominium project in downtown Tempe, AZ was home to squatters for several years, although there the construction has resumed.  While squatting is not currently common in the U.S. commercial buildings, it’s become very common in residential ones: [There are] units occupied by squatters who have long since stopped paying their…
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Treasury Secretary Geithner can’t envision the U.S. housing market without substantial government intervention, and he’s pushing to see that happen.  While Geithner declined yesterday in his testimony to the House Financial Services Committee to say what his favorite option was, he did express his concern about the plan with the most limited government role: Democrats and Republicans clashed over the workability of one long-term approach put out by Treasury, that would create a virtually privatized system in which the government’s role in the mortgage market would be significantly reduced. In this scenario, only the Federal Housing Administration would be allowed…
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Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide Financial and the “poster child” of what went wrong with mortgage lending was fined last year for mortgage fraud, but his fate was not shared by all the Countrywide execs.  Mozilo, as well as two others, were charged hefty fines: The deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission requires Mozilo, the highest-profile figure to be accused of wrongdoing in the mortgage meltdown, to personally pay a $22.5-million fine. The government said it would be the largest penalty ever paid by a senior executive of a public company in an SEC settlement. Mozilo, 71, also…
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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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