Archive for November, 2008Housing Perspective: October New Home SalesBy RYAN TAYLOR Hardly anyone, it appears, is interested in buying a new house. The commerce department reported this morning sales of new single family homes decreased by 5.3% in October to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 433,000. That’s the lowest level since 1991. Sales are down a whopping 40.1% from October 2007 and [...] Housing Perspective: October Existing Home SalesBy AUSTIN NELSON Existing home sales fell again in October, reversing gains seen in September. The National Association of Realtors, or NAR, released October existing home sales data today, which show decreases in units sold as well as median sale price across the country. The annual price decline was the worst on record, continuing the [...] Down Goes DowneyBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Looks like all those option adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) weren’t such a good idea after all: 1% teaser rates and loans that grow, rather than shrink, over time just aren’t meant for questionable borrowers buying overpriced homes. Newport Beach-based Downey Savings (DSL), the fifth largest originator of [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Homebuilders Facing ExtinctionBy ANDREW JEFFERY For as bad as things are in the housing market, it’s remarkable that none of the country’s big homebuilders have gone bust. The industry’s resilience is a testament to how much money the firms raked in during the boom. Just ask guys in charge. The Wall Street Journal reports many homebuilder CEOs [...] Housing Perspective: October Housing StartsBy AUSTIN NELSON The Commerce department released its latest figures for housing starts in the month of October, providing further evidence of an American economy in very poor shape. Starts for the month came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 791,000, down 4.5% from the previous month. Furthermore, permits for future construction fell [...] Housing Perspective: Home Builder SentimentBy RYAN TAYLOR Home builders aren’t feeling very confident. And for good reason. The National Association of Home Builders shared their sentiment index for November Tuesday and the reading was the lowest since they began keeping track. The index dropped 5 points from 14 in October to 9 this month – a 10 point drop [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Housing Crash to Reach NYCBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Constrained supply, continuous demand and wealth beyond imagining: There’s a reason New York City real estate is the most expensive in the country. Easy lending, a weak dollar and gobs of Wall Street money pushed already sky-high Manhattan property values into the stratosphere during the housing boom. [...] Housing Perspective: September Pending Home SalesBy AUSTIN NELSON The National Association of Realtors (NAR) posted its monthly Pending Home Sales Index for September today, showing a pullback in the gains seen in last month’s report. The index, touted as “a leading indicator of housing activity,” is based on signed housing contracts. These contracts are not counted as sales but are [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Do Loan Modifications Work?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. With millions of homeowners falling behind on their monthly payments, one in 6 underwater, and countless more struggling to keep up, politicians and banks alike are jumping on the loan modification bandwagon. A modification – or “mod,” as it’s known in the industry — is simply the [...] Crisis in Prime Mortgages on HorizonBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. The private sector is actively engaging the mortgage crisis with the first broad-based, systemic attempt to prevent foreclosure. Both Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan (JPM) are attempting to help hundreds of thousands of troubled homeowners with massive loan modification efforts. Regulators and bank executives are operating [...] JPMorgan Tackles Troubled MortgagesThis post first appeared on Minyanville. The mortgage bailout parade marches on. Just days after rival Bank of America (BAC) announced plans to modify hundreds of thousands of mortgages, JPMorgan (JPM) released details of a homeowner rescue plan of its own on Friday afternoon. Following its takeover of both Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, JPMorgan’s inventory of [...] |