RegulationsHousing Collapse Blamed on Borrowers, not BanksThis article first appeared on Minyanville. The darkest days of the housing market’s downward spiral may be behind us, but the battle over who should shoulder the blame is rambling on. In Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Nick Tamiraos cited a paper published by the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and Atlanta that aims to dispel [...] 5 Reasons Why the Housing Market Will Not Crash (Again)This post first appeared on Minyanville. Three years of wrong predictions notwithstanding, perma-bears are emerging from a winter’s hibernation with tall tales of another impending collapse in home prices. They could not be more wrong. For pundits, academics, bloggers and others who get their market “color” from crunching numbers and poring over 50-page long analyst [...] Homeownership at Any CostHow the National Association of Realtors Convinced Taxpayers to Subsidize the American Dream By Andrew Jeffery (Published by FT Press, in conjunction with Minyanville.com) Wall Street has been occupied. Mortgage brokers shut down. Bankers, vilified. Even struggling homeowners, behind on their mortgages, receive scant pity as they are forcefully removed from their homes. But what [...] State of the Markets – January 201212 Housing Themes for 2012 As 2012 rumbles out of the gate, the US housing market correction enters its sixth year. By all accounts, it’s been the worst real estate slump in generations. But even this far into the cycle, housing bears continue to troll through data releases looking for ominous warnings that vindicate their [...] Is the Mortgage Interest Deduction Doomed?This post first appeared on Minyanville. It doesn’t make nearly the headline fodder as revolution in Egypt (or Wisconsin), but the fate of the mortgage interest deduction, or MID, is a hot topic in housing finance circles this budget season. And while eliminating the MID may sound like a popular, hard-line approach to expensive government [...] Is Equity Sharing the New Way Forward in Housing Finance?This post first appeared in: Cirios Trends – Special Edition: The Year Ahead Since mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac collapsed in September 2008, housing experts and policy wonks alike have searched for a way forward with these two crucial pillars of the housing market. But each proposed solution, whether it includes a break [...] Foreclosure-Gate: What the Hell Is (Was) Going On?This post first appeared in: Cirios Trends – Special Edition: 2010 Real Estate Roundup A 2010 housing market recap would be incomplete without a rundown of what has become known as “Foreclosure-Gate,” a foray into the procedural minutiae of distressed mortgage servicing. In September of this year – in the midst of the crucial mid-term [...] Cirios Trends – September 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets – September 15, 2010 Housing is dead. Or is it? Feature: What To Do with Fannie and Freddie? Mortgage giants are propping up the housing market, but at what cost? Around the Bay: Local News Bites Goings on that [...] Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again?In this month’s Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again?, check out: The State of the Markets – Will Housing Slide Again? Prices are falling, should you care? Why Are Home Prices Falling Again? The answer may surprise you. Is Housing Policy Working? Running the numbers on foreclosure prevention. Picking Winners [...] Cirios Trends — June 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: June 8, 2010 Something isn’t adding up in the market for bank owned homes. Feature: How Much Should I Pay? Tips for buyers not interested in overpaying. Around the Bay: Local News Bites Goings on that move markets. Zip [...] The State of the Markets — June 8, 2010This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities. There is no ambiguity about the goal of current US government policy when it comes to housing: Prevent home price depreciation at all cost. As such, this month’s State of the Markets was going to discuss shadow inventory, diving into [...] Cirios Trends — May 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: May 5, 2010 Watching as the world wobbles. Feature: What’s in a CDO, anyway? Complex securities bite Goldman Sachs as the SEC closes in. Around the Bay: Local News Bites Goings on that move markets. Zip Code [...] Feature: What’s in a CDO, anyway?This post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Over the past several weeks, the federal government’s increased scrutiny of Goldman Sachs has brought complex financial securities at the heart of the housing market collapse back into the government’s crosshairs. We thought an attempted explanation of not [...] Around the Bay: Local News BitesThis post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Silicon Valley Defies California Gloom (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Even though consumer confidence in California has fallen to a historic low, Silicon Valley residents remain some of the country’s more optimistic folks. California’s Index of Consumer Sentiment registered [...] Realtors Roll the Dice With HAFAThis post first appeared on Minyanville. The Obama Administration’s latest salvo in the war against foreclosures, Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, or HAFA, is but a week old and already America’s real estate establishment is trying to cash in. HAFA aims to step in where Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, fails. In other words, when [...] Cirios Trends — April 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: April 5, 2010 Some data show the worst may be over – so are we out of the woods? Feature: HAFA – Double Edge Swords Abound Will the latest housing market fix sink or swim? Did You [...] The State of the Markets – April 5, 2010This post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. For 12 months now, the Case Shiller Home Price Index – the most widely watched home price indicator – has been hinting that the housing market has at the very least stopped getting worse. In February’s Cirios Trends, [...] Feature: HAFA – Double Edge Swords AboundThis post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Every six months or so, Washington’s political will seems to coalesce in support of the only issue where there is true agreement across party lines: The housing market is still broken. Sadly, in our view, the Treasury Department’s [...] Feature: Protect Your Investment with a 1031 ExchangeThis post first appeared in the March edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Given the historic home price declines seen in the past four years, few investors have been focused on deferring taxes on real estate gains because, let’s face it, there just haven’t been many gains. However, as investors begin [...] Feature: Real Estate Investing with Your IRAThis post first appeared in the February edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. At cocktail parties and around the water cooler, the familiar refrain that “now is a great time to buy,” is piquing the interest of even the most casual real estate investor. For many, however, taking advantage of “distressed” [...] SPECIAL EDITION: Cirios Trends — A Decade in FluxIn this SPECIAL EDITION, check out: The State of the Markets: A Decade in Flux 10 years that were anything but boring.. Home Prices: A Much Needed Breather After a historic rise, an equally historic fall. Getting Back on Track: Are We There Yet? Many believe the bottom in housing has come and gone. Are [...] CIT Puts “Too Big to Fail” to the TestThis post first appeared on Minyanville. We have truly become a bailout nation. As regulators mull over the possibility of rescuing CIT Group (CIT) — a small-business lender that counts over 1 million US firms as customers — analysts debate whether the relatively small firm is deserving of a taxpayer-funded bailout. Or for that matter, [...] Legislators Look to Expand New Home Tax CreditsCalifornia may be broke, but that isn’t stopping legislators from trying to give away more money to try and save our swooning housing market. Qualified buyers of new homes in California can currently receive a $10,000 tax credit for purchasing a newly constructed home. The program, originally capped at $100 million and set to tun [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Just How Bad Are the New Appraisal Rules?This post first appeared on Minyanville. Appraisers just can’t get it right. During the housing boom, mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, and even borrowers sought out appraisals supporting the highest possible home price. Appraisers, fearful of losing business, inflated their valuation findings, which exacerbated the run-up in home prices. Now, after nearly 4 years of home-price [...] |