Posts Tagged ‘C’Keepin’ It Real Estate: Allocating Stimulus to Land BanksThis post first appeared on Minyanville. After four years of searing pain, the US housing market is finally showing signs of life. And even as the causes and relative sustainability of this nascent “recovery” are being hotly debated, traditional buyers and investors alike are jumping into the market for homes with both feet. It now [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Why Housing Prices Are Essentially MeaninglessThis post first appeared on Minyanville. It took the Wall Street Journal an entire survey to prove what readers of this column have known for months: The housing recovery, as it plays out, will be a localized event, varying greatly city to city, neighborhood to neighborhood, street to street. The Journal, god bless them, compiled [...] 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, [...] 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 [...] Companies Compete for Government Cash, Not CustomersThis post first appeared on Minyanville. It’s the government, stupid. As Washington expands its role in managing the day-to-day operations of American business, companies are increasingly turning their strategic focus to tapping federal cash and lending programs. And despite the strings often attached to government money, many are finding that Uncle Sam is the only [...] Vultures Descend on Mortgage MarketThis post first appeared on Minyanville. In early 2006, when subprime powerhouse New Century went bust, vulture investors began to salivate at the opportunities a collapsing mortgage market would offer up like manna from the trading gods. They started raising money. And lots of it. Billions were poured into so-called “mortgage opportunity funds,” which planned [...] Sayonara, SECBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. The horses, pigs, cows, goats, sheep, llamas, ostriches, dromedaries and rhinos have all left the barn, yet the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) still thinks it should be minding the door. In light of its woeful inability to perform even the simplest of tasks — [...] R.I.P. Free CreditBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Remember the good old days? Back when you and the credit crunch were young, and only those “subprime” people over on the other side of town — you know, the ones living wildly beyond their means, dependent on credit for the very necessities of life — [...] Deflation Still Clear and Present DangerBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Deflation, the economic beast many feared would devour the next decade, appears to have been vanquished. Or has it? Superficial signs of renewed inflation are everywhere: Oil prices appear to be stabilizing, and concern is growing about future supply shortages (which, by extension, could lead to [...] America: Home of the (Debt) FreeThis post first appeared on Minyanville. Freedom is back in vogue: Americans are finally growing tired of living in the shackles of debt. According to the Wall Street Journal, government-led efforts to jumpstart lending are being derailed by weak demand for new loans. As the recession rolls on, an increasing percentage of consumers are opting [...] Government Reduces Risk – But Also RewardBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. In its ongoing attempt to rewrite the rules of what’s quickly becoming our quasi-capitalist nation, the Obama Administration is weighing options that would expand compensation restrictions to all corners of the financial-services industry. According to the New York Times, well-publicized efforts to rein in executive pay [...] Government to Banks: We Recommend Throwing Good Money After BadBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Every month, it seems, Washington dreams up new and fantastic ways to funnel taxpayer money towards a growing list of undeserving recipients. Now, in the latest attempt to coerce banks into modifying delinquent mortgages en masse, the Treasury Department plans to offer cash incentives to lenders [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Beware The False Bottom in HousingBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Residential real estate is about to get very weird. In the coming months, housing-market data is likely to show price stabilization in many of the country’s hardest hit areas. Pundits, government officials and real-estate professionals will loudly proclaim the worst of our real estate woes are [...] Banks Rev Up Foreclosure MachineBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. For almost 2 years, we’ve been told government-backed loan modification efforts and foreclosure moratoriums would help ease the pain of the ongoing housing crisis. It’s not working. Despite recent calls to the contrary — this morning’s came courtesy of real-estate mogul Sam Zell — residential home prices are still in free [...] Inflation vs. Deflation: Endgame ApproachesBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Of the myriad highbrow economic debates currently raging throughout the world of punditry, academia and government policy, few are as contentious as the one over the future of prices: Inflation vs. Deflation. Indeed, the endgame for this issue is not insignificant, as many believe our economic [...] Keepin it Real Estate: The Stabilization FallacyBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Despite recent reports to the contrary, the impending stabilization of the housing market is a myth. While declines in certain markets are coming to an end, real estate, in general, is still in freefall. Last November, amidst a great deal of media fanfare, Fannie Mae (FNM) [...] Fannie, Freddie to Steal Banks’ Crutches?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. With mortgage rates at historic lows, housing prices plummeting, and Washington throwing billions at housing-market recovery efforts, why is it still so damn hard to get a loan? And while the easy answer is that banks are flat-out broke, the real answer may lie in an [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Housing Recovery? What Housing Recovery?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. This week, 2 data points led optimistic market-watchers to declare the bottom in the housing is nigh: Indeed, one widely read trader-writer proclaimed, “The oversupply of housing that so plagues the market at present will be a figment of our memory a few months hence.” The [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: How to Play the Housing ReboundBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. There isn’t an economic forecaster or media pundit alive who isn’t angling to be the first to (correctly) call the bottom in housing. Many have tried; they all have failed. But what happens when one’s right? At some point in the future, broad home price indicators [...] Foreclosure By DesignBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Many months ago, long before bureaucrats dreamed up their massive, ill-conceived loan-modification programs, the free market found a solution to the mortgage mess. Specialists in handling distressed debt amassed tens of billions of dollars to buy up bad loans at steep discounts. The offending institutions who [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: A Real Fix for HousingBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. While pundits and politicians debate the various aspects of President Obama’s $275 billion housing bailout, one piece of data proves just how misguided federal efforts to revitalize the housing market are: $275 billion could buy more than half of all American homes already in foreclosure. Such [...] Americans to More Debt: Talk to the HandBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Washington just doesn’t get it: We don’t want more debt. While congressmen berating bank CEOs for their unwillingness to lend out their bailout money makes for a nice media clip, it reflects the growing disconnect between our elected officials and any semblance of reality. Not that [...] The Mortgage Rescue Plan: Will It Work?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. The answer? An emphatic no. This is simply the latest example of legal plunder perpetrated by the federal government against law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. The Obama administration’s scheme to help troubled borrowers centers on subsidizing interest payments, which would help borrowers make ends meet without angering those [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: How Good is Zillow?By ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Americans finally get it: Home prices are falling. This may seem like a preposterous statement, what with the entire global financial system in disarray after the collapse of the US housing market, but we Americans are stubbornly optimistic people, content to ignore calamity as long as we [...] |