Posts Tagged ‘C’Keepin’ It Real Estate: Capitulation Now!This post first appeared on Minyanville. Finally, housing is starting to act like a market searching for a bottom. Well, sort of. In former boom states like California, Arizona and Florida, distressed sales are driving the local real-estate markets. After a near-complete evaporation of buying activity last year, buyers have been brought off the sidelines [...] Fed Jumps on Loan Modification BandwagonBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” – and you certainly can’t fault lawmakers for a lack of persistence in trying to stem the epidemic foreclosures plaguing America’s housing market. Sadly, they insist on trying the same failed strategies over and over again. For [...] Falling Rents Signal DeflationBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. In recent months, headlines have been popping up noting that rents – finally – are beginning to follow home prices into the abyss. Since the housing market began to crumble, would-be homeowners were forced to become renters, keeping demand for rental units relatively strong even as home prices [...] Congress Forces Mortgage ModificationsBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. The road to over-regulation has begun. In an effort protect struggling homeowners, Senate Democrats are advocating new bankruptcy laws that allow judges to alter mortgage terms, known as a “cramdown,” during a Chapter 13 bankruptcy filing. Lawmakers hope the new rules will prevent foreclosures, help borrowers [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Rich Get Stuck in Subprime SlimeBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. From expansive estates in the Hamptons to mansions on the Malibu cliffs, the rich are watching their vast real-estate wealth evaporate before their eyes. Perhaps no market epitomizes the ultimate surrender of high-end real estate than the island of Manhattan, where housing prices had held relatively stable [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: The Other Side of the Rock-Bottom MortgageBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. It’s wishful thinking that artificially low interest rates alone are enough to rehabilitate the housing market. The mortgage industry has undergone a swift and ruthless downsizing over the past 18 months. While a necessary part of the corrective process, the market is ill-equipped to handle the onslaught of [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Chinese Investors Smell Blood in CaliforniaBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Speculators have been flocking to California for centuries. Gold, computers, absurd dot.com start-ups, real estate - if it’s an asset, it’s probably boomed and busted in the Golden State. The bursting of the latest bubble — real estate — is still in progress, as foreclosures push up [...] Fannie, Freddie Knew About Risks, Ignored ThemBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Unprecedented. Unpredictable. Unparalleled. Extraordinary. These are the adjectives offered by mortgage industry executives defending their relative innocence in the collapse of the housing industry. Conditions, they argue, deteriorated so rapidly and in such unpredictable ways they couldn’t possibly batten down the hatches fast enough. As it [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: Treasury Tries to Re-Inflate Housing BubbleBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is hoping he’s found the magic bullet to solve the US housing market’s seemingly never-endless woes. He hasn’t. By throwing around the weight of recently nationalized mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), the Treasury Department is considering a plan [...] 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: 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. [...] So, You Want to Fix the Housing Market?This post first appeared on Minyanville. Yesterday, I criticized Washington’s $700 billion financial bailout plan for missing the point. It fails to address the root of the problems facing the housing market and, by extension, the rest of the economy: Negative equity or a homeowner owing more on his house than it’s worth. On The [...] |