Posts Tagged ‘wfc’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: How Long Can the Housing Bounce Last?This article first appeared on Minyanville. The only question that really matters in the housing market right now is the following: Does the recent strengthening in sales data signal an imminent bottom, or are we smack in the middle of a dead-cat bounce? The answer, of course, is complicated. And as I’ve discussed in the [...] 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 [...] Congress Still Working Against Housing RecoveryThis post first appeared on Minyanville. Banks like Washington Mutual (JPM), Wachovia (WFC), and Countrywide (BAC) — along with Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) — once used mortgage underwriting guidelines that were thin at best, nonexistent at worst. Congress, in turn, pushed for leniency for low-income borrowers and for those with spotty credit, [...] 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 [...] Keepin’ It Real Estate: The Fed Loses the Mortgage-Rate Battle?This post first appeared on Minyanville. Despite the best efforts of the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department, the free market is winning the battle over mortgage rates. Tens of trillions of dollars in support for the financial system can’t change the stark reality: Giving out home loans remains risky business. Borrowers looking to take [...] 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 [...] Mortgage Rates Still Not Allowed to Return to NormalBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. Despite Herculean efforts, the Federal Reserve is losing its battle to keep mortgage rates at all-time lows. As fear that we’re headed for imminent collapse slowly wanes, investors’ appetite for risk is coming back. This renewed confidence has helped buoy stocks, and the major equity indices [...] The Five Questions You MUST Ask Your RealtorBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. As a growing number of economists, pundits and real-estate professionals assure us the housing market’s worst days are over, prospective home buyers need a trusted advocate to make sure they don’t end up on the wrong side of someone else’s trade. More often than not, that [...] 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 [...] 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: 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 [...] 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 [...] 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 [...] Freddie Blows Through Another $35 BillionBy ANDREW JEFFERY This post first appeared on Minyanville. $100 billion just isn’t what it used to be. Over the weekend, Freddie Mac (FRE) requested a second draw on its Treasury Department credit facility, saying $30-35 billion would suffice to keep its net worth above zero, thank you very much. After taking $14 billion in [...] 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 [...] 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: 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 [...] |