If you haven’t seen any of Jim the Realtor’s videos over at Calculated Risk, you are not getting a feel for what’s happening in residential real estate in America.  The guy really gives the whole housing problem in California a look you wouldn’t have unless you were a real estate agent living it. His videos [...]

I supported a proposal to help foreclosed homeowners by Dean Baker and Andrew Samwick back in June (see “Why not protect the homeowner?”).  Apparently, the Obama Administration likes this proposal and is floating a trial balloon via Treasury Assistant Secretary Herb Allison (hat tip Marshall Auerback).
A top Treasury Department official told a Senate panel [...]

My translation below is of an article from the website Finanzas.
House prices accelerated their decline in June, down 10.1% over the same month of 2008, which is three tenths more than the previous month, when housing fell 9.8%, according to an Index of Spanish real estate market (IMIE) from Tinsa.
This fall, which is typical at [...]

R.W. Baird downgraded Starwood Hotels (HOT) from Neutral to Underperform, saying it was downgrading estimates on hotels across the board. This comes via Barrons:
Starwood’s former strengths are now weaknesses. During the boom Starwood’s world-class real-estate holdings, higher-end brands and international growth allowed significant multiple expansion. Today, each of these former positives exposes the company to [...]

This comes via the Nationwide website:
As a responsible lender which aims to support its borrowers Nationwide has responded to market conditions and made an option available which enables some existing customers in negative equity to move home. This is not available to new customers. The maximum LTV for existing customers taking a new deal at [...]

The Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, is now bringing back the dreaded 125% mortgage.  While the lender claims these mortgages are a “niche product” designed for customers of Nationwide in negative equity, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is looking to ban this type of lending.
From the BBC:
It will only be available to existing customers [...]

When we saw the Case-Shiller data for April on Tuesday, I noted that New York was the most overpriced metro area in the Composite-20 as prices there were still 70% above January 2000 levels.  This is changing fast.  Bloomberg reports:
Manhattan apartment prices dropped for the first time since 2002 in the second quarter as the [...]

Let’s say you’re an American named Maria living in Southern California.  The year is 2006.  You make $45,000 and your husband David makes another $40,000.  You have two children aged six and four and your two-bedroom apartment is getting too small.  So you decide to consider buying a house.  Eventually, you and your husband find [...]

Apparently the answer to this question is yes.  CNBC is reporting that home ‘owners’ who refinance their mortgages through loans backed by Fannie and Freddie will be able to borrow up to 125% of their homes’ value (hat tip Marshall Auerback).  That’s not a typo: we’re talking no-money down and 25% cash back.  Sign me [...]

The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices for April 2009 were released today.  The Composite-10 and Composite-20 indices showed a 18.0% and 18.1% decline respectively, making the data less bad than in the previous month.  Nevertheless, there is still considerable weakness, particularly in former bubble cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.  There, prices have been [...]