Category: Housing
Chris Whalen: US Foreclosure Crisis A ‘Cancer’
Chris sees the foreclosure crisis developing into a drip, drip of foreclosed property, unpaid property taxes, and loan losses. In his view, the Obama Administration is in a similar position to the Hoover Administration during the Depression. I’ve been saying for a long time Barack Obama is walking in Herbert Hoover’s shoes. And they’re making
NY Fed Joins Attorneys General in Pursuing Foreclosure Frauds
by L. Randall Wray, Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Research Director with the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability and Senior Research Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute and author of Understanding Modern Money. In a surprising turn of events, the NYFed—no less—has gone after the Bank of America for
Bankruptcy attorney on robo-signing fraud and mortgage mod litigation
This bankruptcy attorney in the video below says he has been fighting the robo-signing issue since 2007. He also shows how the signature of certain robo-signers is "comically" different from one document to the next, indicating fraud. (Hat tip Glen). The interesting bit for me comes at about the 3:15 mark when he is asked
Foreclosure Moratorium – What Does it Mean for the Housing Market?
About 30% of home sales are distressed properties. Closings and future purchase contracts on distressed properties may not take place while a foreclosure moratorium is in effect to sort out title and foreclosure issues with recent vintage mortgages. In fact, any resale of a property with a mortgage that has been securitized may not go
Foreclosure crisis much deeper than robo-signers
I haven’t been writing about the foreclosure documentation crisis because I have been more focused on the ‘currency war’. But I want to flag three posts I wrote about this time last year on the mortgage and securitization market because they are relevant to this burgeoning foreclosure documentation crisis. The robo-signer problem is just a
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Increase in Purchase Mortgage Applications May Be Temporary
Mortgage applications increased last week for both refinancing and for purchase. The MBA (Mortgage Bankers Association) reported today that the application activity amounted to a “flurry” that might have been prompted by a tightening of FHA lending standards that became effective Monday
Demand for New Homes in U.S. is Far Below Prior Records
While demand for housing is near an all-time low for the post World War II era, the demand for new houses is at an all-time low approximately half of the previous lows, when adjusted for population growth.
Nationwide: UK House Prices Up Marginally in September
We are watching house prices in the United Kingdom and the United States to determine whether they have stabilized after the initial descent. This is crucial if these two countries are to avoid a double dip recession. So I am going to start reporting these figures again. Analysts such as Meredith Whitney have predicted a
Andy Xie is much less bearish on Chinese housing market
Recently I pointed to some comments by Andy Xie which indicated he was taking a less apocalyptic stance toward the Chinese property market. It was difficult to discern how much of a climb down this was for the China bear. But, judging from an article just published in Bloomberg, Xie has not recanted entirely; he
Where is the Bottom for Housing? We May Not Know for Years
How far are we from a bottom in U.S. home prices? There are many estimates that there could be another 10% or more for the national average and median prices to decline. This author estimated that 2010 had a most probable decline around 11% from December 2009, with further declines possible in 2011. Little decline
The Pig in the Python
by Annaly Salvos The title of this post may sound like a fable told by Aesop, but we assure you it’s not. We spent the early part of this week in Dallas attending the 3rd Zelman & Associates Housing Summit. The conference was attended by CEOs of housing and housing finance companies, senior officials in
Xie: China’s housing market is “not crashing like I expected”
I don’t know exactly what to make of Andy Xie’s quote near the end of this first CNBC video below. He says "It’s not crashing like I expected in 2012," referring to the Chinese housing market. Is Xie saying: A. The crash is not going to happen yet. Wait until 2012. Or is he saying