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AmTrust Financial, a privately held regional bank holding company based in Cleveland, has just filed for bankruptcy. With well over $10 billion in assets, AmTrust Bank is fairly large. The circumstances surrounding its failure are unusual in that the Bank Holding Company (BHC) has filed for bankruptcy but the banking subsidiary is still operating. The [...]

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House prices in Britain rose another 0.5% in November, putting them up 2.7% year-on-year. This is the seventh consecutive month of gains. All of the charts are looking spectacularly good. The only fly in the ointment is employment.  Let’s see what the Halifax says in a few days because their numbers have not been as [...]

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The Case-Shiller Home Price Index has increased yet again. This marks the fifth consecutive monthly increase in house prices in the United States. Prices are now only 11.3% lower in the Composite-10 cities and 9.3% lower in the more comprehensive Composite-20 cities than at this time last year.
However, diffusion is breaking down.  When the Case-Shiller [...]

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The Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting that nearly one in ten households with mortgages are at least one payment behind.  That is a record, my friends. And it certainly means we cannot believe house prices have permanently stabilized.
The New York Times says:
The delinquency figure, and a corresponding rise in the number of those losing their [...]

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The Nationwide monthly index of house prices came in this morning showing a 0.4% bump in October from September. While this was less than last month’s 0.9% rise, it was the sixth consecutive month of price increases and it marked the first time in two years that house price in the U.K. were higher year-on-year. [...]

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Annaly Capital Management’s blog has a good piece up on foreclosures, inspired by yesterday’s Case-Shiller data (hat tip Scott). If you missed it, The S&P/Case-Shiller index showed a pretty steep 1.2% month-on-month increase in U.S. house prices in its latest figures (for August 2009). This is the fourth consecutive month of increases, signaling to some [...]

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The latest data from the S&P/Case-Shiller house price indices shows house prices increasing in 17 of 20 major residential markets. The overall composite index are up for the fourth month in a row but year-over-year comparisons still show a double-digit decline in prices. A snapshot of the data is provided below.

The three lagging markets are [...]

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There is mounting evidence that bubbles are forming again everywhere across the globe as easy money makes itself felt in asset prices. The latest evidence comes from Sweden where Europe’s lowest home loan rates have pushed up the price of residential property.
At issue is the extremely loose monetary policy in Sweden that is an outgrowth [...]

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Further proof that the reflationary efforts of policy makers is taking hold comes from London in the form of record high house prices.  The Guardian reports:
Property asking prices in London have broken through the record high set in November 2007 as the drought of homes for sale around the country continues to distort the market. [...]

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Here is some anecdotal evidence of the return of euphoria  in housing via Jim the Realtor.  Check out these videos of Carlsbad (North County section of San Diego) and the surrounding community to see what I mean – many but not all of these are going for well over list price. All of these are [...]