Widespread Fear Freezes Housing Market
Widespread Fear Freezes Housing Market
New York Times, August 30, 2010
You have to wonder sometimes what they’re smoking over there at the National Association of Realtors. On Tuesday, the self-proclaimed “voice for real estate” released its “existing home sales” figures for July. They were gruesome. Sales were down 27 percent from the previous month, and down 26 percent from a year ago. Annualized, the July sales figures would translate into fewer than 3.9 million homes sold this year — a staggeringly low figure. (The record high occurred in 2005, when more than seven million houses were sold.).
Housing Quagmire: Is it Time to Remove Relief?
Fortune, August 31, 2010
For the growing number of struggling homeowners in this country, more help is on the way. Additional aid from the federal government will begin making its way to them next month -- one program would help qualified homeowners refinance their mortgages after seeing their property values fall below the amount they owe, and the other includes another round of funding to help the unemployed or underemployed with their payments.
Another Home Buyer Tax Credit?
CNBC, August 30, 2010
Just when I thought the housing market was finally being left to correct on its own, I'm starting to hear talk regarding yet another home buyer tax credit. From HUD to the hedge funds, it sounds as if it is gaining steam yet again. This one could involve not just first time/move-up buyers, but a credit for buyers purchasing foreclosed properties or short sales (when the bank allows you to buy a home for less than the value of the outstanding mortgage).
Ignore Talk of a Housing Tax Credit ‘Revival’
Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2010
Bring back the home buyer tax credit? Don’t hold your breath. There’s been a lot of breathless speculation ever since Shaun Donovan, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, awkwardly side-stepped a question from CNN on Sunday about whether the Obama administration would consider reviving tax credits to spur home sales.
Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis
ProPublica, August 26, 2010
Over the last two years of the housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history. Faced with increasing difficulty in selling the mortgage-backed securities that had been among their most lucrative products, the banks hit on a solution that preserved their quarterly earnings and huge bonuses: They created fake demand.
Assembly Rejects Foreclosure/Modification Bill
San Francisco Chronicle, September 1, 2010
State legislation to protect homeowners from foreclosure while pursuing a loan modification, widely supported by consumer groups but opposed by the banking California industry, has failed in the state Assembly. SB1275, which was rejected 36-30 late Monday, would have required lenders to provide homeowners with a fully considered loan modification decision prior to foreclosing. Unlike federal initiatives, it would have given homeowners the right to sue the lender if that process did not occur.