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New home sales fell in July to the lowest level on record as the housing market continued to suffer from the end of the homebuyer tax credit boost. This is after yesterday's report of a 27.2% decline in sales of existing homes.
Housing led the U.S. out of seven of the last eight recessions. This time, it may kill the recovery.
I proposed a solution that recognized the necessity, not the desirability, of using government involvement, which would take the form of rolling FNMA, FHLMC, and other housing agencies into one giant agency – call it GNMA...
But in some new developments, homebuilders are including in contracts a 1% fee to be paid to them every time the house is sold -- for 99 years. And the money doesn't go for improvements or upkeep: It's just money in the builders' pockets.
Existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, dropped 27.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million units in July...
One forecaster (no names!), after hearing about the local sales data, suggested that the NAR “just won’t” publish a sales number that low...
If you are short selling your home or a homeowner thinking about a short sale, you should watch this video!
There seems to be a growing consensus in favor of abolishing Fannie and Freddie. This is the good news. The bad news is instead of simply returning to the free market, Fannie and Freddie will be replaced with something equally damaging.
Bob Walters, chief economist of the online mortgage firm Quicken, acknowledges that the recent collapse will create a “mind scar” just as the Great Depression did. But he argues that housing remains unique.
Amazing ... people still think house prices will go up 10% per year ... For the next 10 years...
While not as important as new home sales, think of all the carpeting, landscaping, appliance upgrades, cabinets, etc., that will all go "poof" right along with this decline.
Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration's flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out. The Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the tide of foreclosures in t
Many of the regional reports showed sales declines of 20% or more from July 2009 when the NAR reported sales of 5.14 million SAAR. A 20% decline from July 2009 would be in the low 4 millions ...
Think about that for a second: for the median borrower, about 80% of the borrower's income went to servicing debt. And the median is 63.5% after the modification.
They've been called McMansions, Starter Castles, Garage Mahals and Faux Chateaus but here's the latest thing you can call them - History.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become gigantic financial black holes that the U.S. government endlessly pours massive quantities of money into. Unfortunately, if the U.S. government did allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to totally implode...
For decades, owning a home has been touted as the very heart of "the American Dream", but today that dream is out of reach for an increasing number of Americans. Why? It is because there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.
"The tough economy has pushed people's financial history and financial stability to the point where they don't qualify," said Klimke, who is also branch manager at AmeriFirst Financial Inc. in Mesa.
The index fell 4.45% from last year. Carl Steidtmann, chief economist with Deloitte Research said the downward trend of house prices since the end of the homebuyer tax credit has made it the "biggest drag on the Index."
MERS was developed in the early 1990s by a number of financial entities, including Bank of America, Countrywide, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, allegedly to allow consumers to pay less for mortgage loans.
The conference is largely an elaborate piece of public spectacle, bereft of any true substance. It’s the government going through the motions of an exercise of which it knows the outcome beforehand, perhaps silently praying for a miracle...
To put it into perspective, single-family starts has been essentially range-bound since the end of 2008, languishing near record lows— even after all the government stimulus.
La Jolla, CA---Southland home sales saw their biggest year-over-year drop in more than two years last month as the market lost most of the boost from the federal home buyer tax credits. The median sale price dipped for the second month in a row...
America's baby boomers—those born between 1946 and 1964—face a problem that could weigh on the economy for years to come: The longer it takes for the economy to recover, the less money they'll have to spend in retirement.
The Obama administration called for "fundamental change" at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but a long, politically explosive debate lies ahead on the future of the bailed-out mortgage giants and housing policy that affects millions of Americans and bill
The GSEs are nationalized now in all but writing, this would be logical. Alas, the fact that US Debt to GDP would jump from 90% to 140% may make this proposal a little difficult to implement.
"Right now, there's a whole lot of supply, but very, very little demand. The buyers that drove a flurry of activity during the spring have left a deafening silence in their wake."
Mortgage delinquencies have risen in nearly all US congressional districts from the levels of the last election, highlighting the political pressure on US policymakers as they gather in Washington on Tuesday to tackle the housing crisis...
Housing starts of 546k came in well below expectations of 560k. And in keeping with tradition, the US government once again revised the prior period data, to make today's print seem like an improvement...
While the road to housing hell may have been paved by the government, the road back will be built by the private sector.
