MND NewsWire : housing bubble

Foreclosures at Highest Rate Since January 2005, Says RealtyTrac

CEP News Feed — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:03:45 GMT

U.S. home foreclosures climbed 27% from the previous month's year-over-year results, according to RealtyTrac's August 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.

There were 303,879 foreclosure filings in the month of August, a 12% increase from the prior month. According to RealtyTrac, one in every 416 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing.

"In August the total number of U.S. properties that received foreclosure filings as well as the national foreclosure rate were both the highest we've seen in any month since we began issuing our report in January 2005," said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. "However, the annual increase of 27 percent was actually substantially lower than in previous months this year, when it was hovering around 50 to 65 percent."

RealtyTrac expects the foreclosure rate to start to slow down as several states have passed legislation to allow homeowners in distress more time before foreclosure proceedings are initiated.

Nevada continued to lead the pack with the highest monthly foreclosure rate for the 20th consecutive month. There were 11,706 foreclosures filings in August, a 16% increase from the previous month and an 89% year-over-year increase. One in every 91 households in Nevada filed for foreclosure, the report said.

California, Florida and Arizona together accounted for more than half of the nation's foreclosure activity, according to the report.

California posted the highest amount of foreclosures in August with 101,724 filings. According to the report, foreclosures in California increased by 40.73% from the prior month and grew by 76% from July 2007. One in every 182 households filed for foreclosure.

Florida had the second highest total in August with 44,000 reported foreclosure filings. Foreclosures increased by 4% from the previous month as one in every 194 Florida households received a foreclosure filing. Florida had the fourth highest state foreclosure rate.

By Steve Stecyk and edited by Sarah Sussman
©CEP News Ltd. 2008

Fed's Kohn Says "Jury Still Out" on Whether Housing Bottom Near

CEP News Feed — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:01:21 GMT

Federal Reserve Vice-Chairman Donald Kohn (voter) said it's not yet clear if house prices in the U.S. are close to finding a bottom.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Kohn did say it's encouraging that the pace of declines is starting to abate in some markets. He noted that mortgage conditions are still tightening and will likely persist.

He said lenders need to build larger capital buffers, which would help offset moral hazards from expanded liquidity.

Kohn also said a transition to a safer, more resilient financial system is likely to take "a while."

By Stephen Huebl and edited by Nancy Girgis
©CEP News Ltd. 2008

Study Says U.S. "Housing 'Bubble' Has Popped"

Glenn Setzer — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:56:00 GMT

A report on housing prices by Global Insight says that although prices for single-family homes are still heading downwards across the country, the rate of decline has gone down and " extreme overvaluation of house prices is essentially non-existent ." The only states that had extreme overvaluation in the second quarter were Hawaii, Washington, Oregon and Utah. The country's housing prices are down 4.8%, falling in 152 of the 330 metropolitan areas included in the study. This is an improvement...(read more)

Go Green With Your Real Estate Marketing

Glenn Setzer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The National Association of Realtors� (NAR) presently claims 1.2 million members. We figure those are figures from 2007, pre-dating the worst of the housing free fall and that there have been many dropouts since then.

Even in the best of times the division of wealth among agents is lop- sided. According the Federal job outlook, the median annual income of agents in 2004 was $35,670.

But, if you were among those earning $35,000 in 2004, you are probably hurting now.

You want to stay in the business until the market improves, but you have to eat, so may we offer two suggestions for modifying your business model in order to increase listings and sales...

...(read more)

Case-Shiller Home Price Index Tumbles Further in March and Q1

Glenn Setzer — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The S&P Case-Shiller home price index for Q1 continued to deteriorate with the 20-city composite index posting a record annual decline of 14.1%. In March, the index also declined by an annualized 14.4%. The Case-Shiller index has fallen every month since peaking in July 2006.

"The steep downturn in residential real estate continues...

...(read more)

The Housing Bust is Over

Glenn Setzer — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT

We can all breathe a sign of relief.

The housing crisis is over.

At least that was the headline on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal earlier this month when Cyril Moulle-Berteaux, a managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York made his case that the housing market is hitting bottom right now.

Some of what he says makes sense; some sounds more like tip-toeing past the graveyard...

...(read more)

Jump in Mortgage Foreclosures is "Urgent Problem"

Glenn Setzer — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Fed Governor Randall Kroszner said rising mortgage foreclosures are an "urgent problem" and called on Congress to pass a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory bill.

"As the Federal Reserve builds on its consumer protection efforts in order to mitigate foreclosures for current homeowners, we are also concerned about the...

...(read more)

Case-Shiller Home Price Index Slides in February

Glenn Setzer — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The S&P Case-Shiller home price index continued its sharp decline in February as both the 10-city and 20-city composite indexes posted record annual declines in excess of 12.5%.

The weakest markets over the past year have been Las Vegas and Miami, which have fallen by 22.8% and 21.7%, respectively.

Jacqui Douglas, economic strategist at TD Securities, said, "Charlotte, NC continues to be the only Composite- 20 city posting year-over-year gains, although only barely at...

...(read more)

Home Prices Continue 5-Month Decline According to New Report

Glenn Setzer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The Standard & Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (HPI) for January which were released on Tuesday are reporting further bad news on the home value front.

The HPI which tracks, in two different indices, 10 and 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across the United States, reported that...

...(read more)

The Consumer Spending Problem Wall Street Doesn't See Coming

Glenn Setzer — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Well there certainly are a lot of opinions in the news media out there concerning the economy, lenders, recession, etc...

Let's just apply some common sense for the moment.

Consumer spending drives the economy. But what drives consumer spending? Lot's of things, but here are my thoughts. In the last 6 years, we've had rapidly rising home values. Any of you reading this that have bought or owned homes from 2001-2006 have yourselves felt the sense of security that came from knowing you had appreciating real estate to "back you up."

To compound this confidence in real estate appreciation, the last 6 years have held unprecedented recklessness in spending. Spending is good, but reckless spending is bad...

...(read more)

Widely Regarded Housing Study Reports Further Home Price Declines

Glenn Setzer — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:00:00 GMT

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index for October, released on Wednesday, fell again for what is the 10th consecutive month. The 6.7 percent drop from figures a year earlier was the largest recorded by the index since April, 1991 when prices declined 6.3 percent.

Miami was the biggest loser in the broad index with...

...(read more)

Two New Reports Deepen Housing Gloom

Glenn Setzer — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Council of Mayors released a devastating report on the impact on member communities of the ongoing housing market problems. The report, prepared by Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, was presenting at a meeting of the Conference attended by mortgage industry and community groups.

The report projects that the foreclosure crisis will result in...

...(read more)

Current State of the Mortgage Market

Glenn Setzer — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:00:00 GMT

What a fascinating and tumultuous time is upon us! Both the housing and the mortgage market are convulsing wildly! There are so many facets to the "big picture" that I would never presume have all the answers, so the following disclaimer is in order: I am a mortgage broker and the following is my opinion based on my experience and my knowledge. You might agree with me, you might not. Away we go...

...(read more)

New Home Sales See Biggest Year Over Year Drop In 37 Years

Glenn Setzer — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued their monthly joint report on August new house sales on Thursday.

The July sales rate was itself revised downward from an original estimate of 870,000 units. The stunning figure, however, was the comparison of August 2007 data with that on sales one year earlier....

...(read more)

Fed Slashes Interest Rates By 50 Basis Points

Glenn Setzer — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:00:00 GMT

The Federal Reserve slashed benchmark interest rates by a half point in an agressive move to prevent the economy from moving into recession and to ease the pains of the housing bubble. The decision to cut the overnight federal funds rate from 5.25% to 4.75% was unanimous. This is the lowest level since May of 2006 and the first time the Fed has cut interest rates since June 2003. It was the first 1/2 point cut since November of 2002.

...(read more)