Whatever the explanation, median sales prices of existing homes are stabilizing in the $160,000 range so far this year in Sacramento County. – Jim Wasserman, “Capital-area home prices stop slide, for now”, The Sacramento Bee, May 22 Just like in…
The low end of the real estate market here – and in some equally hard-hit places like inland California and coastal Florida – is becoming as wild as anything during the boom. – David Streitfeld, “Amid Housing Bust, Phoenix Begins…
Is this what a bottom looks like? This city was among the first in the nation to fall victim to the real estate collapse. Now it seems to be in the earliest stages of a recovery, a hopeful sign for…
What happened here will some day be a new chapter in Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. – Greg Swann, a Phoenix, AZ real estate agent (Via BeSpoke Investment Group)
This post and accompanying chart from the WSJ just blew my mind: “More Americans Drowning In Mortgage Debt”. As you can see, 30% of Californians and Floridians, 1.9 million and 1.3 million respectively, are underwater on their mortgages!!!! Wow…..
Today’s report shows that we are in a crisis situation. – NAHB Chairman Sandy Dunn When I heard Diana Olick report this number on CNBC a few minutes ago I had to chuckle. You have to realize that a number…
This week’s trading has been dominated by concerns that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will essentially be nationalized by the US Govt and their common stockholders wiped out. The catalyst was a story in Barron’s over the weekend “The Endgame Nears…
Turmoil in the housing market has led to fears that home prices will drop precipitously….. But the projected losses have been wildly exaggerated. Most Americans have not experienced any significant declines in the value of their homes – nor are…
Daily life in these developments seems a bit post-cataclysmic. Children play on elaborate but empty playgrounds. They walk their dogs past rows of shiny houses that have never been lived in. Voices echo up and down the block. Unfinished houses…
Today after the close Washington Mutual (WM) announced a $3.3 billion 2nd quarter loss driven by a $6 billion provision for loan losses (WM Earnings Release). WaMu has a quarter trillion dollar ($250 billion) loan portfolio, almost entirely in real…