Archives: October 2007

The Rate Cut and You

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 31

Another rate cut is upon us. As had been expected, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke cut the federal funds rate for the second time in two months, to 4.5% now from...

Latest statistics from the Shiller Index

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 30

The latest survey from the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index is out, and no drama here, folks, it shows that prices in 10 major metro areas fell at an annualized 5%...

The tragic side of the foreclosure saga...

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 29

A troubled man in Houston who was facing foreclosure boarded himself up in his home, engaged in a standoff with police, and then ended his life. Granted, from this account...

California screamin', part two

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 26

Way back on June 30, 2005, the day after this blog debuted, Chris Palmeri wrote a prescient blog item, which bears re-reading. Chris wrote that based on projected prices...

The U.S. homeownership rate has fallen

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 26

If homeownership is the American Dream, then what's foreclosure? The American Nightmare? In the latest issue of BusinessWeek I wrote an article called "The Housing Bust's Latest Blow," calling attention...

New home sales--every silver lining has a dark cloud

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 25

They say every silver lining has a dark cloud, and that's certainly true with today's report from the Census Bureau that sales of new single-family homes rose 4.8% in...

'Doll Housing Crisis Set to Worsen'

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 24

It's not bad enough that the real housing market is sinking. Now The Onion, the satirical newspaper, reports tongue-in-cheek that there's a doll housing crisis....

Worse Than Expected. Again

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 22

The news today about slumping sales of existing homes was awful. But it should not have come as a surprise, says Ian Shepherdson of High-Frequency Economics in Valhalla, N.Y., who...

Lifestyles of the rich & infamous athletes of Atlanta

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 19

Two items in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution caught my eye today. One is the lead story in today's print edition discussing how hip-hop NBA star Allen Iverson sued the builder of...

California Is Surfing the Housing Tidal Wave

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 19

Wouldn't you think that California would be devastated by the housing crash? After all, California has had some of the nation's most unaffordable housing, along with one of the heaviest...

The Mortage Bust and Online Ads

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 18

The subprime mortgage implosion is spreading its radioactive dust on everything from homeowners to ratings agencies. One industry that may be forgotten is online advertising. Yes, online ads, that hot...

Home Price Cuts, They're Steeper Than You Think

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 17

Researching a story in the latest issue of the magazine on Great Places to Retire at Bargain Prices I was surprised by some of the steeps discounts that homes were...

What Happens to the Renters?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 15

In researching our recent cover story on builder price cuts I met Sara Evans, a bartender at the ESPN Zone on the Las Vegas Strip who was packing up a...

Meanwhile, north of the border ...

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 11

So near, yet so far. Construction is booming in Canada. Check out this article....

Biggest decline since the Depression. We think.

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 11

Is this the biggest decline in housing prices since the Great Depression? People have been asserting it so often, and with such authority, that I assumed it must be...

Ralph Liu's clever idea: SwapRent

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 11

Derivatives traders fueled the overlending of the housing boom by demanding huge volumes of mortgage-backed securities and their offshoots, few questions asked. But that doesn't mean derivatives are all bad....

Want to know what a foreclosed house looks like?

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 10

Like this. This is what the banks get back after they foreclose and take back the property. Good luck trying to sell this without another $20,000 in repairs. I'm trying...

Follow the Money, a wise man once said...

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 10

Is there any industry that touches the average consumer that is conflicted as the mortgage and housing markets? There are so many side deals, so many incentives and bonuses paid...

Is this a buyer's market?

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 10

Much has been written recently, including the nice cover story in the latest issue of BusinessWeek by my colleagues Mara and Chris, about the degree to which homebuilders are dumping...

"In the year 2020..."

Posted by: Dean Foust on October 09

I remember I once wrote a profile of Robert Prechter, the apostle of the "Eliot Wave Theory," which believed that many things in life--including the stock market--ran in cycles, and...

A Peek Inside Fern Cottage

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 08

Although our cover story this week examined the impact of sharp price cuts in one KB Home development in Las Vegas, it's worth noting that KB is among the...

Yo, Check Out My Listings— and Put Me in Your “Top Friends” List

Posted by: Maya Roney on October 08

Zolve, a self-proclaimed “Facebook for Real Estate Professionals,” launches tomorrow. The network already has 2,000 per-registered members, and a pretty interesting birth story. Zolve was actually designed in a garage...

That sinking feeling--on the cover of BusinessWeek

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 05

Do yourself a favor and read the cover story in the latest edition of BusinessWeek. It's called "That Sinking Feeling: As builders slash prices, homeowners are getting slammed." It's...

Twists in the Mortgage Forgiveness Act

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 05

Recommended: This piece by Michael Shedlock from the Seeking Alpha blog on unforeseen complications in the Mortgage Forgiveness Act, which is supposed to help people avoid foreclosure. The big kink...

Lost Your Mortgage Job? Remember to Breathe

Posted by: Maya Roney on October 04

Even more Wall Street employees are getting fired as a result of the subprime crisis. Merrill Lynch said today that it has begun clearing out executives with connections to risky...

Hot Property snags another honor

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 04

2007 is only about three-quarters over, but Inman News has already seen fit to recognize the 25 most influential real estate blogs of the year--and Hot Property made the cut!...

A Duty to Disclose Home Price Cuts?

Posted by: Chris Palmeri on October 04

Reporting on a story out later today on the sinking Las Vegas home market I came across an interesting legal battle playing out in state court there. In 2005, about...

Foreclosures: Miami vs. NYC

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 03

Miami has nightclubs, tall buildings, and sandy Atlantic beaches. New York City, ditto. (Pictured: New York's Coney Island.) What does Miami have that New York doesn't have? Foreclosures! According...

Introducing the latest risky derivative: the C-3PO

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 03

I'm looking for an investment bank to help me issue a security of my own devising, the C-3PO. This acronym stands for ... hmmm, let me see ... Constantly Collapsing Collateral, Payment Optional. Like its droid namesake from Star Wars, my C-3PO will be quite entertaining, although a bit fussy and unreliable. In other words, it will be a lot like other asset-backed innovations concocted during the past decade of financial wizardry.

How Houston gets along without zoning

Posted by: Peter Coy on October 01

Houston is a different kind of town. Brash, booming, it has sprawl and air pollution, but also vibrancy and a can-do spirit. One of the things that really makes Houston...