Posted in Economy, Housing Issues on Feb 25th, 2010
To the average person the mounting debt being accumulated by the Federal Government is a clear and present danger. According to nationwide polls this is the second most important issue confronting voters. One of the biggest spending areas that appears out of control is the subsidies for the mortgage market. At present most of these [...]
Posted in Housing Issues, Politics on Feb 1st, 2010
I must give a hearty thanks to the Heritage Foundation for this article. I have been pursuing a better understanding of Fannie Mae subsidies ever since the Wall Street Journal published Katrina’s no-brainer idea that everyone should rally around the idea to tax the big banks to recoup the taxpayer-funded bailout. In an interesting twist [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Nov 19th, 2009
Shiller is not certain the housing market has bottomed, and says he thinks home prices could fall back. He predicts that housing prices will be much more volatile going forward, and that five years from now, home prices will probably be at about the same level they are today. Robert Shiller Interview Housing Prices
Posted in Housing Issues on Oct 6th, 2009
Here is my latest version of the Real Estate Appreciation chart. This chart displays the real estate appreciation as reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. This graph differs from the previous graph in that it shows the monthly values versus the annual values. The $64 question is whether the 2009 uptick will continue. There [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Aug 23rd, 2009
Here is my latest version of the Real Estate Appreciation chart. This chart displays the real estate appreciation as reported by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and the Consumer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor. I decided to update the chart since my boss at work told me that housing prices had already [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Apr 2nd, 2009
Although it may seem from the recent housing headlines that the decrease in housing prices is accelerating, my Excel graph of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows a continuation of the same trend lines established in 2007. In a previous post I included a chart Robert Shiller made that predicts that the housing market will [...]
Posted in Housing Issues, Politics on Mar 16th, 2009
On Instapundit,INTERESTING MAP: 35 Counties Account for 50% of foreclosures. “And yet, California is, on average,… , he said: INTERESTING MAP: 35 Counties Account for 50% of foreclosures. “And yet, California is, on average, the happiest state in the nation. Weird how things work.” Why shouldn’t they be happy? — the rest of us are [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Feb 24th, 2009
The beneficiaries of taxpayer charity will be highly concentrated in just five states – California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Michigan. That is not because the subsidized homeowners are poor (Californians with $700,000 mortgages are not poor), but because they took on too much debt, often by refinancing in risky ways to "cash out" thousands [...]
Posted in Favorite Quotes, Housing Issues on Dec 18th, 2008
"The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget." Thomas Szasz I do not know why I have been thinking of Rep. Barney Frank the last couple of days. I think he honestly cares about low income families trying to put a decent, affordable roof over [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Nov 30th, 2008
I was browsing the feed for Instapundit when I saw this link, Stop Covering Up and Kill the Community Reinvestment Act. Since I view my experience with Habitat for Humanity to be relevant to a discussion about the Community Reinvestment Act, I followed the link. The Investor’s Business Daily article argues for the elimination of [...]
On this day, the Virginia Tech community reflects on the vibrant lives of the 32 students and faculty who were tragically taken from us a year ago. Through light, art, and music we pay tribute to each and every person we lost. We gather to honor our friends, colleagues, and family members. We will never forget.