Posted in Housing Issues on Nov 21st, 2008
In the Christian Monitor article, “How deep a recession? “, they said: The housing-bubble collapse makes recovery hard to predict. This is one of the few times I have read where our current “crisis” is described as a housing-bubble collapse. I happen to agree with this economist’s view of the source of “crisis”. Most of [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Nov 15th, 2008
In these video clips I was amazed at how Peter Schiff stuck to his beliefs about the severity and breadth of the impending mortgage crisis despite the ridicule and criticism he was receiving. The clips are both funny and sad. It is funny because we know his predictions were right on target and his critics [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Oct 19th, 2008
This is not due to a lack of money available to lend, Ms. Schwartz says, but to a lack of faith in the ability of borrowers to repay their debts. "The Fed," she argues, "has gone about as if the problem is a shortage of liquidity. That is not the basic problem. The basic problem [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Oct 19th, 2008
The portion of the graph predicting a steep decline in home values appears to follow the actual results in 2007 and 2008. The most ominous thing I see in the 2006 prediction is that he is assuming that we have a basically sound economy like we had in the two previous declines. This is a debatable choice. I think the problems in those recessions are considerably less severe than today’s economic problems.
Posted in Housing Issues, Politics on Oct 12th, 2008
Dear David, I know you intended to praise Mr. Obama in this article when you say that the characteristic you are most impressed with is his intellect but your logic does not work for me. I do not have a problem if this characteristic inspires you but it gives me an icky feeling. It gives [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Oct 9th, 2008
The Wall Street Journal article, Nearly 1 in 6 Homeowners ‘Under Water’, echoes my sentiments on the real estate crisis. Everybody is going to feel the pain but a few states are going to feel a lot more pain than others. There are nice statistics and graphs in this article. I recommend it. Falling home [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Sep 8th, 2008
Although no one is talking about it I think it is likely that Southern California and Florida will suffer both an extended economic downturn and a population loss. This is a natural outcome of the housing industry going on hold for a couple of years as they try to sell a large inventory of houses [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Sep 6th, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, has said the companies are a "weird blend" and that "if these are public entities, then they’ve got to get out of the profit-making business, and if they’re private entities, then we don’t bail them out." U.S. Near Deal on Fannie, Freddie – WSJ.com My guess is that [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Aug 24th, 2008
I meant to write about this article on the ForeclosurePulse blog earlier. My particular interest is low income housing but I have a passing interest in the housing statistics for Cincinnati. So here is the breakdown: Cincinnati has about 7,385 properties on the RealtyTrac foreclosure list. The 45215 zip code which includes the low income [...]
Posted in Housing Issues on Aug 8th, 2008
I am guessing that there are a lot of anxious people pondering that question. The optimists out there are hoping for a quick recovery. The pessimists cannot help but notice that the bad news keeps coming. Today Fannie Mae announced that it lost $2.3B in the quarter and has cut its dividend. The really bad [...]
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