The Housing Bubble

paging cactus paging cactus paging Short Sale Offer Experience

We put in an offer on a short sale we LOVE, but although the yard is fantastic, the house is in need of some serious fixes. Against my better judgement, I went along with my husband and our Broker, who said to start a little lower than our prior offer on same house, and then jump $15K during the highest and best round. My concern is that this house will have 10-12 offers, and our semi-low offer will be tossed out in round one, even though we are cash. We went with a 10 day inspection and a 20 day escrow, using this listing agent’s counter from May. The buyer walked due to the cost to fix up the joint and what he was paying. I want this place. Should we go back in and up our offer $10K, leaving an additional $5K for H&B?

This broker runs his agency, and although he does short sales, he might have under-estimated the rush for single stories w/ pool/spa combos. My husband is an EE, way too logical, and is always fighting the reality that this market will not come back to equalibrium anytime soon. We need to own clear and free asap. A home like this comes up once every two years around my area.

OK, before you eat me alive, please be constructive and give me some real estate experiences, not bash my personal situation.
Thank you.

8.7 Million Workers on Federal Disability - YouTube
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Jul 3, 2012 … 8.7 Million Workers on Federal Disability … iam telling ya if they dont do something we can all kiss america as we know gb. no more going out …

Oops, sorry for the wrong place. Thank you, Polly.
Wet noodle lashing for this old gal.
I’m glad this is our toe-tag home purchase. I never want to be on either side of a transaction again.

How will the standoff between Treasury and FHFA resolve?

And will the Romney camp catch wind of this and take a stand? I have no idea where he stands on housing issues, and I tend to pay attention.

Stop Bashing DeMarco for Mortgage Aid Ruling
By Anthony B. Sanders
Aug 2, 2012 4:00 PM PT

The Obama administration was shocked this week when a federal regulator did his job.

It began when Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac couldn’t extend mortgage reductions to troubled homeowners who owe more than their property is worth. The administration had been pressuring DeMarco, whose agency oversees the taxpayer- supported mortgage giants while they are in conservatorship, to permit them to eliminate a portion of the loan amount owed to the lender or investor.

“The potential benefit was too small and uncertain relative to known and unknown costs and risks,” DeMarco said. This view contradicted the conclusions of a recent report by his agency stating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would benefit by $1.8 billion if principal reductions were allowed. Advocates of the program have argued it benefits both borrowers and taxpayers, because it can be used to avoid costly foreclosures.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was quick to object. “The use of the targeted principal reductions by the GSEs,” he said, referring to the government-sponsored enterprises, “would provide much-needed help to a significant number of troubled homeowners.”

That would be a hasty conclusion. There are 13 administration loan-modification programs already. They include the Home Affordable Modification Program (commonly called HAMP) and the revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program, called HARP 2.0.
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With the U.S. economy continuing to slog its way to recovery, is QE3 dead in the water?

And at what point does the QE3 cargo cult abandon the faith?

Gold bugs bank on QE3 to ride to the rescue
The gold price has risen for 11 years in a row, but could 2012 be the year when this bull run ends?

Gold bugs are banking on QE3, a further round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve, to get the price moving again Photo: Reuters
Garry White

By Garry White, and Emma Rowley

8:00PM BST 22 Jul 2012

Almost all of this year’s gains have been wiped out, with the gold price now just 1pc above its end-2011 level. Gold bugs are banking on QE3, a further round of quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve, to get the price moving again. But as the year progresses it’s nowhere in sight.

A resumption of the asset purchase programme is likely to break the dollar’s recent bull run. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies has risen almost 20pc since April, as eurozone debt fears prompted traders and investors to shun risk.

The last round of QE ended in June 2011, with QE1 and QE2 boosting the gold price by about 70pc between December 2008 and June 2011 as Federal Reserve kept borrowing costs at a record low and bought $2.3 trillion of debt.

However, Ben Bernake, US Federal Reserve chairman, was very coy last week at US Senate Banking Committee hearing and markets were non the wiser when he finished talking.

“No hint of QE3 yet,” Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, said. “But Bernanke may just be playing for time.” As a result of the downbeat testimony from Mr Bernanke, the gold price ended last week down 0.2pc.
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Will ongoing U.S. economic recovery undercut Romney’s message as November approaches?

Aug. 3, 2012, 10:07 a.m. EDT
U.S. July services activity rises: ISM
By Ruth Mantell

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. services activity accelerated in July, according to data released Friday by the Institute for Supply Management. The ISM services index ticked higher to 52.6% from 52.1% in June, compared with analysts’ expectations of 52%. Of key components, the business activity/production index rose 5.5 points, and the new orders component rose 1 point. Meanwhile the employment component fell 3 points, and is now contracting. Readings above 50% indicate expansion.

How about discussing how divergent our experiences are in the R/E arena, as it relates to our world(s).

1) How much do you and significant other (if any) make (AGI)

2) How much tax (as a %) did you pay last year vs. the Romney’s 13.9%

3) (Optional) What kind of work you do and physical location. Number and type of deductions?

For example, I am retired, my wife is an invoicing specialist. We are both around 60. Our AGI last year was a paltry $43K, yet we paid more than Romney at 15%+. We are in SoCal and our house is paid off. Nothing left to itemize.

I wonder if the fiscal cliff will effect the housing market?

I also wonder if the bottom has been reached in places like Detroit, Phoenix, and Cleveland

Is it time to invest in a vulture REIT? If you wait to long, you could pay a much higher price, and no I’m not a troll.

When the housing bubble starts again, and you know it will, how much smaller will it be after an entire generation has been burned?

Economist says Florida construction jobs will come back — in 19 years

by Jeff Ostrowski

Construction was a high-horsepower driver of Florida’s economy during the real estate bubble, but University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith says the state better look elsewhere for job growth.

Florida’s construction industry lost 384,000 jobs since peaking during the housing boom, Snaith says in a Florida economic forecast out today. By his calculations, Florida construction employment won’t return to its pre-recession peak until 2031.

On the bright side, Snaith said, Florida construction employment will begin to grow again next year and could expand at a double-digit pace in 2014 and 2015.

Snaith expects Florida’s economy to start growing again over the next 30 years. He projects that Florida’s gross state product will quadruple by 2042, and he forecasts that the state’s population will top 30 million.

“I sure hope the jet pack has made it on the scene by then, or I-4 and I-95 will be the 10th layer of Dante’s inferno,” Snaith writes.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 at 11:54 am and is filed under Florida economy, Job market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Barbara Winslow

Obituary
Winslow , Barbara

Barbara Kent Winslow, 84, passed away peacefully on July 31, 2012 at her home in Westbrook, CT. Born on August 18, 1927 in Greenwich, daughter of Dorothy Kent MacDonald and the late Herbert Kent.She was predeceased by her husband Richard Winslow.
She is survived by her mother Dorothy, sister Patricia Hatter, brother James Kent, sister in law Roberta Kent and children James Winslow, Richard Winslow, and Suzan Persutti, all of Westbrook.

Have you decided yet how to vote in November?

It doesn’t seem like Romney’s lame effort to relentlessly hammer Obama over every new economic data release is working very well. Will he ever bother to inform voters what came out of the post-debate etch-a-sketch exercise, or will he keep them guessing right up until election day? With Obama, at least you know what you are getting, thanks to a four-year track record of action.

August 3, 2012 8:45 AM

Deciding the undecideds: Tough for Obama, Romney

PURCELLVILLE, Va. — Undecided voters in swing states hold the key to the presidential election, but neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama has an easy recipe for winning them over.

Friday’s new jobs report, even if dismal for incumbent President Obama, might do little to help challenger Romney with this group.

Undecided voters interviewed this week said they place little importance on such statistics, even though both campaigns mine them for every possible advantage.

Instead, these voters want more details about Romney’s economic proposals and Bain Capital record, less bickering between the parties and a greater sense of inspiration and leadership from both candidates.

Some of them acknowledge that’s a vague wish list. But with less than a dozen states in play, and polls showing that about 10 percent of the electorate remains undecided, this sliver of hard-to-please Americans could decide the Nov. 6 election.

Scott Davison, who works at a bicycle shop in Purcellville, Va., is typical of on-the-fence voters interviewed this week in Virginia, Ohio and Florida. Romney has a chance to dissuade him from his inclination toward Obama, Davison said, but the former Massachusetts governor must offer more details about how he would improve the economy.

“I’m not seeing anything substantial that Romney has to offer,” said Davison, 40, who lives in politically competitive Loudoun County. “I’m just seeing superficial stuff.”

Davison, who studied economics at Colorado State University and weighs his words before speaking, said he puts little campaign stock in monthly employment reports.

Elected officials, he said, “can help steer policy. But it’s like the QE2. If you make a change up at the bow, it’s going to take miles and miles to turn it around.”

Forty miles south, in the Washington exurb of Manassas, Va., Chuck Neal is no fan of Obama, but Romney hasn’t locked down his vote. TV ads criticizing Romney’s time at the private-equity company Bain Capital have raised questions for Neal, 50, a manager at a busy millworking plant.

Romney has a record of “sending business overseas and taking it away from us,” Neal said, reciting a theme from the frequently run ads, which Romney disputes. “We don’t have a lot of good choices.”

Mike McKenna, a Virginia-based Republican researcher who conducts focus groups of undecided voters nationwide, said he’s not surprised by such comments. The barrage of Democratic TV ads attacking Romney’s record at Bain, he said, “has done a lot of damage.”

Virginia’s unemployment rate is well below the national average. But Florida’s is not, and the state still suffers from a collapse in housing prices.

Despite those differences, undecided voters in south Florida expressed many of the same sentiments as Virginians: a reluctance to read too much into monthly job reports and a hunger for more information about Romney’s business background and economic plans.

Win Hoffman, 81, a retired architect from Lauderhill, said he watches the monthly jobs reports but they don’t determine his vote for president.

“Neither candidate and neither party really has that much to say, or that much to do, about the economy,” Hoffman said. “Not even the chairman of the Federal Reserve has that much control.”

“We can’t control Greece and Portugal and Italy,” he added.

Hoffman, who registers as a Democrat but considers himself an independent, said he is not impressed by the fortune Romney made directing Bain Capital.

“Business success is often being in the right place at the right time with the right amount of capital,” he said. “I’m more impressed with the worldly outlook that a presidential candidate can demonstrate to me — absolute sincerity for the welfare of this country and its citizens. And as of this moment, Governor Romney doesn’t project that kind of attitude as much as President Obama does.”

Hoffman said he is not personally affected by the economic slump. That’s not the case, however, for Doris Morgan, 58, of Venice, Fla.

She was a social worker and administrative assistant before quitting work to care for her aging parents. She is now unable to find work outside of low-paying retail and restaurant jobs.

A disillusioned lifelong Democrat who’s thinking of switching her registration to independent, Morgan said, “I’m not happy with either party. I don’t think they represent my voice.”

“They’re constantly finding fault with each other instead of finding a solution,” she said. She doesn’t blame Obama, but she adds, “I’m not overwhelmed with his presidential presentation.”
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