January 26, 2013

Bits Bucket for January 26, 2013

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. And check out Chomp, Chomp, Chomp by a regular poster!




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102 Comments »

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 01:42:30

We’re number six!

January 18, 2013

10 states with the most homes in foreclosure

6. California
2012 foreclosure rate: 2.33%
November, 2012 unemployment: 9.8% (3rd highest)
Home price change (2007Q2-2012Q2): -41.0% (4th largest decline)
Processing period: 117 days

From the second quarter of 2007 through the second quarter of 2012, home prices in California fell by 41%, a larger decline than all but three other states. But in the aftermath of the U.S. recession and housing crisis, home prices in the state have rebounded. Over the three years ending in the second quarter of 2012, home prices increased by 7.3%, more than all states except Virginia and North Dakota. Still, the widespread and long-lasting effects of the recession—the state’s 9.8% unemployment rate remains among the worst in the U.S.—prevent many homeowners from affording their mortgage.

Comment by Pimp Watch
2013-01-26 08:03:53

CA is ground zero for housing graft, corruption, foreclosures and excess empty houses.

Again folks….. the inevitable cannot be avoided. Kicking the can down the road is the name of the game but it’s not sound policy.

It’s not going to end well in CA…. or anywhere else for that matter. We’re seeing the cracks already.

 
Comment by Interested Observer
2013-01-26 11:09:06

I watch condos in Glendale, CA. A little over a year ago, there were around 130 condos for sale in Glendale. Right now there are about 30.

So now that there appears to be a demand for housing, wouldn’t it be easier for builders to get loans to build more residential units? The residential buying spree by investors may have the unintended consequence of adding a lot more inventory, thus ultimately decreasing prices.

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 01:46:56

The Biggest Housing Bubble in the World Is in … Canada?
By Matthew O’Brien
Jan 25 2013, 10:52 AM ET 46

How real is Canada’s housing bubble anyway? More real than any other country’s.

Canada has a new worthwhile initiative. After years of booming prices, that bastion of politeness north of the border is looking to avoid a catastrophic housing bust for something more, well, boring. Initiatives don’t get more worthwhile, and perhaps not more difficult considering Canada just might have the biggest housing bubble in the world right now.

Not exactly boring, eh?

The distinction between higher prices and bubbly prices isn’t as subjective as it might sound. Like any other financial asset, there should be a fairly steady relationship between the price of housing and the stream of income — rent — it produces. Should be. The chart below, from The Economist, looks at the price-to-rent ratios across different countries, and measures how under-or-overvalued housing is, with negative numbers corresponding to the former and positive ones to the latter.

As realtors like to remind us, every market’s different, but there are three big takeaways here.

1) Rich Chinese buyers tend to make for overheated markets. Some of the priciest housing markets in the world have one thing in common, besides low-interest rates (which prevail most everywhere): Chinese expats. Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney are among the most popular destinations for wealthy Chinese looking to hedge their bets, and this exit-strategy buying has helped push prices in these locales into the stratosphere.

2) Housing busts can take awhile. After a decade of boom and bust, prices are back to fair value, below it actually, in the U.S. and Ireland, but still have a way to come down in Spain and Britain. Zombie banks tend to be reluctant to realize losses on bad loans, propping up prices in the process, but eventually reality has its day. The sooner that happens, the sooner housing, and construction, can come back.

3) Housing recoveries can take even longer. It was just 20 years ago that the land below the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was supposed to be worth more than all of the land in California combined. But beware the enduring costs of bad macro policy. Too tight money for too long has kept housing prices in hibernation decades on.

Canada is quietly trying to deflate its bubble without any eye-catching headlines. And that means keeping interest rates low while making mortgages harder to get. Now, raising rates to pop a bubble sounds like the kind of hard-hearted long view central bankers pride themselves on, but it’s more hard-headed. Higher rates don’t just make housing (or any other asset bought with borrowed money) less affordable for new buyers; they make them less affordable for old buyers with adjustable-rate loans too. That sends prices spiraling down and savings racing up, as heavily indebted households, which Canada has no shortage of, try to rebuild their net worths. Higher desired savings outpaces desired investment — in other words, the economy collapses — and subsequently cutting rates, even to zero, won’t do much to reverse this, as houses and businesses are mostly indifferent to lower borrowing costs while they focus on paying down existing debts. It’s what economist Richard Koo calls a “balance sheet recession,” and it’s a good description of how an economy can get stuck in a liquidity trap.

But by keeping rates where they are and slowly tightening mortgage requirements, Canada hopes to engineer a more gradual price decline that won’t set off a vicious circle. In the best case, prices wouldn’t fall, except belo the rate of inflation, so that real prices decline without hitting household net worths. This strategy is hardly unique — China has done the same the past few years — but it has the very Canadian name of “macroprudential regulation”.

Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:24:22

I love watching those Canadian shows on HGTV where the young couple gets into a bidding war on a $500k 3bd/1bth fixer upper and then the show host spends $200k remodeling it into their “dream house”.

When the market craters its going to take a lot of Wall Street Hedgies and banks with it.

I look forward to TARPII, the electric buggalo.

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 01:56:53

The Biggest Housing Bubble in the World Is in … Canada?
By Matthew O’Brien
Jan 25 2013, 10:52 AM ET

How real is Canada’s housing bubble anyway? More real than any other country’s.
(Reuters)

Canada has a new worthwhile initiative. After years of booming prices, that bastion of politeness north of the border is looking to avoid a catastrophic housing bust for something more, well, boring. Initiatives don’t get more worthwhile, and perhaps not more difficult considering Canada just might have the biggest housing bubble in the world right now.

Not exactly boring, eh?

The distinction between higher prices and bubbly prices isn’t as subjective as it might sound. Like any other financial asset, there should be a fairly steady relationship between the price of housing and the stream of income — rent — it produces. Should be. The chart below, from The Economist, looks at the price-to-rent ratios across different countries, and measures how under-or-overvalued housing is, with negative numbers corresponding to the former and positive ones to the latter.

As realtors like to remind us, every market’s different, but there are three big takeaways here.

1) Rich Chinese buyers tend to make for overheated markets. Some of the priciest housing markets in the world have one thing in common, besides low-interest rates (which prevail most everywhere): Chinese expats. Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney are among the most popular destinations for wealthy Chinese looking to hedge their bets, and this exit-strategy buying has helped push prices in these locales into the stratosphere.

2) Housing busts can take awhile. After a decade of boom and bust, prices are back to fair value, below it actually, in the U.S. and Ireland, but still have a way to come down in Spain and Britain. Zombie banks tend to be reluctant to realize losses on bad loans, propping up prices in the process, but eventually reality has its day. The sooner that happens, the sooner housing, and construction, can come back.

3) Housing recoveries can take even longer. It was just 20 years ago that the land below the Imperial Palace in Tokyo was supposed to be worth more than all of the land in California combined. But beware the enduring costs of bad macro policy. Too tight money for too long has kept housing prices in hibernation decades on.

Canada is quietly trying to deflate its bubble without any eye-catching headlines. And that means keeping interest rates low while making mortgages harder to get. Now, raising rates to pop a bubble sounds like the kind of hard-hearted long view central bankers pride themselves on, but it’s more hard-headed. Higher rates don’t just make housing (or any other asset bought with borrowed money) less affordable for new buyers; they make them less affordable for old buyers with adjustable-rate loans too. That sends prices spiraling down and savings racing up, as heavily indebted households, which Canada has no shortage of, try to rebuild their net worths. Higher desired savings outpaces desired investment — in other words, the economy collapses — and subsequently cutting rates, even to zero, won’t do much to reverse this, as houses and businesses are mostly indifferent to lower borrowing costs while they focus on paying down existing debts. It’s what economist Richard Koo calls a “balance sheet recession,” and it’s a good description of how an economy can get stuck in a liquidity trap.

But by keeping rates where they are and slowly tightening mortgage requirements, Canada hopes to engineer a more gradual price decline that won’t set off a vicious circle. In the best case, prices wouldn’t fall, except below the rate of inflation, so that real prices decline without hitting household net worths. This strategy is hardly unique — China has done the same the past few years — but it has the very Canadian name of “macroprudential regulation”.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 14:18:32

According to the Economist, US houses are about 8% undervalued as compared to rentals. I guess that’s why people are saying it’s cheaper to buy than rent now.

Interesting that we’re grouped with Germany, Japan, Austria, South Africa- other countries with undervalued houses. I can’t perceive a common thread.

Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:25:23

Axis powers from WWII?

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 15:29:13

Good one, but what are we doing in there? And what would make houses be undervalued in the countries that lost WW2?

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Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-01-26 16:52:49

Which issue of the Economist was that?

Comment by Rental Watch
2013-01-27 01:52:25

http://www.economist.com/node/21540231

Don’t know if they said it again later, but this is from November 2011.

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Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 01:59:33

1/20/2013 @ 12:35PM
Shanghai Building 30% More Housing Than Year Ago
Kenneth Rapoza, Contributor

Developers in the city of Shanghai are trying to avoid a steadily increasing housing bubble, putting up 30 percent more properties this coming February than they did in February 2012.

The city’s major real estate developers are said to be building just 13 new residential properties in February, the same number that they planned late last year, real estate website Soufun.com said Saturday. The number is up, however, from the 10 projects Shanghai developers built last February.

The Shanghai Daily reported the figures from the Chinese language website today, saying that out of all the new housing projects, which include high rises and stand-alone housing, half will be built beyond the city’s center.

 
Comment by goon squad
2013-01-26 05:15:17

Hope and Change

“It should come as no surprise that the Communist Party USA is on board with President Obama’s plan to attack Americans’ right to keep and bear arms as a means to “end gun violence.” A cardinal feature of communist regimes, like all dictatorships, is the prohibition of private ownership of arms, creating a monopoly of force in the hands of the State.”

http://www.infowars.com/communists-cheer-on-obamas-gun-grab/

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:26:24

Filed under “latest NRA talking points.”

Next…

Comment by goon squad
2013-01-26 07:01:31

Forward

“At age 18, Barack Obama admittedly arrived at Occidental College a committed revolutionary Marxist. What was the source of Obama’s foundation in Marxism? Throughout his 2008 Presidential campaign and term in office, questions have been raised regarding Barack Obama’s family background, economic philosophy, and fundamental political ideology. Dreams from My Real Father is the alternative Barack Obama “autobiography,” offering a divergent theory of what may have shaped our 44th President’s life and politics.

In Dreams from My Real Father, Barack Obama is portrayed by a voiceover actor who chronicles Barack Obama’s life journey in socialism, from birth through his election to the Presidency. The film begins by presenting the case that Barack Obama’s real father was Frank Marshall Davis, a Communist Party USA propagandist who likely shaped Obama’s world view during his formative years. Barack Obama sold himself to America as the multi-cultural ideal, a man who stood above politics. Was the goat herding Kenyan father only a fairy tale to obscure a Marxist agenda, irreconcilable with American values?”

http://www.obamasrealfather.com/

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 07:42:37

Did you miss the memo that the election was in November 2012?

Obama won, Romney lost though at least the 47% supported him.

Can we please move past party politics?

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Comment by Ryan
2013-01-26 07:55:03

I’m just going to pull the pin and toss this one over the fence:

http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obama-didnt-join-wrights-church-to-follow-jesus/

 
Comment by michael
2013-01-26 07:58:49

You are right…to loosely quote Hillary Clinton during her testimony on Benghazi…”what difference does it make at this point?”

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 14:23:58

So we have four years in which Obama will either make us communist country, be destroyed in the attempt to make us a communist country, or the people who think he will do so will be proven to be a bunch of saps.

I look forward to the results in four years.

 
 
Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:26:53

The funny thing is there is almost no difference between Obama’s policies and Bush’s policies.

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Comment by Anon In DC
2013-01-26 08:50:59

This is what happens with an “affirmative action” president. Still waiting for him (and Bloomberg) to disarm their security details. They have all those dangerous guns. But heck still waiting for Obummer to pay all the additional taxes that he himself says he should be paying. Wonder what is stopping him? Forgot he’s a limousine liberal*

*recently rebrand as “progressive”

Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:28:02

You’ll note that Obama signed an order extending Bush’s Secret Service protection for life.

 
 
 
Comment by frankie
2013-01-26 05:30:17

With the help of an emergency law usually used at times of war, the Greek government has finally cracked a strike by subway workers that had brought Athens to a standstill for a week.

After a fierce showdown that had seen the political temperature rise, employees gradually returned to work in the wake of the ruling coalition’s high-risk decision to forcibly mobilise them under threat of arrest. “The workers didn’t have an option,” said Manthos Tsakos, a prominent unionist representing metro workers. “We are exploring legal options.”

With the strike seen as a test of the government’s resolve to take on unions opposed to austerity measures demanded by the European Union and International Monetary Fund, the move by the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, brought a storm of protest, with politicians and unions condemning it as resonant of authoritarian rule.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/25/greece-athens-metro-strike

Comment by Anon In DC
2013-01-26 08:52:36

Wonder if RE in Athens is a good buy now? I know several people who got London apartments in the 1970s when the pound / British economy was dead on its feet.

Comment by frankie
2013-01-26 12:43:50

It’s always a good time to buy ;)

 
Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:34:30

I would love to see the Property Brothers buy the Parthenon and fix it up. That place is in bad need of a renovation.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 15:47:48

Cover it in vinyl, and put in some double-hung replacement windows, it would look nice. It’s always going to be cold in the winter on that marble slab, might want to put in some baseboard heaters. Add a carport…it’s got potential.

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Comment by Combotechie
2013-01-26 05:33:02

Anyone who missed watching Frontline’s “The Untouchables” can watch it here:

http://video.pbs.org/video/2327953844

 
Comment by frankie
2013-01-26 05:37:09

China’s smog issues have been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason: Beijing’s smog levels in particular reached a level deemed hazardous earlier this month.

In Shanghai, a new animated mascot tries to make the whole smog thing a little more palatable. When the air is clear, she’s green and smiley. When air pollution is at its worst, she cries. Guess what she’s doing right now?

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681273/chinas-dangerous-smog-levels-now-in-cartoon-form

Comment by In Colorado
2013-01-26 12:16:55

I think Beijing’s air pollution is way past “hazardous”

 
Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:36:00

Good thing they don’t have the EPA regulations over there in China, it might interfere with business.

 
Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 15:49:08

When air pollution is at its worst, she cries. Guess what she’s doing right now?

Vomiting blood?

Comment by ahansen
2013-01-27 01:28:21

LOL. You’re evil.

 
 
 
Comment by palmetto
2013-01-26 06:14:30

Some highlights:

“it just so happens that people in government use guns to kill the most people by far. Surely that’s something to keep in mind when talking about gun control.”

“With all the shrieking we hear about “saving the children,” you don’t hear much about saving them from a government that has already indentured them in the future to pay off its current debts.”

“So before our insolent and audacious “public servants” start getting all uppity with their repeated calls for private citizens to lay down their weapons, we feel they should set a good civic example and lay down theirs first.”

http://takimag.com/article/uncle_sam_give_us_your_guns_takimag/page_2#axzz2J5PBPi7h

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:24:48

Filed under “latest NRA talking points.”

Next…

Comment by goon squad
2013-01-26 06:28:57

Has it ever occured to you that flyover doesn’t want to live in the Peoples’ Republic of Dianne Feinstein? And how many times have you ever voted against her in a primary or general election?

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:38:38

Your post is way off topic and helps to clarify that your main business here is politics, not economics.

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Comment by palmetto
2013-01-26 06:42:01

“Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.”

Yeah, proving that a career in academics tends to limit the ability to read and understand.

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:52:53

Perhaps it’s time to revise that wording a bit:

“Post off-topic ideas, links, paranoid NRA rants, Republican extremist propaganda bombs, and Craigslist finds here.”

 
Comment by palmetto
2013-01-26 06:55:55

Yes, but you see, if you’d actually READ the article, you would have noted (then again, maybe not) what the author had to say about Wayne LaPierre and the NRA.

Sigh. Tenure.

 
Comment by palmetto
2013-01-26 07:19:24

CBIT, I do apologize for the ad-hominem. It was very wrong of me. The only excuse I can offer is that I caught an article about the Senate quietly doing some sort of shamnasty deal and it sent me into orbit.

Marco Screwbio. A real POS.

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 07:43:54

palmetto — apology accepted. But frankly, I am accustomed to much worse, so no harm done either…

 
Comment by Northeastener
2013-01-26 08:33:40

As long as states define their gun regulation, or lack thereof, a citizen of this great nation can vote with their feet if they don’t like the local laws. For example, I can leave Mass and move to NH, where there is far less nanny state and far more personal liberty.

The Federal law would negate this… as Goon said, what right does Feinstein have to tell the rest of the country how to live? There is a very good reason I don’t live in CA and probably never will…

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2013-01-26 10:48:44

Perhaps it’s time to revise that wording a bit:

“Post off-topic ideas, links, paranoid NRA rants, Republican extremist propaganda bombs, and Craigslist finds here.”

Are you saying there are never any left wing rants or propaganda here? :-)

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 12:11:02

“Are you saying there are never any left wing rants or propaganda here?”

Not at all. I hope you point it out when you see them…

 
Comment by Carl Morris
2013-01-26 12:22:03

Any more goofy rants from both sides are just background noise to me. My mission for a while was to point out personal attacks, but I’ve given up on that, too. Most everybody here has been here for quite a while and knows exactly what they are doing. I doubt anybody is offended or scared off at this point. And I figure anybody here to spread REIC propaganda deserves what they get…

So I don’t bother pointing anything out any more and it’s probably just as well.

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 12:33:41

“Any more goofy rants from both sides are just background noise to me.”

Good man.

I try to ignore them, but when they take on the proportions of perpetual noise pollution, it gets very annoying.

 
 
Comment by Anon In DC
2013-01-26 08:56:05

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:38:38
Your post is way off topic and helps to clarify that your main business here is politics, not economics.

Don’t they effect one another enormously? Hard to separate.

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Comment by Northeastener
2013-01-26 09:05:04

They are inexorably linked… case in point: Greece.

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 12:12:18

“Hard to separate.”

Really?

Then explain how a leading post about how Obama is gonna take away all your guns has any relevance to the housing bubble.

 
 
Comment by SV guy
2013-01-26 09:06:14

“And how many times have you ever voted against her in a primary or general election?”

For me, everytime.

I just hope this plague can be contained.

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Comment by In Colorado
2013-01-26 15:26:57

If Obama can just “take away our guns” then what’s the point in having them? I thought the reason so many people are armed to their teeth was to fight back if the government tries to take away their freedoms.

So he’s coming for your guns. Start shooting then. Defend you r freedoms. What are you all waiting for?

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:23:23

Obama Picks a Prosecutor: Mary Jo White Appointed to Head SEC
James Gattuso
January 25, 2013 at 1:10 pm
Kevin Dietsch/UPI/Newscom

President Obama, moving quickly to complete the lineup for his second-term regulatory team, nominated attorney Mary Jo White yesterday to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The selection is a critical one, as the agency is still struggling to complete the rulemakings required under the Dodd–Frank financial regulation act, while facing pressure from the courts and Congress to improve the sometimes sketchy quality of its regulatory analysis.

The SEC has been a key regulatory agency since it was launched in 1934 under the leadership of Joseph Kennedy Sr. But it has never before been challenged as it is now. Under Dodd–Frank, the agency was required to complete some 95 rulemakings, ranging from tightened regulation of derivatives to reform of corporate governance rules. Nearly three years after Dodd–Frank’s passage, the SEC—like other agencies such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission—finds itself far behind schedule. As of the beginning of 2013, only 33 rulemaking proceedings have been completed. Deadlines have been missed for 49 more.

But the quantity of the SEC’s output may be a lesser concern than the quality of its analysis. In 2011, an appeals court unceremoniously threw out the Commission’s rules on shareholder proxy access, finding that the agency’s analysis of the rules’ cost and effect was severely flawed. This wasn’t a one-time hiccup—the problems found by the appeals court, many say, have long been typical of the SEC’s approach to analysis. The controversy led to the passage last year by the House of Representatives of a bill to require the SEC to complete formal cost-benefit analysis before adopting significant new rules.

It is unclear how well Ms. White’s background prepares her for these challenges. Her background is in litigation—as a prosecutor and defense lawyer—rather than as an administrator or policymaker. This presents the danger that she may see maximizing jail terms rather than expanding wealth creation as her goal. Alternatively, her litigation background could be an advantage—if it leads to focus on prosecuting actual crimes (think Bernie Madoff) rather than expanding regulation. These are questions that should be explored by Senators as they consider confirmation of White to this position.

Comment by polly
2013-01-26 07:30:19

“This presents the danger that she may see maximizing jail terms rather than expanding wealth creation as her goal. Alternatively, her litigation background could be an advantage—if it leads to focus on prosecuting actual crimes (think Bernie Madoff) rather than expanding regulation.”

The SEC can’t bring criminal prosecutions, only civil cases and they don’t lead to jail sentences. It can refer cases to prosecutors that do have that authority, but they can’t those prosecutors do anything with the referrals. This guy is so ignorant that he should probably be ignored.

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 07:44:54

Thanks for shedding light on the article from a legal angle.

 
 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:36:50

Legal/Regulatory | The Trade
January 9, 2013, 12:00 pm
New Target in Finger-Pointing Over Housing Bubble
By JESSE EISINGER, ProPublica

Edward J. Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute has criticized the government’s role in the housing bubble.Brendan Smialowski for The New York TimesEdward J. Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute has criticized the government’s role in the housing bubble.

No matter how many times people debunk the notion that government policy created the housing bubble, it doesn’t die. It’s part of what the blogger Barry Ritholtz has called the “big lie” of the financial crisis. Now, we are having another argument about whether the government is creating a new housing disaster for taxpayers.

The target this time: the Federal Housing Administration, the government mortgage insurer, mostly for low-to-moderate income and minority borrowers. Late last year, the F.H.A. issued its annual report to Congress. According to estimates, over its lifetime the agency will have to pay more out on the mortgages it has insured than it has taken in. The report estimated the potential shortfall at $16 billion, which is a lot in absolute terms, but minuscule in relation to the federal budget and the $1.1 trillion F.H.A. portfolio.

Despite these modest numbers (more on that below), the same crew that assailed the government’s role in the housing bubble is now rending its garments about the F.H.A. Critics, like Edward J. Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute, argue that the agency has not only failed to help low-income communities, but is actually destroying them with reckless loans.

Next month, we may end up doing it all again, when the Office of Management and Budget issues its analysis of the agency’s finances, using a different methodology.

So is the F.H.A. in trouble and in need of an imminent bailout?

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:41:55

ANALYSIS AIR DATE: Jan. 13, 2012
Records: Federal Reserve Officials Foresaw, Joked About Housing Bubble in 2006

SUMMARY
Newly released transcripts from the Federal Reserve’s 2006 meetings reveal the extent of what Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues actually knew as the country was about to hit the cusp of the financial crisis. Ray Suarez discusses the board’s detailed conversations with The New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum.

Comment by rms
2013-01-26 13:54:13

It’s juvenile to think that these bankers “couldn’t see it coming.”

Comment by ecofeco
2013-01-26 18:54:59

Saw it coming? They created it! They knew exactly what they were doing.

 
 
Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:38:15

The Federal Reserve is allowed to lie to the American people aren’t they?

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:47:47

…history has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums.

– Alan Greenspan, Jackson Hole Speech, August 26, 2005

Fed Members Laughed As Housing Bubble Grew
Published: Monday, 30 Jan 2012 | 7:04 PM ET
By: John Melloy

It was good times at the Federal Reserve five years ago: Low interest rates instituted by then-Fed Chief Alan Greenspan had housing prices booming, the stock market was rising and Fed members were—literally—laughing their way to the…well, central bank.

History shows they may have been laughing a bit too hard.

In what may be the strangest market indicator ever, a blogger found that the amount of laughter recorded in the official transcripts of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meetings from 2000 to 2006 correlates almost perfectly with the rise in housing prices taking place at the time.

Comment by alpha-sloth
2013-01-26 20:14:21

the amount of laughter recorded in the official transcripts of Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meetings from 2000 to 2006 correlates almost perfectly with the rise in housing prices taking place at the time.

The laugher curve?

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:51:10

ft dot com
January 14, 2011 10:37 pm
Fed misread housing risks, minutes show
By Robin Harding in Washington

The Federal Reserve spotted most of the issues that would cause the 2007-08 crisis in a discussion on the housing market in mid-2005, according to a newly released transcript of the meeting.

Members of the Fed’s rate-setting open market committee discussed a possible bubble in house prices, the growing role of unconventional mortgages, and how the use of securitisation was leading to low-quality lending. But they decided that they either could not or should not do anything about it.

“Our story basically is that we’re worried about valuations in the housing market, but we don’t necessarily see that as having profound consequences for your policy going forward,” a Fed staff economist, David Stockton, told the FOMC during its June 2005 meeting.

The transcript makes clear that the housing crash did not catch the Fed by surprise, but that it seriously underestimated the consequences of falling house prices and the danger to the financial system.

The Fed publishes full transcripts of FOMC meetings with a five-year lag. In June 2005 committee members requested a full-day discussion of the rapid rise in house prices that was then under way.

During the meeting Fed staff told the FOMC that housing seemed to be overvalued by about 20 per cent, based on price-to-rent ratios, but they played down the role of aggressive mortgages such as interest-only loans, and said that monetary policy could respond effectively to a house price slump.

“In the event of a sharp drop in housing prices, the odds of a spillover to financial institutions seem limited,” said Michael Moskow, then president of the Chicago Fed, who said the staff research made him “somewhat less concerned about the size and consequences of a housing bubble”.

Comment by rms
2013-01-26 14:04:16

“The transcript makes clear that the housing crash did not catch the Fed by surprise, but that it seriously underestimated the consequences of falling house prices and the danger to the financial system.”

Underestimated Joe Sixpack’s ethical shift to pugnacious squatter?

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:55:03

BUSTED: Unsealed Docs Show The Fed Was Fully Warned Of A Housing Crisis
Gregory White | Jan. 15, 2011, 11:22 AM

New minutes released today show Fed members were fully aware of the growing housing bubble in the U.S. in June of 2005.

The materials include several presentations made on the subject of the emerging housing bubble in the U.S. economy. They have titles like “Is Housing Overvalued?” by Joshua Gallin and “Monetary Policy Implications of a House Price Bubble” by John C. Williams of the San Francisco Fed.

In October of 2005, future Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress he didn’t think we were in a housing bubble. Bernanke was not at the June 2005 meeting, having recently become Chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Comment by ecofeco
2013-01-26 19:00:14

The FBI also reported and increase in mortgage fraud in roughly that same time, but was directed by the DOJ to focus on terrorism and ignore the fraud.

 
 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 06:56:58

Inside the Fed in 2006: A Coming Crisis, and Banter
U.S. Federal Reserve, via Reuters
A Federal Open Market Committee meeting on March 28, 2006.
By BINYAMIN APPELBAUM
Published: January 12, 2012

WASHINGTON — As the housing bubble entered its waning hours in 2006, top Federal Reserve officials marveled at the desperate antics of home builders seeking to lure buyers.

The officials laughed about the cars that builders were offering as signing bonuses, and about efforts to make empty homes look occupied. They joked about one builder who said that inventory was “rising through the roof.”

But the officials, meeting every six weeks to discuss the health of the nation’s economy, gave little credence to the possibility that the faltering housing market would weigh on the broader economy, according to transcripts that the Fed released Thursday. Instead they continued to tell one another throughout 2006 that the greatest danger was inflation — the possibility that the economy would grow too fast.

“We think the fundamentals of the expansion going forward still look good,” Timothy F. Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, told his colleagues when they gathered in Washington in December 2006.

Some officials, including Susan Bies, a Fed governor, suggested that a housing downturn actually could bolster the economy by redirecting money to other kinds of investments.

And there was general acclaim for Alan Greenspan, who stepped down as chairman at the beginning of the year, for presiding over one of the longest economic expansions in the nation’s history. Mr. Geithner suggested that Mr. Greenspan’s greatness still was not fully appreciated, an opinion now held by a much smaller number of people.

Meanwhile, by the end of 2006, the economy already was shrinking by at least one important measure, total income. And by the end of the next year, the Fed had started its desperate struggle to prevent the collapse of the financial system and to avert the onset of what could have been the nation’s first full-fledged depression in about 70 years.

The transcripts of the 2006 meetings, released after a standard five-year delay, clearly show some of the nation’s pre-eminent economic minds did not fully understand the basic mechanics of the economy that they were charged with shepherding. The problem was not a lack of information; it was a lack of comprehension, born in part of their deep confidence in economic forecasting models that turned out to be broken.

“It’s embarrassing for the Fed,” said Justin Wolfers, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “You see an awareness that the housing market is starting to crumble, and you see a lack of awareness of the connection between the housing market and financial markets.”

“It’s also embarrassing for economics,” he continued. “My strong guess is that if we had a transcript of any other economist, there would be at least as much fodder.”

Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2013-01-26 08:03:35

“My strong guess is that if we had a transcript of any other economist, there would be at least as much fodder.”

And yet, the HBB was full of very prescient predictions back in 2005 and 2006.

In my fantasy world a generation or two from now, some young upstart economics historian studies that record…

 
 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 07:06:16

Foreclosed homeowner arrested in Martin County fire that critically injured firefighter

Posted by Scott T. Smith / CBS12 News
Friday, January 25 2013, 12:57 PM EST

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — The man who Martin County sheriff’s deputies say set his own house on fire — a blaze that critically injured a firefighter — goes before a judge for the first time Friday.

Joseph Haas was just arrested for setting his house on fire. It was in foreclosure and police say he wanted to burn it down before the bank could take it.

Haas is now facing arson and grand theft charges. He’s being held on $1 million bond. If he is convicted on all charges he faces 50 years behind bars.

The firefighter injured in the fire, Jahwann McIntyre, is still recovering after surgery. He’s expected to stay in the hospital for several more months. He suffered severe burns on 40 percent of his body.Foreclosed homeowner arrested in Martin County fire that critically injured firefighter

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_4725.shtml - -

Comment by ecofeco
2013-01-26 19:14:36

It’s morons like this that make the world a dangerous place.

 
 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 07:28:03

1 month? He`s not a squatter, he`s a dinner guest.

Eviction notice for Boca Raton mansion squatter

Posted by Miranda Grossman / CBS12 News
Friday, January 25 2013, 11:16 PM EST

BOCA RATON, Fla. — The party could soon be over for the South Florida squatter living inside the Boca Raton mansion. CBS12 has been knocking on the door, ringing the door bell, but no one has answered. But because of recently filed paperwork, this squatter is going to have to answer soon.

The eviction paperwork is signed. Andre Barbosa’s month-long, rent-free ride is almost over. His neighbors are relieved. But will always have an interesting story to tell about the time Andre the squatter took over someone else’s $2.5 million mansion.

“Boca becomes a magnet for this odd behavior.”

“If you can beat the bank. I say go for it.”

The stunt at 580 Golden Harbour drive is getting national attention. Lynn Cherepy said he’s happy news crews are in the neighborhood.

“Covering the story is going to let other neighborhoods, other cities know that this is possible,” said Cherepy.

At first, police couldn’t do anything because of an obscure Florida law called ‘adverse possession.’ Real estate attorneys says the law allows someone to move into an empty home and claim the title. The squatter needs to stay for seven years, pay the property taxes, and hope that the owner forgets about the home. In this case, it only worked for one month.

Bank of America owns the foreclosed house, and now they filed paperwork to take back what is theirs.

Signs that were posted on the windows before have since been taken down. The only logical explanation is that somebody with access to the house has been inside to take it down.

Real estate attorneys say it appears Bank of America is trying to evict Andre civilly instead of pressing criminal charges. That could take a few days because just like any eviction, Andre will have the opportunity to respond.Eviction notice for Boca Raton mansion squatter

http://www.cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/vid_4745.shtml -

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2013-01-26 08:43:07

Anonymous hacks US Sentencing Commission, distributes files

Hacktivist group Anonymous took control of the U.S. Sentencing Commission website Friday, January 25 in a new campaign called “Operation Last Resort.”

The first attack on the website was early Friday morning. The second - successful - attack came around 9pm PST that evening.

By 3am PST ussc.gov was down (it has since been dropped from the DNS), yet as of this writing the IP address (66.153.19.162) still returns the defaced site’s contents.

http://www.zdnet.com/anonymous-hacks-us-sentencing-commission-distributes-files-7000010369/

 
Comment by Anon In DC
2013-01-26 09:25:58

The head of SF Housing Authority is stepping down. He’s facing three lawsuits from employees for abuse / discrimination. HUD provides much of the funding for SFHA. Of course we can’t look at all at the spending side of the federal budget equation. The problem is taxes are too low. Cut entitlement spending and the sky will fall. Look at the pay package.

Pay, car, benefits
Alvarez makes $210,500 annually and receives a car and seven weeks off each year of combined vacation and sick leave. The Housing Authority also covers his pension contributions and his dental, vision and health care benefits.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-Housing-Authority-chief-heads-for-door-4225254.php#ixzz2J6C4u1bA

Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 10:23:22

“Alvarez makes $210,500 annually and receives a car and seven weeks off each year of combined vacation and sick leave. The Housing Authority also covers his pension contributions and his dental, vision and health care benefits.”

“Sara Shortt, director of the city’s Housing Rights Committee, which advocates for low-income tenants, said the agency has deteriorated significantly since Alvarez took the helm in 2008. She said tenants, service providers, city staff and others struggled to get the simplest questions answered - or the simplest repairs made.”

“The agency has become increasingly dysfunctional, chaotic and in constant confusion and flux,” she said. “I don’t think we even know half of the frustrations and difficulties people have had in dealing with the agency, because a huge group of folks just gave up.”

Golf clap.

Comment by In Colorado
2013-01-26 12:23:15

FWIW, that’s a typical salary for mid level management in Corporate America. Actually, 200K is low, from what I heard at HP, most mid level types got 300K+ and bonuses.

 
 
 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 09:58:16

The dudes this happens to down here always have messed up faces and resisting arrest among their charges when they appear in the online booking blotter.

You Tube video emerges of Bridgeport police stomping suspect …
http://www.ctpolitix.com/you-tube-video-emerges-of-bridgeport-police-stomping-subject/ - -

Comment by rms
2013-01-26 14:13:19

If the suspect would stop yelping each time they kicked him maybe the police would lose interest and just toss him in the back of the car. :)

 
Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:45:18

He sure looks like a terrorist to me.

 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-01-26 10:22:42

One of my predictions for the New Year was that Iraq was going to come apart due to the Sunni/Shiite split. I thought it would occur after Assad fell but it is well on its way even before that occurs. To the degree Google helped create the Arab Spring it has done evil. That is the hard part of life deciding what is doing good. Do you think that the medical people that saved Hitler’s life when he was gassed during WWI ever regretted that decision?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21206163

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-01-26 11:05:21

How this varies from just the terrorists attacks against Shiites, is that we have gone beyond Al Queda terrorists to the Sunni tribal leaders. We made progress during the surge due to our ability to get these Sunni leaders to support the Iraqi government. They now seem to be switching to support a revolt against the government. Iraq has once again become a major exporter of oil which is now threaten. If this is not a black swan it is a least a brown swan and has the potential to have a severe economic impact on the world.

Comment by skroodle
2013-01-26 14:52:16

What? Difficulties in Bush’s plan to “bring democracy” to Iraq were pointed out over 10 years ago. This is not a swan event, but something experts knew would be the probable outcome(and the exact same thing that happened back in the 1920s).

The “progress” happened because of the money we paid the Sunni leaders.

The only reason Saddam was able to meld all the tribes into a nation state was through an iron glove(see Yugoslavia).

Iraq should be split up into at least 3 different countries.

Comment by Albuquerquedan
2013-01-26 16:49:59

The timing is the brown swan event. I do not see anyone that had factored Iraqi instability this year into their oil projections. if you have seen anyone I wish you would share it. BTW, the Sunnis will never accept such a split since it will leave them without oil. Which is why the Biden plan never made any sense.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Albuquerquedan
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 10:50:29

Reply
Anonymous said:
January 26, 2013 at 11:33 AM
Sell our whole d@mn state to the Chinese, then erect a wall around it and be done with it.

Reply
Anonymous said:
January 26, 2013 at 11:35 AM
Second

Reply
Anonymous said:
January 26, 2013 at 11:36 AM
LOL, they reap what they sow. People need to wake up to all the political corruption, cronyism, progressive group think, and get real. Half the country has a form of “Stockholm Syndrome” it seems… (look it up.)

Reply
Anonymous said:
January 26, 2013 at 11:38 AM
Don’t worry…Be Happy! Barack..has a plan, and its from our Uncle Sam! …its called print more money, stir up inflation and tax all the other rich folks behind those trees(except for you and me) , spread the misery and move on.When the House of Cards does finally fall, don’t worry…because there will be nothing left to worry about! Oh by the way…Godfather Rahm..velly clever on the pension thing..yeah let those dummies in all the other states pick up that tab.

 
 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 10:43:16

Emanuel To Banks: Stop Supporting Gun Makers

January 25, 2013 9:28 AM

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is putting more pressure on gun makers to get behind his push for an assault weapons ban and criminal background checks for gun purchasers.

This time, he wants to go after their bottom line.

Emanuel is pushing two major financial institutions to stop their financial backing of gun makers, unless those companies support “commonsense reforms, including requiring criminal background checks on all gun sales.”

The mayor is urging that banks to stop lines of credit, financing for acquisitions and expansions and financial advising.

In a letter sent Friday to the CEOs of Bank Of America and TD Bank, Emanuel said: “In the past, the gun industry has stood in opposition to these safety measures. They opposed a ban on assault weapons on America’s streets, opposed a ban on military-style clips, opposed a criminal background check on all gun purchases and opposed any effort to crack down on criminal gun traffickers.”

In the letter, Emanuel says TD Bank offers a $60 million line of credit to Smith & Wesson, which produces the AR-15. That is the weapon used by James Holmes in the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre that killed 12 people. Emanuel wrote.

Emanuel told CEO Bharat Masrani “to use your influence to push this company to find common ground” on an assault weapons ban and gun background checks.

In a separate letter, Emanuel urged Bank Of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan to do the same thing with Sturm, Ruger & Co., which has a $25 million line of credit with the bank.

“Collectively we can send a clear and unambiguous message to the entire gun industry that investors will no longer financially support companies that support gun violence,” Emanuel wrote.

Last week, Emanuel ordered a portfolio analysis from the five pension and retirement funds for Chicago employees to determine if fund managers hold financial interests in companies that manufacture or sell assault weapons.

This week, the Chicago Municipal Employees Annuity and Benefit Fund (MEABF) board voted to divest more than $1 million from three companies that manufacture assault weapons – Freedom Group, Smith and Wesson and Sturm Ruger.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/01/25/emanuel-to-banks-stop-supporting-gun-makers/ -

Comment by AZtoORtoCOtoOR
2013-01-26 20:15:16

That is really going to solve the problem of over 500 homicides in Chicago last year. I haven’t seen where assault weapons have been the gun of choice for the gang members to shoot other gang members.

But, since the vast majority of the homicides are blacks killing fellow blacks, no one need for the President or Mayor Rahm to be bothered or make public that little detail.

 
 
Comment by rms
2013-01-26 13:24:15

Good news, Futters finally shipped my order albeit two weeks late. Still tastes great; I hope they pull through. Fingers crossed!

Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 14:06:12

That is good futtin news.

 
 
Comment by tresho
2013-01-26 15:22:37

Reverse drive-by shooting in Akron

Wylene Edwards, 59, was driving near her home Thursday night with her hazard lights flashing as snow blanketed the city.

As she approached East Tallmadge Avenue on Elma Street, Edwards said, she came upon two men walking in the middle of the road.

Edwards said she turned on her high beams so they would move out of the way.

“I would think the natural inclination would be to get out of the middle of the road,” Edwards said. “Who wants to get hit by 2 tons of steel?”

The two men stepped to the side of the road, Edwards said. Then as she drove past, shots rang out.

“You immediately get this stabbing, throbbing sensation,” she said.

The first bullet is still lodged in her left shoulder as surgeons decide how to remove it since it is close to an artery.

The second bullet left a bruise on the back of her left shoulder. A third bullet shattered her windshield.

As blood ran down her back and the pain intensified, Edwards said, she drove to the Italian Center on Tallmadge Avenue.

Staff and patrons at the Thursday night spaghetti dinner at the club helped her inside and phoned police and an ambulance. They also called Edwards’ daughter, Ashanti, who along with other family members rushed to Summa Akron City Hospital to be by her side.

“We have your mother here and she’s been shot,” Ashanti said were the first words she heard over the phone.

Police are still investigating the shooting and have no suspects.

“This specific incident is isolated,” Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards said. “It’s the first time that someone has been shot at after flashing lights and passing.

Lt. Edwards said the victim couldn’t identify the shooters through her snow-covered windshield.

Wylene Edwards said she has traveled the street many times because it is a good shortcut from Tallmadge Avenue to Cuyahoga Falls Avenue.

During the summer, she said it’s common to see drivers flash their headlights or beep their horns to disperse people walking in the street.

Edwards said she’s not sure why her flashing her lights angered the men.

“I happened to piss him off,” she said “And I tell you what, he was a pretty accurate shot.

I drive through this neighborhood a couple of times a week to get to the Akron hackerspace. In warm weather it is usual to see groups of young men (with an rare young woman) walking in the streets. When large amounts of snow have fallen, anyone might be forced into the street - but recent snowfall was nowhere near that amount. Mild to moderate snowfalls usually keep all pedestrians indoors & off the streets. It’s not the best neighborhood, but it is one I’ll be avoiding in the future.

 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 15:24:42

“Sellers are on the sidelines. Some homeowners have no reason to move. Others aren’t motivated because they would take a loss at current prices or they still owe more than their homes are worth.”

and millions haven`t made a mortgage payment in 5 years so why would they move.

Where have all the for-sale houses gone?
By Marcie Geffner • Bankrate.com

Homebuyers are back. But they’re not finding many for-sale houses to choose from.

This dearth of for-sale homes isn’t imaginary. In fact, the pool of properties actually has shrunk in housing markets across the nation.

Only 2.32 million existing homes were available for sale in the U.S. at the end of September 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors. That figure represented a 5.9-month supply of for-sale homes at the September pace of sales. A year earlier, the supply of for-sale homes would have lasted 8.1 months at the then-current pace of sales.

So, what happened to all the houses?

Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors in Los Angeles, and Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Carrington Mortgage Holdings, a mortgage company in Aliso Viejo, Calif., offer some answers.

Sellers are on the sidelines. Some homeowners have no reason to move. Others aren’t motivated because they would take a loss at current prices or they still owe more than their homes are worth.

“They’re not sure what they want to do,” Appleton-Young says.

Rising prices might help those who aren’t deeply underwater reach a break-even point. Meantime, negative equity has an unexpectedly positive effect on house prices in markets hardest hit by the housing downturn, according to a recent report from CoreLogic, a real estate data and analytics company in Irvine, Calif. That’s because negative equity restricts the number of homes available for sale, and the reduced supply of homes keeps prices from falling further.

Investors are buying houses as rental properties instead of fix-and-flip opportunities. “Typically investors buy, rehab and flip, and that’s not happening much because prices are low and demand for rental units is high,” Appleton-Young explains.

Well-priced homes are selling fast, reducing the for-sale supply. “If properties aren’t priced right, they do sit, so (sellers) have to be realistic. But if it’s in the ballpark, it goes quickly,” Appleton-Young says.

Even notoriously slow short sales are moving faster due to new rules that are intended to streamline and standardize short sales for homeowners who have mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The supply of so-called distressed homes has declined due in part to legal snafus in the foreclosure process. Distressed homes include short sales, preforeclosures and bank-owned real estate.

“The robosigning issues and the national mortgage settlement essentially stopped foreclosure procedures in a number of states,” Sharga explains.

Banks still own hundreds of thousands of homes, and millions of homeowners are still late or delinquent with their mortgage payments, but those homes aren’t on the market and Sharga says that backlog will take time to work through.

Lenders and government agencies are selling distressed loans to servicing companies that are offering homeowners workouts and loan modifications. “A certain number of those loans will never go into foreclosure,” Sharga explains. “They’ll be modified or short-sold, so that backlog won’t all hit the market really ever.”

REO properties also are being sold in bulk to investors. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently announced sales of 970 properties in California, Arizona and Nevada; 699 properties in Florida; and 94 properties in Chicago.

So, what does the tight supply mean for buyers and sellers?

Appleton-Young says sellers need to be wary of overconfidence and recognize that overpriced properties won’t sell soon, if at all. Buyers, meanwhile, need to recognize that markets are competitive and that all-cash offers, preferred by sellers, aren’t uncommon.

Sharga says patience is a must for buyers.

(hazard says a fountain of youth is a must for buyers)

Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/real-estate/where-have-for-sale-houses-gone.aspx#ixzz2J7e745EZ
Follow us: @Bankrate on Twitter | Bankrate on Facebook

Comment by AZtoORtoCOtoOR
2013-01-26 20:07:50

Leslie is on fire and offers insight that no one else could offer or even see coming:

“Appleton-Young says sellers need to be wary of overconfidence and recognize that overpriced properties won’t sell soon, if at all.”

“If properties aren’t priced right, they do sit, so (sellers) have to be realistic. But if it’s in the ballpark, it goes quickly,” Appleton-Young says.

Wow I tell you, she is absolutely genius!!

 
 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 15:40:57

Attack on family in Compton latest incident in wave of anti-black violence

A Latino gang is intimidating blacks into leaving the city that was once an African American enclave. It’s part of a violent trend seen in other parts of the L.A. area.

By Sam Quinones, Richard Winton and Joe Mozingo

January 25, 2013, 6:46 p.m.
The trouble began soon after they arrived.

The black family—a mother, three teenage children and a 10-year-old boy—moved into a little yellow home in Compton over Christmas vacation.

When a friend came to visit, four men in a black SUV pulled up and called him a “nigger,” saying black people were barred from the neighborhood, according to Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. They jumped out, drew a gun on him and beat him with metal pipes.

It was just the beginning of what detectives said was a campaign by a Latino street gang to force an African American family to leave.

The attacks on the family are the latest in a series of violent incidents in which Latino gangs targeted blacks in parts of greater Los Angeles over the last decade.

Compton, with a population of about 97,000, was predominantly black for many years. It is now 65% Latino and 33% black, according to the 2010 U.S. census. But it’s not only historically black areas that have been targeted.

Federal authorities have alleged in several indictments in the last decade that the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered street gangs under its control to attack African Americans. Leaders of the Azusa 13 gang were sentenced to lengthy prison terms earlier this month for leading a policy of attacking African American residents and expelling them from the town.

Similar attacks have taken place in Harbor Gateway, Highland Park, Pacoima, San Bernardino, Canoga Park and Wilmington, among other places. In the Compton case, sheriff’s officials say the gang appears to have been acting on its own initiative.

“This family has no gang ties whatsoever,” Sheriff’s Lt. Richard Westin said. “They are complete innocent victims here.”

The 19-year-old family friend managed to break free that first day and run into the house, where the children were the only ones at home.

The attackers left, but a half-hour later a crowd of as many as 20 people stood on the lawn yelling threats and epithets. A beer bottle crashed through the living room window as the youngsters watched in horror.

“They were scared if they called the sheriff they’d be killed,” Westin said. “So they called their mom, who called the Sheriff’s Department.”

The gang members were gone by the time deputies arrived, but they kept coming back, almost daily, driving by slowly until they got someone’s attention, then yelling racial insults and telling them to leave. The mother sent the children to live with relatives and is now packing up to leave herself.

“This gang has always made it clear they have a racial hatred for black people,” said Westin, who has worked in the area for more than two decades. “They justify in their own sick minds because of their rivalry with the Compton black gangs. They repeatedly used racial epithets, they use racial hatred graffiti and they tag up the black church a lot.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0126-compton-20130126,0,977110.story - 215k -

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 15:55:42

Is the Apple-loving bull growing long in the teeth?

Information technology
Has Apple peaked?
The world’s most valuable firm may be past its prime
Jan 26th 2013 | SAN FRANCISCO |From the print edition

TECH blogs are abuzz. Pundits are busy pumping out predictions. The company that makes the new device that is attracting so much attention is teasing reporters by being coy about its innovative features. Apple’s product launches are always like this. But this time the fuss is not about an Apple product: it is about Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphone, which is likely to be launched in March.

Stiffer competition in smartphones and tablets from the likes of Samsung has spooked investors in Apple. They got another fright on January 23rd when the firm revealed that its latest quarterly profit of $13 billion was flat because of higher manufacturing costs. That triggered a rout in after-hours trading: at one point some $57 billion was wiped off Apple’s market capitalisation, roughly the equivalent of the entire value of Ford, a carmaker.

Apple’s shares have been mauled by bears many times before (see chart 1), but they have always recovered. The big question on many investors’ minds is whether the firm can rebound again. Two things have whetted the bears’ appetites.

First, Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder and creative genius, is dead. The iPhones and iPads he sired still generate gargantuan profits. But his successor, Tim Cook, has yet to prove himself capable of bringing new breakthrough products to market. Second, Apple’s fantastic profit margins—38.6% on sales of $55 billion—attract competitors like sweetshops attract six-year-olds.

The company’s fans pooh-pooh the idea that Apple has peaked. The firm’s price-earnings ratio—11.6 at close of business on January 23rd—is not much different from Microsoft’s (see chart 2). That makes Apple’s shares look relatively sexy. Unlike Microsoft, which depends heavily on the ailing personal-computer business, Apple concentrates on sectors that are growing fast, such as smartphones and tablets. Only one of 60 analysts tracked by Bloomberg had a “sell” recommendation on Apple before this week’s stockmarket fallout.

Comment by AZtoORtoCOtoOR
2013-01-26 19:54:56

My real estate agent told me to borrow all the money I could not afford to pay back and buy Apple stock at $700. He told me $800 was “in the bag”.

 
 
Comment by AZtoORtoCOtoOR
2013-01-26 16:58:57

I think the current bubble is in ammunition. Just the mention of change in the gun laws has made it impossible to find in the store. .22 LR is even gone.

 
Comment by moral hazard
2013-01-26 17:12:17

Not there for work: Connecticut’s disappearing labor force

Rob Varnon
Published 12:34 am, Saturday, January 26, 2013

Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist of New Haven-based Data Core Partners, said the number of people actively engaged in the work force in Connecticut, defined as those who are working or looking for work, fell 51,000, or 2.68 percent in 2012, the largest drop in the nation.

“We’re moving in the wrong direction, and we’re moving there fast,” Klepper-Smith said of the chart he produced using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

In December, the state’s unemployment rate fell 0.3 percent to 8.8 percent despite losing 1,800 jobs. The reason the unemployment rate fell was because there were fewer people in the labor force, not because there were more jobs.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Not-there-for-work-Connecticut-s-disappearing-4225211.php -

 
Comment by Bill in Los Angeles
2013-01-26 22:34:02

Interesting thing if you go to http://www.finance.yahoo and plot the graph of the S&P 500 from 1994 to present. You see three peaks: One at the year 2000, one in 2008 or so, and one now.

Colleague at work discussed technical indicators of unemployment versus the S&P. Looks like November 2012 was the potential to dip back into a 2009-style recession.

Perhaps the stock bear market will be postponed a couple years and this time the S&P 500 index will go higher than 2000 and 2008. At some point we say interest rates will return with a vengeance. This is why I still like adding to T-bills A 60% allocation in equities is not really so scary. But a couple months ago my allocation was 57.5% and I’m now pondering selling off some of my 401k stock funds and moving them to the most conservative fund in the 401k.

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-26 23:11:49

“One at the year 2000, one in 2008 or so, and one now.”

What happens next depends on an unpredictable combination of labor market improvement, growing inflation expectations, and near-term decline in housing demand due to higher mortgage rates.

But a likely scenario is a third parabolic bubble-style blowout in stock prices like we had in 2000 and again in 2008, accompanied by rising long-term interest rates. Those who successfully dump stocks for long-term Treasurys before the next crash will make out like bandits. Mom and Pop investor in flyover country who follow suit by moving back into stocks will be left holding the bag when stocks go into their next bear market (same old story, different dates). The wild card is a possible escalation of QE-to-infinity, but increasing fears of future inflation may tie the Fed’s hands.

 
Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-27 00:05:07

I feel like we are right at the very moment in this market cycle when Wall Street convinces the suckers on Main Street that it is safe to get back into the stock market.

Caveat emptor.

January 25, 2013
10 dividend stocks to ride out the bond squeeze
Photo: Getty Images

With bond valuations getting squeezed as the Federal Reserve keeps rates near zero, fixed-income yields have fallen under a considerable amount of pressure. Also, total returns for many corporate bonds risk not exceeding their coupon payments this year. So where should investors go hunting for yield outside of fixed income? Electric utilities, natural-gas-infrastructure companies, and real-estate investment trusts are good low-risk candidates, according to a recent report from Barclays. “Since QE2 began in November 2010, cyclical sector P/Es have contracted while defensive sector multiples have expanded,” Barclays wrote in the note. “In our view, this trend will persist until the Fed begins the normalization process, creating an accommodative environment for equity income.” Of the firm’s many suggestions, MarketWatch picked the 10 largest by market cap.

— Wallace Witkowski

 
Comment by Rental Watch
2013-01-27 02:10:42

In 2000, there was clearly a bubble in Tech. This manifested itself in part as a stock market high.

In 2008, there was clearly the end of a bubble in housing. This manifested itself in part as a stock market high.

In 2013, there IS clearly a bubble in treasuries. The bubble has led to cheaper financing, and a move into “risk” assets. Will the popping of the bubble in treasuries lead to a collapse in the stock market? Or a flattening? Low interest rates have allowed many to PERMANENTLY fix their cost of borrowing at a lower rate…when the bubble bursts, this low cost of financing will persist.

Comment by Cantankerous Intellectual Bomb Thrower™
2013-01-27 08:35:41

“Will the popping of the bubble in treasuries lead to a collapse in the stock market?”

I seem to recall the October 19, 1987 Black Monday Wall Street crash was preceded by a spring crash in long-term bonds.

Of course this time is different.

Can you explain the 87 stock market crash?
By The-Adviser.com - Sunday, 1/27/13

New York - On October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones Industrial average declined 22.6% in the largest single-day drop in history. Black Monday, as it has become known, was almost twice as bad as the stock market crash of of October 29, 1929 . The 1929 decline approximated 11.7% and started the Great Depression.

The Securities Exchange Commission, academic professors, financial writers and every financial security firm has analyzed the stock market crash of 1987 in about every way possible. Some believe the market crash was caused by an irrational behavior on the part of investors. Some analysts believe that excessive stock prices and computerized trading were the cause. The key finding is that no single news event occurred that could account for the crash.

The stock market was doing quite well for the first nine months of 1987. It was up more than 30%, reaching unprecedented heights. That was after two consecutive years of gains exceeding 20%. By 1997, interest rates began to climb. Three days before Black Monday, the stock market gains for the year dropped by 11.6%, including the effects of a 9.5% drop on October 16, 1987.

The three day drop was caused be several macroeconomic factors. Long-term bond yields that has started 1987 at 7.6% climbed to approximately 10%. This offered a lucrative alternative to stocks for investors looking for yield. The merchandise trade deficit soared and the value of the U.S. dollar began to decline. After a speech by Treasury Secretary Jim Baker, investors began to fear that the weak US dollar would cause further inflation.

 
Comment by Bill in Los Angeles
2013-01-27 17:22:09

By “a bubble in treasuries,” of course you must be referring to five year notes, ten year notes, or bonds, but not T-bills.

You put money in T-bills not caring about what yield you get. You put in $2997 in a 52-week T-bill and you get $3,000 in a year.

I still am not convinced T-bills are not safe. They are as safe as the USD. Of course you lose with inflation. But that’s why you also need to regularly buy gold or silver.

 
 
 
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