The Housing Bubble

And Glengarry Glen Ross is a documentary.

“It feels like you simply can lose again.”

It’s felt that way for weeks on end of new record highs, in fact!

Taper Isn’t Tightening as Bonds See No Rate Boost Until ’15
By Daniel Kruger & Liz Capo McCormick - Nov 25, 2013 4:16 AM PT
Fed Won’t Taper in Near Term, Shugg Says

The $11.7 trillion Treasury market is betting on history not repeating as the Federal Reserve moves closer to reducing its unprecedented stimulus.

From futures to derivatives, traders don’t see the central bank raising its benchmark interest rate from a record low until nine months after policy makers end their monthly bond purchases of $85 billion, or late 2015. In September, when the Treasury market was tumbling in the midst of its worst year since 2009, the projected gap was two months, according to Barclays Plc.

The Fed’s assertion that the tapering of its quantitative easing doesn’t mean a tightening of monetary policy is starting to sink in among bond traders. That may help contain yields, supporting borrowers of all types that have refinanced trillions of dollars of debt because of the Fed’s policies.

When Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke first discussed ending purchases May 22, “there was a consensus opinion that ‘Oh my God, this is the end,’” and that an increase to the federal funds rate would “be right on the heels of that last purchase,” said Gregory Whiteley, who manages government debt investments at Los Angeles-based DoubleLine Capital LP, which oversees $53 billion. “That is not the consensus any longer,” he said in a Nov. 19 telephone interview.
…

November 24, 2013, 1:05 pm
Disruptions: If It Looks Like a Bubble and Floats Like a Bubble …
By NICK BILTON
SAN FRANCISCO — It sounds like heresy around here. But here goes:

Is this another tech bubble?

Back East, the Wall Street money is starting to worry that it feels like 1999 all over again. Money-losing technology companies are going public at you’ve-got-to-be-joking prices. The founders of Snapchat are getting multibillion-dollar offers — and turning them down. And the Nasdaq composite index, a visible symbol of the ’90s dot-com boom and bust, is a sneeze away from 4,000, a level it last reached just before, well, you know.

Is this time different? Out in Silicon Valley, many insist it is. But for the average investor, there are reasons for caution.

Since the dark days of 2008, the Nasdaq has risen more than 150 percent, twice as much as the old-school Dow industrials. Money has been pouring into social media stocks. As of Friday, Twitter had risen nearly 60 percent since it went public only a few weeks earlier.

Once again, new “metrics” are being applied to justify stratospheric valuations. Twitter is losing money. A price-to-earnings ratio? There is no E in the P/E. But its stock is trading at 20-odd times the company’s annual sales. Good enough.

There is more. Technology companies have become the takeover bait du jour. A report issued by Ernst & Young last week said that mergers and acquisitions in the global technology industry have rebounded to “a new post-dot-com bubble high.” Roughly $71 billion in deals were made during the third quarter.

And then there is Kozmo.com, the poster child of the dot-com bust. Kozmo is back. Last time, its couriers would deliver just about anything at any hour — CDs, Milky Way bars, you name it. It burned through $280 million before going bust.

“Remember us?” a banner on the Kozmo.com reads now. “We’re relaunching soon.”
…

Nov. 6, 2013, 6:09 a.m. EST
Fear is killing your investments
The high cost of being afraid of the stock market
By Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch

Wayne Gretzky—the greatest hockey player of all time—famously said that “you miss one-hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” Of the ice, however, the Great One confesses he was “not a big risk taker…I stay away from things that I don’t know anything about.”

Two surveys released this week show that most investors better relate to Gretzky’s second sentiment. Many are still afraid of the stock market—a fear created during the financial crisis five years ago—and those investors have not been taking their shots. As a result, they have missed out, not only on the rally of the last few years, but on the opportunity to be better positioned for what happens next.

BlackRock this week released its first Global Investor Pulse Survey, which showed that while steady gains have pushed some stock markets worldwide to all-time highs, “most people are not comfortable taking on more risks to achieve better returns.” The survey polled more than 17,500 investors (including some 4,000 Americans) across a range of income levels.

In the U.S., 48% of investible assets were being held in cash, with just 18% in stocks and 7% in bonds, according to the survey.
…

Nov. 22, 2013, 6:01 a.m. EST
Dow 20,000 here we come: It’s different this time
Commentary: We need more irrational behavior to create a real bubble
By Michael Sincere

Watching the Dow Jones Industrial Average top 16,000, many investors are hoping this market is in a bubble (so they can shrewdly buy stocks at lower prices when it pops). But we have a long way to go for that.

Right now, the most important part of a bubble is missing — the mania. We need intoxicated investors, a buying frenzy, over the top speculation, and a get-rich-quick mentality. A bubble without a mania is like an ice cream sundae without a cherry. We can do better.

Although it’s possible to have a bubble without a mania, those maniacal meltups help historians confirm whether it was a true bubble. Also, meltups make you feel rich before you go broke (be sure to save your statements so you can remember how much you could have, should have, and would have made if you had sold in time).
…

So long as the stock market keeps hitting new records every other day, who cares about sagging home sales or Facebook breakdowns?

Oct. 21, 2013, 6:02 a.m. EDT
Don’t fight the Fed — fear it
Commentary: Bernanke & Co. are looking for bubbles in all the wrong places
By Michael Sincere

MIAMI (MarketWatch) — Now that the Washington debt and shutdown drama is behind us — at least for now — let’s consider a potentially more dire situation: the Fed’s next move.

Do you remember the Fed? Just last month everyone was expecting Ben Bernanke to cut back on quantitative easing (i.e. taper). The high-speed traders had their fat fingers on the keyboard, ready to sell. Would the Dow Jones Industrial Average drop 200 points or 300? It was the easiest trade in the world.

And then, Benny and the Feds surprised nearly everyone by not tapering! The market loved it, and responded with a 200-point rally. It was beautiful. The Dow sailed well past 15,000 and there was blue sky as far as the eye could see. Unfortunately, the next day the market sold off, but it was a fun day while it lasted.

A few economists mumbled that quantitative easing was going on too long, and that if it didn’t stop soon it could cause real damage to the economy. What? Take away the punch bowl? Do you have any idea how the market would react? No, QE must sail on.

And to anyone who thinks that QE could create an asset bubble, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard has an answer. Last month he said that the Fed didn’t see any bubbles. “At least right now,” Bullard noted, “you don’t have anything of that magnitude going on.”

Bubbles are funny things. During the Dutch tulipmania bubble (1634-1637), beautiful tulips were bought and sold for $200,000 each at today’s prices. At the time, few realized they were in a bubble, but who cares? You could make a fortune by buying and selling the tulip without even owning it. Many people got rich before they went broke.

During the Internet bubble (1995-2001), people thought the good times would continue indefinitely; 1999 was a particularly fun year for investors as certain Internet stocks such as pets.com and others with a dot-com name went up by a gazillion points. And during the housing bubble (2007-2009), flipping houses was all the rage. But at the time it didn’t seem like a bubble.

The year of the Fed bubble

If the Fed continues with QE (i.e. excessive monetary liquidity), and it most likely will, the market could rally right into Christmas and beyond. On the other hand, if the Fed even whispers the word, “taper,” the market might convulse. And no one wants that.

One might wonder if we’re now in the middle of a Fed-induced bubble (2009-?). As the market climbs higher because the Fed is reluctant to taper, the bubble might get bigger. Like other bubbles, few will know we’re in one until it pops. That’s the strange thing about bubbles: they can go on for years. Meanwhile, the damage is being done, but no one sees until it’s too late.

If you try to warn people that the market might be rising a bit too fast and too far, they protest. “Don’t fight the Fed,” has been the mantra since the last Fed bubble popped. That’s what they always say.

Yes, it’s true, you don’t fight the Fed — at first. But the Fed is only human, and if it makes a mistake (which it’s prone to do on occasion), anything is possible. The Fed has got itself into a pickle this time. If it continues with QE indefinitely, it could cause economic damage. If it cuts QE, the market will protest.

What to do? Keep your eye on the bond market. If the yield on the 10-year Treasury rises above 3%, that could spell trouble for stocks.

If the stock market is in a Fed-induced bubble (we’ll know after it’s over), it won’t be easy to deflate. The Fed will try to reduce QE slowly, which would be an amazing feat. Bubbles cannot be controlled so easily. In a worst-case scenario, that popping sound you hear is not a Champagne bottle.
…

November 23, 2013
The next 10 investment bubbles
Photo: Bloomberg
Previous
1 of 13

Asset bubbles are funny things. You’re not sure something is in a bubble until it pops. Ever since investors first bid up the price of tulip bulbs to ridiculous levels back in the early 1600s, one thing many economists seem to agree on is that pre-popped bubbles defy formal identification. This past year Princeton economist Paul Krugman said there’s no standard definition for them. Last week, Columbia University economist Guillermo Calvo said at a San Francisco Fed conference that we still don’t have a theory about them. “Irrational Exuberance” author and Yale economist Robert Shiller, who recently said stock prices are high but not at alarming levels, called market bubbles a form of “social mental illness.” While we may not have an academic definition of bubbles, investors certainly have fresh memories of getting burned by the U.S. housing bubble in 2006 and the dot.com bubble in 1999. With this in mind, MarketWatch looked at 10 assets that are showing that sort of frothiness that could indicate a bubble in the making.

—Wallace Witkowski

Bernanke’s exit strategy: Keep stock investors from rushing the exits
November 25, 2013, 5:13 PM

The Federal Reserve wants to make a graceful exit from the bond-buying program that has supported the U.S. economy and lifted stock prices. But every time the Fed talks about tapering, anxious bond and stock investors beat a hasty retreat.

Steve Cucchiaro, chief investment officer of Windhaven Investment Management, Inc., a unit of Charles Schwab Corp, says the Fed has something of a public relations problem as it attempts to replace a big punch bowl with a smaller one.

The Fed, he says, has been “making great pains” since May to get the markets to understand that “tapering is not a tightening,” and that resulting higher interest rates would not necessarily be a death-knell for stocks.

Cucchiaro expects the Fed to prevail. “Just like [former Fed Chair Paul] Volcker was successful turning back inflation and interest rates, this Fed will be successful at turning interest rates and inflation to the upside.”

The strategist says he expects a modest tapering with the Fed emphasizing that it will hold short-term interest rates near zero for an extended period. And he credited outgoing Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for his damage-control efforts to keep the markets informed.

“Short rates near zero, and long rates going up is not necessarily a bad thing,” Cucchiaro says, given that such an environment suggests stronger economic growth and corporate earnings. “After an initial adverse reaction, an echo of what happened last spring, markets could settle out,” he adds.

“If the long rate climbs gradually and is not a shock, and we’re left with a steeper yield curve, that’s OK for stocks,” Cucchiaro says. Conversely, he notes, if long rates move too high, too fast, then investors may fear that the Fed is losing control.

Which of these two forces will gain the upper hand? Much depends on the Fed’s oratorical skills, Cucchiaro says. Bernanke, he notes, “would like people to remember how the Fed took bold and unprecedented action after the financial crisis and kept the financial crisis from turning into a depression or severe deflation.”

Bernanke’s nominated successor Janet Yellen, meanwhile, has a reputation for being dovish on monetary policy, and Cucchiaro speculates that Yellen “might look for opportunities to show a more balanced view” with regard to fighting inflation.
…

How much longer until Frankenstein Mae and Freddie Krueger Mac are resurrected as entirely private oligopolists with a too-big-to-fail stake in the mortgage securitization industry and an army of K-street lobbyists to protect it?

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac attract investor groups
By Dina ElBoghdady and Danielle Douglas, Published: November 21

Investor groups are scooping up shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and even offering to buy core pieces of their businesses, complicating legislative efforts to shut down the two mortgage giants.

Some Capitol Hill lawmakers have been clamoring to shutter the companies ever since the government seized them at the height of the 2008 housing crisis. President Obama also has publicly called for an end to the two institutions.
…

Op/Ed
11/22/2013 @ 8:00AM
Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Exemplify The Horrors Of Crony Capitalism
By Ike Brannon

Nothing exemplifies the the cost of crony capitalism like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac . For years these fiefdoms were run as little more than as piggy banks for connected politicians, who could count on substantial financial support for re-election, and retiring members and staffers from their committees of jurisdiction could expect a lucrative lobbying contract. Even their relatives got in on the act.

A major shareholder recently offered a reform plan that would replace them with two fully-capitalized private entities, which Treasury officials dismissed out of hand. Before anyone puts a knife in the heart of privatization efforts, it’s worth reviewing how they got into their current plight.

For a long time Fannie and Freddie had been managed by political entities rather than mere businessmen, and they had two masters–the politicians who wanted campaign contributions and increasing home ownership rates, and shareholders. Eventually, regulatory oversight went by the wayside and they chased their twin, conflicting goals with impunity.
…
The rationale for Fannie and Freddie remaining as full-fledged government-sponsored enterprises evaporated long ago. The implicit backing of the federal government (which was called upon in 2008) allowed these entities to make imprudent investment decisions and ultimately squander hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.
…

Watt confident Senate filibuster change assures confirmation
Posted: Saturday, Nov. 23, 2013

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mel Watt is confident he’ll be confirmed to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency now that Senate Democrats changed the chamber’s filibuster rule.

“I would say that certainly substantially improves the chances,” he says.

President Barack Obama nominated Watt last spring to head the agency that oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Senate Republicans blocked his confirmation last month.

But Thursday, Senate Democrats triggered the so-called “nuclear option.” They changed the rules so that most judicial and executive-office appointments can move to confirmation votes with support from a simple majority of senators, not the 60-vote super-majority that had been in effect.

The Senate could vote on Watt’s nomination when it returns to session in early December.

Watt continues to be optimistic.

“I’ve known it’s not been about me,” he says. “Every once in a while they’ll make some noises about qualifications. But no one felt they were saying that with a straight face. This has been about politics, and a lot of it has been directed at this president.
…

FHFA faces pushback on cuts to Fannie Mae apartment lending
6 hours ago • Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — The U.S. regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is proceeding with plans to scale back their financing of apartment-building loans next year, shrinking what opponents call a critical support for rental housing.

The government-owned companies back about 45 percent of the multifamily market. While the size of the cuts is still undetermined, they will add to a 10 percent reduction in apartment financing that the Federal Housing Finance Agency required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make this year as part of a broader effort to boost private investment in housing finance.

Developers, lenders and affordable-housing advocates are pushing back, saying the move could deprive rural areas and smaller cities such as Boise, Idaho, and Topeka, Kan., of rental housing that private investors may neglect. Dozens responded to a recent FHFA request for suggestions with the same message: Don’t do it at all.

“Without Fannie and Freddie our ability to get deals done in smaller towns would be greatly reduced,” E.J. Burke, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association and an executive vice president at Cleveland-based KeyBank, said in an interview. “We haven’t seen that impact yet, but down the line I’m very concerned if the conservator continues to cut their volumes.”
…

Going ‘nuclear’ may help Watt
Confirmation more likely with Senate rules change
Published Saturday, November 23, 2013
by Margaret Chadbourn, Reuters

President Barack Obama’s pick for a top housing regulatory post looked poised to win confirmation after the Senate changed its rules on Thursday to make it harder to block nominees.

If confirmed to head the agency that regulates housing finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, U.S. Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte could open the door for the taxpayer-controlled firms to provide greater mortgage relief, in line with White House economic goals.

The current head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco, is a career civil servant who has knocked heads at times with the Obama administration on homeowner-relief programs as he has sought to conserve the companies’ assets.

That focus has endeared DeMarco to Republicans, who successfully blocked Watt’s nomination in a vote last month. The filibuster marked the first time since the Civil War that the Senate failed to confirm a sitting member of Congress.

The Republican action helped spur Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, to push through a change in the Senate filibuster rules on Thursday.

Previously, 60 votes were needed to clear procedural hurdles in the 100-seat Senate. Now, a simple majority suffices for all but Supreme Court nominees - a change that virtually guarantees Watt’s confirmation given that Democrats control 55 votes.

Homeowner and consumer advocacy groups have lobbied hard for Watt’s approval. They argue that DeMarco, who became the FHFA’s acting director in 2009, has not implemented programs that could help borrowers who are having trouble making mortgage payments.

Analysts expect Watt to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive loan principal for Americans who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth – a step the White House has advocated but one that DeMarco had refused to take.

“If Watt is confirmed, we would expect the FHFA to work towards some form of principal reduction and institute specific changes to Fannie and Freddie refinance efforts,” said Isaac Boltansky, an analyst with Compass Point Research and Trading.
…

Depositors…it’s what is for dinner.

“the 0.25 per cent rate of interest on the $2.4tn in reserves they hold at the Fed…”

This is how they are charging us now.

The Economist
House prices
Home truths
The recovery in housing is looking surprisingly shaky
Nov 23rd 2013 | NEW YORK |From the print edition

THE city that proved that America’s housing market is rising from the ashes was, fittingly, Phoenix. From property-bubble peak to post-financial crisis trough, house prices in Arizona’s biggest metropolis plunged by more than half, as demand dried up and foreclosures soared. But low interest rates and slowly reviving consumer confidence, plus a bunch of private-equity firms convinced there was an opportunity in buying up homes cheaply, eventually brought the market back to life. By September the median sale price of a single-family home in the Greater Phoenix area was $199,000, up 33% in a year.

Yet lately not all the signs from Phoenix have been positive. Initially, house prices and sales rose together. But according to a recent report by the Centre for Real Estate Theory and Practice at Arizona State University, they have started to diverge. In September the number of single-family homes sold was 9% lower than in the same month a year earlier; sales of town houses and condos were flat. Since July the Greater Phoenix market has “cooled dramatically”, thanks to a steep fall in demand. In 2014, the report predicted, prices will rise more slowly than the “furious pace we have witnessed over the past two years.”

A similar picture is emerging elsewhere, especially in cities where price and sales growth had been strong. The monthly index of housing conditions published by the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, a bank, published on November 18th, was flat since October and down from 59 in July to 54 now. (That is slightly positive; a score of 50 would mean that builders are evenly divided as to whether conditions are good or bad). The Case-Shiller index, which tracks house prices in 20 big cities across America, reported year-on-year price growth of 12.8% in August, but also noted an abrupt slowing of the monthly rate of growth as 16 of those cities reported more modest price increases in August than in July. In October the Federal Reserve noted that the “recovery in the housing sector slowed somewhat in recent months.” This set the stage for the release of data on November 20th that showed a sharp 3.2% fall in sales of existing homes in October.

This is probably evidence of “stalling, rather than a reversal”, says Jim O’Sullivan of High Frequency Economics, a research firm. Would-be buyers are coming to terms with costlier mortgages; long-term mortgage-interest rates are up by a percentage point since the early summer. That can be a drain on a tight household budget. The housing-affordability index published by the National Association of Realtors, which combines average mortgage costs, average home prices and average family income, is down to 164 from a high of 214 in January, which is significant. Yet housing remains far more affordable than the historic average of around 125, which means that the recovery is likely to pick up before long, says Mr O’Sullivan.
…

housing only ever goes up, you cant loose with housing

Nov. 25, 2013, 12:13 p.m. EST
Drop in pending home sales points to pause
Higher mortgage rates, shutdown limit sales in October, trade group says
By Jeffry Bartash, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. mortgage rates are still very low by historical standards, but don’t tell that to prospective home buyers: Pending sales of previously owned homes fell in October to the lowest level since the end of 2012.

The National Association of Realtors on Monday said its pending home sales index dipped 0.6% in October to 102.1 to mark the fifth straight decline. The index had sunk a revised 4.6% in September.

Pending sales rose slightly in the Northeast and Midwest but more significantly, they fell in the South and West, the areas where demand for housing is most concentrated. A sale is listed as pending after contract are signed and they typically take one to two months to complete.

The pending sales index is lower now than it was in the same month one year ago, more evidence that the housing market resurgence has faltered. The “recovery in home sales has clearly at least stalled,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.

The housing market has been one of the biggest bright spots for the economy in 2013, adding sizably to U.S. growth after years of poor sales following a market bust in 2006. Any prolonged pause in sales could act as mild headwind on the economy in 2014.

The biggest reason for the slowdown in sales, which spiked earlier in the year, is the backup in interest rates. Many buyers rushed to complete purchases during the summer as rates surged, leading to fewer sales in the fall.

A 30-year fixed mortgage, for example, fell to as low as 3.35% in early May, helped by a Federal Reserve strategy of buying public and private bonds to push interest rates down.

Yet mortgage rates jumped by more than a percentage point over the next three months amid speculation that the Fed would curb its bond purchases. Although rates have come down a bit, they averaged 4.22% in the week ended Nov. 21, according to mortgage lender Freddie Mac.

What’s also dampened the pace of sales are rising home prices, a trend amplified by the relatively low number of properties available. Many people are unwilling to sell because their homes are still worth less than what they paid and builders aren’t erecting as many new homes as they used to.

The pool of potential buyers, meanwhile, is not as large as normally would be the case because of still-high unemployment and tighter lending standards. Banks and other lenders have to comply with stricter government regulation in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 recession and they want to avoid loans to riskier borrowers.

The government shutdown also weighed on the home industry in October. Lenders need to verify the incomes of some borrowers by checking with the IRS, but the tax agency operated on minimal staff last month.

“In a survey, 17% of realtors reported delays in October, mostly from waiting for IRS income verification for mortgage approval,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of NAR.
…

Those socialist leaders sure are dumb:
http://www.bloomberg.com/blogs/view/matt-levine/

Why is gold up today whac and why is someone buying 3,000 dollar calls on gold two years out?

Iran removed as a black swan? Actually, an attack on Iran would not be considered a black swan since the possibility was too well known. Iranian agents blowing up Saudi oil targets or Saudi back Iraqi forces stopping Iraqi exports, much more of a black swan and I think very possible in the next few years

Nov. 25, 2013, 8:46 a.m. EST
Treasurys slip ahead of auction supply
By Ben Eisen

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices inched lower Monday ahead of $96 billion worth of government debt securities this week. The benchmark 10-year note (10_YEAR +0.47%) yield, which moves inversely to price, rose 2 basis points on the day to 2.765%. The 30-year bond (30_YEAR +0.34%) yield rose 1.5 basis points to 3.850% and the 5-year note (5_YEAR +0.89%) yield rose half a basis point to 1.358%.
…

What a God foresaken, corrupt, illegal immigration Hell Hole of a state California is.

Cost of living being more than a third higher probably doesn’t include housing in the calculation. Then it’s double or triple other places. And less safe.

Cali is t!ts up debt mule country.

I have heard it theorized that the reason all of these zombie movies and tv shows are popular, particularly with white middle age men, is that on some level the zombies and those who get killed off represent the 47%, the fat, lazy, addicted, weak, who they see as weighing down society.

Zombies are the new eugenics, or at least the longing therefor.

‘youths’

i love the corporate media’s preference for this term to describe the perpetrators of all manner of adolescent mayhem, as it blankets their behavior as merely the folly of youth.

knockout game targeting jews?

ah, youth

flash mob looting sports authority?

ah, youth

robbery on the beaches of rio?

ah, youth

Flash mobs set to bossa nova! Awesome.

BTW, Brazil is said to be where the “flash rob” originated. That’s where you take some middle class schmoe off the street at gun or knife-point and drive them around to ATMs and have them withdraw money on your behalf until there ain’t no more.

Still they don’t have knock-out games there? What’s the point of painting Brazil in negative way article after article. It’s a wonderful country with wonderful people….may be except Lio.

Here Dan…I will post it for Rio…Check out your own crime rate and how it stacks up on average in your own hood;

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.city-data.com%2Fcity%2FAlbuquerque-New-Mexico.html&ei=N36TUtqjPI7noASu9oGgDw&usg=AFQjCNGjfkAyXZjr_UcrABBDVD69FzZI3Q&sig2=M0y1F5rY_eHf_rg60Evi1w

Who’s been chicking out so far? Pacquio or Mayweather?

??

The realtor lie there is that 65% of houses sold at a gain. I’ll bet that they don’t consider any “cost” other than the supposed purchase price.

ANY housing Liberace….. Not just condos.

They are probably offering price cuts on the upgrades. I don’t know Baltimorgue. Is the location worth $250K for a two-bed attached product?

Rio is only allowed to post on Sundays due to psychiatrists orders.

Whoh Nellie. I didn’t realize there was so much profit.

No wonder Bush transferred all those government-backed student loans from the government to private banks for “servicing.” And the private banks probably made even more money from higher interest rates and juicy fees.

It also explains why Obama insisted on returning those student loans back to the government as part of the Obamacare law. And hey, if the gov took the risk in backing those loans, why shouldn’t they reap the profit?

Norway Poised to Relax Rules to Fight House Price Deflation
Saleha Mohsin, ©2013 Bloomberg News
Published 9:00 am, Monday, November 25, 2013

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Norway is moving closer to easing mortgage lending standards as the nation’s deflating property market prompts concern among lawmakers that existing regulations are too tight.

Real estate prices, which have doubled over the past decade and touched a record high this year, are now dropping faster than the central bank had predicted. The Conservative-led government, which won power in September, says it’s now looking into raising the amount banks can lend to borrowers to 90 percent of a property’s value, from 85 percent previously, in an effort to support first-time buyers.

“Norwegian banks are already in a good position,” Hans Olav Syversen, the head of the parliamentary finance committee in Oslo and a member of the Christian Democrat party that the government relies on to rule, said in a Nov. 21 interview. “We’re asking for a more flexible rule. A 10 percent down- payment should be enough if banks take into account individuals and their own ability to pay their debts.”

Norway’s housing market, which Nobel laureate Robert Shiller already in 2012 said was in a bubble, has been inflated by a period of record-low interest rates that fueled a borrowing spree in Scandinavia’s richest nation and left Norwegians more indebted than ever before. Households now owe about twice their disposable incomes to their creditors, a level the central bank and the financial regulator have warned is unsustainable.
…

Hard Landing

Yet recent real estate data show that house price gains have reached a tipping point. House prices slid a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent in October from a month earlier, dropping for a second month, according to data from the Norwegian Real Estate Agents Association.

Nordea Bank AB, the largest Nordic Lender, forecast earlier this month that house prices will fall as much as 20 percent over the next two years, forcing the central bank to cut its main rate twice next year, from the current 1.5 percent.

“It’s a rather hard landing,” said Erik Bruce, senior economist at Nordea.
…

if there is a whiff of a hard landing here janet will print a lot more cash and get yield down to 3% again. Isnt this new asset driven economy awesome?

If you dont have any assets your SOL!!!

Talking to my retired MIL tonite. Her premium quadrupled then some. There was nothing wrong with her existing policy but the insurer pulled it.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a compliance nightmare for anyone filing a W-2. It’s that much of a friggin’ mess already. F*ck this POS thing. In fact knife medicare too.

‘We’ve got to finish the job,’ Obama said,

Yeah, Charles Manson said that too.