November 23, 2014

Six Months Ago Buyers Were Being Unrealistic

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Through the first 10 months of the year, sales in the Triangle are up 2 percent compared with the same period in 2013. While prices have inched up over the past year, the increases haven’t been substantial enough to entice a larger number of sellers to put their homes up for sale. The average sales price of the homes that sold in October was about $250,000, up 1 percent from a year ago. ‘There’s been a lot of people staying in houses because their values haven’t recovered from 2008 enough,’ said Ed Willer, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices York Simpson Underwood Realty in Raleigh. ‘The economy overall is just not back yet.’”

“Many would-be buyers in the Triangle also continue to assume that it is a buyer’s market, and are demanding concessions from sellers that many are no longer willing to provide. ‘I think we’ve still got some buyers that are struggling to understand that they’re not 100 percent in control of what goes on, what a seller’s going to do for them,’ said John Wood, a Re/Max United agent in Cary. ‘They just get cast aside,’ Willer said of those folks.”

“On Saturday, during a luxury real-estate auction in Park City, a rich buyer from Texas got a steal — paying $7.7 million for a home that was previously listed for $13.25 million. The couple attended the auction but declined to be interviewed except to say, ‘We still love Park City, but it’s time to move on.’”

“Their home had been on the market for about 18 months and the couple decided that an absolute auction — where the highest bidder wins and there is no minimum price that must be paid — was a way to sell the property quickly. Daniel DeCaro said his company is planning a fourth auction in about three weeks for a newly constructed home in St. George. ‘These homes have been on the market and the owners want them sold and are willing to give a discount,’ he said.”

“Michael Ripson wants to pay your mortgage for a year. You just have to buy a new home at the Scottsdale home builder’s new subdivision in Surprise before Christmas. Ripson and is offering mortgage payments for a year to as many as 19 home buyers at his Sonoran Acres development. Homes there start at $265,000 and can run up to $400,000 with add-ons. Ripson said the hope is to get hesitant home buyers off the fence about purchases. He said home builders are wrestling being able to convert prospective home buyers into customers.”

“‘Those conversion rates are at historically low levels,’ Ripson said.”

“Whatever you say about the property market I’m glad I’m not selling. There wasn’t even a bid at two recent home auctions that I know of even though clearance rates are supposed to be high. Dump or not, that’s not like any property boom I can remember. Mind you, it was different six months ago when the heat was on and buyers were being, er, unrealistic.”

“The annual growth in home values in October was 13.1 per cent in Sydney and 8.9 per cent in Melbourne, according to RP Data. What am I saying, isn’t that pretty strong? Oh wait, six months ago it was 17.3 per cent for Sydney and 14.6 per cent for Melbourne. Everywhere else prices fell last month, except in Brisbane where they were virtually stagnant. So while mortgage rates are at an all time low, high property prices and falling real incomes are beginning to bite. In fact the Reserve Bank points out that ‘an increasing share of owner occupiers is opting for interest – only loans to increase repayment flexibility.’”

“It’s just as well it’s been keeping that to itself because they’ll be struggling once rates start rising and they won’t have paid off any of the mortgage.”

“Home prices in most Chinese cities continued to drop in October despite easing restrictions, official data showed. Chief analyst at real estate agent Centaline Property, Zhang Dawei, said the price decline resulted in losses for home buyers, especially those who purchased houses in 2013. ‘The Chinese property market has bid farewell to the past golden decade,’ he said. ‘Home prices are unlikely to rebound due to huge inventories and new projects.’”

“Billions of dollars from opaque sources in China may be flowing into Myanmar each year, causing excessive volatility in areas such as the local real estate market, according to experts. Flows have increased recently as Chinese political and business leaders respond to efforts to curb corruption, causing many to look abroad to store their ill-gotten money. These capital flows are distorting markets through the region, and, to some extent, the world, said Sean Turnell, associate professor of economics at Australia’s Macquarie University.”

“One manifestation of this is felt in the rising Myanmar real estate market, but this experience is mirrored in many countries, including Australia – where hot Chinese money is creating a very serious real estate ‘bubble’ in Sydney, he said. ‘The volumes are so large, the problem so acute. In all of it we have to ascribe blame too where it is primarily due – China,’ he said. ‘China is exporting its instability, its corruption, its lack of faith in its own institutions,’ he added.”

“Canada ended its millionaire migrant programme in June. The Federal Investor Immigrant Programme was designed to attract high net-worth migrants to settle in Canada, and opened the doors for thousands of wealthy Chinese investors over the past two decades. David Lesperance, a barrister and solicitor at Lesperance Associates, has been working with international investors from China for many years. He said that immigration authorities are reviewing applications retrospectively and have already cancelled approximately 2,000 citizenships. Lesperance also warns that the Canadian Revenue Agency is aggressively reviewing the tax status of foreign nationals, and is looking to freeze and repossess locally held assets.”

“‘I am already receiving calls from people who are not only having their citizenship challenged but are also getting audit notices from CRA. It is easy to see this trend accelerating as all the incentives are there for the government to ramp it up. Once news of this becomes more commonplace, you will see a mad rush to the exits to dump those easily collected Canadian assets,’ he said. ‘Given the time it takes for the market to fully realise that this crackdown has already begun and is accelerating, I would anticipate the fire sale to take place within the next few years.’”

“Professor Arturo Bris, who heads the World Competitiveness Centre at Swiss business school IMD, told a Singapore forum the world had become so flush with money that people were paying ‘crazy’ prices for real estate and stocks. He highlighted five ‘risk factors’: access to cheaper oil and gas; the real estate bubble; a parallel stock exchange bubble; Chinese lending; and a tendency for leading corporations to accrue huge sums on their balance sheets.”

“Professor Bris said the amount of money on some companies’ balance sheets was comparable to the value of entire countries, calculated by applying a typical sales multiple to the country’s GDP and subtracting national debt. By that measure, Citigroup had enough ready cash to acquire 51 per cent of Italy, which Professor Bris valued at $US840 billion ($977bn). Apple could buy a maj­ority stake in Israel and Cisco could purchase Portugal, he said. ‘A bank that employs maybe 30,000 people could buy a country with 50 million — it shows the magnitude of the problem.’”

“These levels of cash would send economies into meltdown if they were suddenly released into the markets. Similarly, China could destroy the American economy by suddenly selling off US bonds. Professor Bris said Chinese lending was the biggest risk factor of all, with ‘humungous’ sums concentrated in a few poorly governed banks. ‘The next Lehman Brother will be Lim Ma Brothers.’”

“This fall, federal regulators made a controversial decision to back down from tough new underwriting standards for mortgages. Some affordable-housing advocates, allied with parts of the corporate housing industry, had successfully argued that the proposed standards would make it too hard for people to qualify, thereby reducing homeownership and hurting the housing market.”

“All of this ignores a crucial fact: Much, and at times most, of what happens in the mortgage market doesn’t have anything to do with homeownership. A sizable percentage of mortgages — including most of the risky ones that were made in the run-up to the financial crisis — are not used to buy a home. They’re used to refinance an existing mortgage. One of the most abjectly false narratives about the financial crisis is that risky mortgages proliferated so that people who couldn’t afford homes could nonetheless buy them.”

“According to a joint HUD-Treasury report published in 2000, by 1999, a staggering 82 percent of subprime mortgages were refinancings, and in nearly 60 percent of those cases, the borrower pulled out cash, adding to his debt burden. The report noted that ‘relatively few subprime mortgages are used to purchase a house.’”

“The problem, of course, is that the conflation of homeownership and consumer credit is so convenient for the powers that be. It allows lenders to cloak themselves in the American-as-apple-pie mantle of homeownership, thereby making it less likely that anyone will crack down on their practices. It allows members of Congress, many of whom depend on the financial industry for campaign contributions, to pretend that something that’s bad for us is actually a good thing for which we should be grateful.”




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132 Comments »

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 04:32:14

“One possible solution would be much tougher standards for cash-out refinancings than for mortgages used for purchases, such as requiring far more equity in a home, or making lenders keep the loan on their own books instead of selling it. Or perhaps Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shouldn’t be allowed to guarantee payment on a mortgage unless it is used to purchase a primary residence.” That’s one possible solution, as I am sure there are loads, but we are all, “plssin’ in the wind”, as Neil Young says in Ambulance Blues. Our “pubic servants’” financiers have other ideas of how to run the mortgage racket.
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.”

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:21:29

‘The banking industry seems to bring out dishonesty in people, a new study suggests.’

‘A team of Swiss economists tested the honesty of bank employees in a lab game that would pay off in cash if they cheated. When workers at an unnamed bank were asked about their home life, they were about as honest as the general public. But employees who had just been asked about work at the bank cheated 16 percent more.’

“Bank employees are not more dishonest than others,” said Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, author of the study published Wednesday by the journal Nature. But he said when reminded of their job they become more dishonest, so something about the culture of banking “seems to make them more dishonest.”

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 06:27:43

Two words: Jamie Dimon. Do you suppose he was afflicted with cancer in his throat for all of the lying?

Comment by Jingle Male
2014-11-21 07:40:00

…more likely from heavy drinking, snorting coke & smoking cigars…..in celebration!

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Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 08:15:20

Ew. That sounds dreadful. 😰

 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 20:51:16

Pharma & Healthcare 7/02/2014 @ 12:36PM 1,337,695 views
Why Thousands Of Men Like JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Are Getting Throat Cancer

Last night, Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of banking giant JPMorgan , told employees that he is being treated for throat cancer. In a memo, he said that he would begin eight weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

He wrote:

The good news is that the prognosis from my doctors is excellent, the cancer was caught quickly, and my condition is curable. Following thorough tests that included a CAT scan, PET scan and a biopsy, the cancer is confined to the original site and the adjacent lymph nodes on the right side of my neck. Importantly, there is no evidence of cancer elsewhere in my body.

It’s impossible to speculate on Dimon’s cancer beyond what he put in his memo. I contacted JPMorgan and the company could not confirm any other details about his conditions. But it’s very possible that Dimon has been swept up, along with thousands of other men, by an increasingly common disease: throat cancer caused by infection with the human papilloma virus, or HPV.

“It wouldn’t be unusual,” says Eric Genden, chief of head and neck oncology at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. “This is an epidemic.”

In 2008, the last year for which data are available, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimate that 2,370 women and 9,356 men developed HPV-caused head and neck cancer, about a third of the cases of head and neck cancer that year. HPV surpassed other causes of throat cancer in 2004.

But Genden says that 70% to 90% of head and neck cancer cases worldwide are now caused by HPV; the American Cancer Society estimates that this year, there will be 42,440 cases of head and neck cancer in the U.S.

Traditionally, head and neck cancer patients were older men who smoke and drank heavily. The alcohol and tobacco damaged the cells in the throat, eventually leading to cancer.

HPV-caused cancer is different. The men (and it’s still mostly men) who get it are younger. In a series of cases at Mount Sinai, they were between 35 and 65.

Five years ago, I profiled Maura Gillison, the Ohio State University researcher who helped establish that this was a big problem. She told me how when enrolling a study several years ago, she’d recruited, in sequence, a malpractice lawyer, doctor, a scientist and a rear admiral. The first patient I spoke to about his HPV throat cancer was a consultant and economist who later died from his disease. Two years ago, I wrote about a 50-year-old biotech CEO who also had HPV throat cancer. Last year, the actor Michael Douglas said that his throat cancer was caused by HPV.

The point is that these are men much like Dimon: CEOs and consultants, men at the peak of their lives and professional power. And their numbers are increasing.

The chart above shows the total number of throat cancer cases, and also the amount caused by HPV and the amount that weren’t, among patients in Hawaii, Iowa, and Los Angeles. As you can see, in 2004 the HPV cancers began to outnumber the type caused by smoking and drinking.

How do you get HPV cancer? HPV is sexually transmitted. It’s mainly known as a cause of cervical cancer, which is what happens when it infects women. But men can get it by performing cunnilingus. It’s also possible, though less likely, that it can be transmitted by kissing. Eighty percent of sexually active people between the ages of 14 and 44 have had oral sex with an opposite sex partner. Researchers estimate that HPV throat cancer in men will be more common than cervical cancer in women in the U.S.

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Comment by Dudgeon Bludgeon
2014-11-21 08:46:55

“Bank employees are not more dishonest than others,” but being reminded they are bank employees makes them more dishonest than others.

Huh?

 
Comment by Mr. Banker
2014-11-21 08:54:13

“’Bank employees are not more dishonest than others,’ said Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, author of the study published Wednesday by the journal Nature.”

What an idiot, of course we are.

“But he said when reminded of their job they become more dishonest, so something about the culture of banking ’seems to make them more dishonest.’”

No, you idiot, something about the culture attracts those who are dishonest.

Comment by Mr. Banker
2014-11-21 09:00:02

Do any of you honest pukes remember how Wall Street was flooded with job applicants soon after Gordon Gekko was spotlighted?

The producers of “Wall Street” wanted to portray Gordon Gekko as a villain-type but Wall Street became flooded with those who saw him as a role model.

And then there’s the guy that Forbes branded as The Wolf of Wall Street. As soon as The Wolf got anointed with his name his office was flooded with people who wanted to get in on the action.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 20:52:40

I suspect it was the prospect of mo sex that stimulated the application flood (and not the prospect of getting throat cancer).

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:24:08

‘What’s worse for the U.S. economy: More bankruptcies in the near term or an overheated market that portends another credit crisis in the longer run?’

‘That’s a conundrum facing Federal Reserve officials, who’ve been trying to get banks to tighten their underwriting standards for speculative-grade loans as the market shows signs of froth. So far, the increased oversight hasn’t prevented companies including Caesars Entertainment Corp. and Charter Communications Inc. from raising money at a record pace through new high-yield, high-risk loans this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.’

‘Almost one third of the loans in the past year had features cited as weak by federal examiners in an annual review.’

‘A stricter interpretation of Fed guidance by banks “could foreshadow serious refinancing challenges,” UBS analysts Matthew Mish and Stephen Caprio wrote in the report. The Fed was complicit in fueling the U.S. housing bubble, “and now similar dynamics have stoked the leveraged-loan market.”

‘St. Louis Fed President James Bullard called financial imbalances “my biggest worry going forward” on Nov. 14, and said the Fed must avoid fanning a boom that could lead to another bust. “Asset-price bubbles are the elephant in the room for monetary policy in the U.S.,” Bullard said after a speech in St. Louis.’

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:08:08

‘As a Federal Reserve bank examiner in the mid-1980s, Esther George delivered bad news to a Nebraska banker: she was downgrading overdue loans, putting his firm’s survival on the line. The man was a victim of the early 1980s speculative bubble that George witnessed firsthand. Today, after the crisis of 2008-9, she sees aggressive lending and lofty asset-price valuations as evidence that financial excesses may again pose a risk to the economy.’

‘To forestall another bubble, George, 56, says it’s time for the Fed to start raising interest rates it has kept near zero since 2008. She argues that ultra-cheap credit is no longer needed to support an expansion that’s in its sixth year after the worst recession since the 1930s.’

“The Fed took pretty aggressive action because we were in a fairly desperate situation,” George said. “Once we saw the economy turn, we might have removed some of those emergency measures, including zero interest rates.”

‘Her concern with financial stability prompted her to dissent against the Fed’s accommodative policy at seven of eight Fed meetings last year. Now her warnings, along with those of fellow regional Fed bank presidents including Richard Fisher of Dallas and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, are starting to resonate at a central bank dominated by its Washington-based Board of Governors.’

‘Fed officials including Chair Janet Yellen have said they are watching deteriorating leveraged-loan underwriting standards, and the central bank in September created a committee on financial stability under Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer.’

“Esther George has centered attention on the issue,’’ said Lawrence Goodman, a former U.S. Treasury official who is now president of the Center for Financial Stability in New York, an independent research organization. “There are an increasing number of converts at the Fed that financial stability matters.”

‘As a policy maker, George maintains the skepticism in evaluating asset prices that she learned as a bank examiner. “She was influenced heavily by that experience, seeing how those collateral values increased and encouraged excessive lending and when the market turned those institutions were caught short,” Hoenig said.’

‘She has pointed to elevated Midwest farmland prices as a warning sign of instability, along with burgeoning growth in the markets for corporate and sub-prime auto loans. “When we look at it and say financial stability doesn’t appear to be an issue today, it didn’t appear to be an issue for us when we talked about it in 2007 and 2008 — and in fact in turned out to be a terrible issue,” she said.’

I’ll say it again: the junk bond market is the thin ice.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 20:58:44

‘Now her warnings, along with those of fellow regional Fed bank presidents including Richard Fisher of Dallas and Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, are starting to resonate at a central bank dominated by its Washington-based Board of Governors.’

The bad news: Fisher and Plosser are about to retire.

The good news: There are always think tanks that welcome guys like these with open arms, where they can more openly voice their concerns than while serving on the FOMC.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2014-11-22 10:29:57

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-22/veteran-sp-futures-trader-i-am-100-confident-central-banks-are-buying-sp-futures

Is the Fed buying S&P futures in a desperate attempt to keep Wall Street’s Ponzi markets levitated for a bit longer?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-22 13:24:51

It sure seems like the stock market has miraculously closed at opening bell levels every time pre-market futures recently have indicated significant losses. Not sure who is responsible, but it certainly seems like some powerful financial entity is providing Wall Street with plunge protection.

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 20:54:12

“Asset-price bubbles are the elephant in the room for monetary policy in the U.S.,”

We’ve come a long way in a decade, as in the early 2000s, the Fed treated asset-price bubbles as the financial equivalent of pink elephants.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-22 13:18:28

‘What’s worse for the U.S. economy: More bankruptcies in the near term or an overheated market that portends another credit crisis in the longer run?’

What’s best for policy makers is anything which makes the situation appear better during their time in office; if such actions make life tougher on their successors, tough luck.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:28:35

‘Investors are ditching iron ore miners as the price of the commodity tumbles to a new five-year low of $US70 a tonne. This is the third record low in as many days for iron ore which has now shed 50 per cent of its value since the start of the year.’

‘Fortescue Metals Group shares have fallen by 55 per cent since February and closed $2.74 yesterday, a level not seen since the global financial crisis. BC Iron and Mt Gibson also saw double digit percentage falls and are trading at 56 cents and 38 cents respectively.’

‘The fresh low comes as data out of China shows the average price of new houses slumped for the sixth month in a row. Deltec chief investment officer Atul Lele said this means that housing supply is outstripping demand which is bad news for the country’s steel sector, AFR reported.’

“We believe it represents the biggest risk to the Chinese and global economy,” Lele said.’

‘The slump in prices has already seen two iron ore operations in Australia close with fears there are more to come as break-even costs are being tested. Western Australia’s budget is also expected to have a multi-billion hole where iron ore royalty payments used to live as a result of the falling price.’

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-11-21 15:51:47

The ocean of deflation seems to be foaming with a gale force wind.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 20:55:12

I see nothing that more money printing can’t overcome.

Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 09:13:31

I see nothing that more money printing can’t overcomeworsen.

FTFY…

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Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-22 13:20:28

‘The fresh low comes as data out of China shows the average price of new houses slumped for the sixth month in a row. Deltec chief investment officer Atul Lele said this means that housing supply is outstripping demand which is bad news for the country’s steel sector, AFR reported.’

Fresh stimulus should be able to fix that.

Except for one small problem: More stimulus = more overbuilding into the real estate glut.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:32:20

‘As a surge of new luxury apartment construction begins to slow in the Triangle, the region is about to find out whether developers’ unbridled optimism in the health of the sector will be rewarded.’

“We’re entering somewhat of an unknown period where we don’t have big history of big volumes of high-end rents,” said Marcus Jackson, managing director of urban investments for TradeMark Properties in Raleigh. “Are there enough 30-year-old lawyers and empty-nesters that can afford those rents? Everybody is saying yes.”

‘It remains to be seen how much developers can continue to push rents given that wages have been largely stagnant during the recovery. “If you can only afford X dollars in mortgage, well then, that tells you you can only afford X dollars in rent,” Jackson said.’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:34:48

‘Most Canadian markets are stagnating but three, in particular, are booming and one major economist has laid out five reasons for this “puzzling” trend.’

‘“Fourth, cheap financing matters more in cities with poor affordability,” Guatieri writes. “The typical family would need to spend 62 per cent of gross income on mortgage payments to buy a Vancouver bungalow, and this jumps to 75 per cent if rates rise two points.”

‘The final contributing growth factor – especially in Vancouver and Toronto – is foreign investment.’

“Many new residents and foreign investors pay cash, and some of the more affluent investors don’t even bother leasing their units,” he writes.’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 05:54:07

‘The VA Home Loan program, founded in 1944 as part of the GI Bill, has a total of $380 billion worth of loans outstanding. Meanwhile, the number of new VA loans has been on a near-steady climb since 1995, rising from $24 billion to $124 billion in 2013, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.’

‘The VA loans typically have lower interest rates than conventional mortgages, allow for higher debt-to-income ratios and lower credit scores, and they don’t require private mortgage insurance. “If you can qualify, the VA loan is the best program out there,” said Darren Ferlisi, a loan officer with Integrity Home Mortgage Corp. in Frederick, Md.’

‘The VA loan is one of the reasons 79% of veterans own their own homes, compared with just 63% for the non-veteran population, according to Trulia’

‘Despite the increase, some industry insiders say too many veterans are steered away from VA loans and some vets don’t even know about the program.

“Some veterans think VA loans are somehow inferior to a conventional loan, but they really aren’t,” said Dennis Wynant, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for a decade and is now the vice president for sales at mortgage lender loanDepot.com, in Foothill Ranch, Calif. He says lenders often pitch veterans products other than VA loans that are better for the bank, not the borrower. “It takes lenders more work and time to process VA loans than conventional loans, which cuts into profits,” Wynant said.’

‘The key to VA loans is the $36,000 “basic entitlement” offered to most active duty, reserve or National Guard and veteran service members and even some surviving spouses. Typically, lenders will loan up to four times a veteran’s available entitlement without a down payment, meaning a service member or veteran could buy a home worth up to $144,000 without any down payment.’

‘The entitlement also allows military members and vets to qualify for larger loans. In those cases, a down payment is needed, but with a VA loan the vets won’t need as much down as they would if they chose conventional financing. The entitlement can also be reused on subsequent home purchases, so long as the previous loan is paid off first.’

‘The VA also promises lenders that they’ll repay 25% of a loan amount, up to $417,000 in most areas, if the loan defaults. VA loan limits in some very expensive regions of the country are considerably higher.’

Comment by Bluto
2014-11-21 12:37:06

I bought a house with a VA/ GI Bill loan in 1997, made two offers and one was rejected specifically because I was going GI Bill…I later learned that the deceased home owner was a retired career military man but his adult children would not accept a GI Bill loan, VERY classy.
The other offer was accepted and the deal went through smoothly. VA loans do involve a bit more paperwork, inspections, etc. but I was OK with that…the VA did not want me to buy a wreck, a house I could not afford, etc. Paid that loan off in full when I sold in 2007 so I could possibly get another VA loan someday.
When I tried to buy again in 2011 I did not even consider going VA since there was so much competition and as it happened I could not get an offer accepted even with a preapproved conventional loan and enough cash for a big down payment.
Anyway, the GI Bill loan guarantee was valuable in a normal market in 1997 but would be worthless in a bubble market from what I have seen…a buyer MIGHT have a chance if a seller wanted to sell to a veteran as a matter of principle but I’d imagine that is rare.

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 14:07:45

Bluto, thank you for your service. I’m glad you were able to take advantage of one of the few benefits available through the government.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 09:15:53

^lolz

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Comment by Dman
2014-11-21 06:01:32

“According to a joint HUD-Treasury report published in 2000, by 1999, a staggering 82 percent of subprime mortgages were refinancings, and in nearly 60 percent of those cases, the borrower pulled out cash, adding to his debt burden. The report noted that ‘relatively few subprime mortgages are used to purchase a house.’”

What about the subprime mortgages from 2000 to 2008? Those were the real time bombs.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 06:18:05

Well you’re in a big bang because the subprime from 2009-2013 is just starting to implode.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:01:59

‘Houston homes sales inched up in October despite forecasts that a slowdown is coming. Houston’s median home prices fell slightly, from $196,000 in September to $192,000 in October. However, that’s still a record high for an October in Houston and up 8.3 percent year over year, according to HAR.’

“Most Realtors are not accustomed to this brisk a pace of home sales in Houston this late in the year,” HAR Chairwoman Chaille Ralph with Heritage Texas Properties said in a statement. “This is typically when thoughts turn to the holidays and sales volume slows. Much of this year has defied prediction, but what helped the market keep up with buyer demand in October was an 11.1 percent increase in new listings.”

‘Houston’s housing market remains hot despite Zillow’s forecast of a slowdown next year. The Seattle-based real estate company (Nasdaq: Z) forecast Houston’s home values will increase 2.1 percent next year. Historically, Bayou City home prices have climbed about 9 percent annually since 2012.’

“It’s a huge drop over the past year,” Skylar Olsen, a senior economist with Zillow, told the Houston Business Journal earlier this month. “And that’s a very conservative projection.”

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:10:57

‘The New York metro area is bucking a national trend with an increase in owner-vacated foreclosed homes, says a recent report from RealtyTrac. Its latest Zombie Foreclosure Report found that 117,298 homes in the foreclosure process had been vacated by the homeowners prior to a completed foreclosure, representing 18 percent of all active foreclosures.’

‘Contrary to the national trend, 16 states saw increases in owner-vacated foreclosures compared with a year ago, including New Jersey (up 75 percent) and New York (up 30 percent), with the New York metro area showing an increase to 38 percent.’

‘The New York metro area saw the most owner-vacated foreclosures of any metro area nationwide, with 13,366, representing 12 percent of all properties in foreclosure.’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:12:45

‘A Sharpsburg woman was found not criminally responsible for setting fire to her home and garage on the day she and were family were to be evicted in foreclosure proceedings.’

‘Washington County Circuit Court Judge Dana Moylan Wright ordered Karen Lee Gillespie, 48, committed to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup until she is deemed no longer a threat to herself and others.’

‘Gillespie suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and an acute dissociative reaction to stressful events when she used gasoline to set fire to her single-family home and two-car detached garage May 12, according to a report by.’

‘The fire did more than $200,000 worth of damage, killed the family’s cat and dog, and caused first- and second-degree burns to Gillespie’s arms and ankles.’

‘Her husband, who was at work, didn’t know about the foreclosure and looming eviction, said Assistant State’s Attorney Michele Hansen. Hansen said Gillespie told authorities “she didn’t’ feel that she could take it anymore.”

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 06:26:41

I’ll wager we’re going to see alot more of this. Think about it; If you massively overpaid for a depreciating asset like a house and were too stubborn to realize it, even after prices have fallen to a point where you know you’ll never get out alive, you’d be pissed off too.

 
Comment by real journalists
2014-11-21 09:11:45

“killed the family’s cat and dog”

She deserves more than burns on her arms and ankles, she should have come out of that fire looking like Eric Stoltz’s character Rocky in critically acclaimed 1985 film Mask, evil b****

 
Comment by rms
2014-11-22 00:02:24

“Her husband, who was at work, didn’t know about the foreclosure and looming eviction, said Assistant State’s Attorney Michele Hansen.”

FWIW, I don’t buy this line.

Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 09:15:48

+1.

If he’s working, tell me again why they weren’t paying the mortgage?

 
 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:16:45

‘Days before the winter buying season formally kicks off with the Thanksgiving holiday weekend beginning Nov.27, the condo resale market in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach is showing signs of weakening across nearly every price range.’

‘As South Beach condo resale prices have spiked by an average of about 57 percent since the bottom of the last boom-bust cycle in 2009, the number of units transacting in the first 10 months of 2014 has tumbled by more than 15 percent on a year-over-year basis compared to 2013, according to data from the Southeast Florida MLXchange.’

‘Added to the slowdown in the pace of transactions is the fact that more and more existing owners are opting to list their South Beach units on the resale market in anticipation of the traditionally busy winter buying season that runs through April.’

‘As a result, the South Beach condo resale market — which stretches from South Pointe Drive north to 24th Street, and the Atlantic Ocean west to Biscayne Bay — now has more than nine months of supply available for purchase.’

‘Contrary to the glossy marketing materials being distributed by brokers promoting the exclusiveness of their listings, nearly every price range of the South Beach condo resale market has been stricken by the troubling combination of slumping sales and growing inventory.’

‘The price ranges experiencing the most dramatic slowdown in the number of condo resale transactions tend to be situated at the bottom and the top of the South Beach market.’

‘The over-$5million price category now has about 58 months — or nearly five years — of condo units on the resale market in South Beach.’

‘To understand why South Beach is faced with increased market challenges, it is important to realize the condo resales prices have fluctuated from an average of $529 per square foot at the top of the last boom-bust cycle in 2006 to below $380 per square foot at the bottom of the market in 2009.’

‘In the first 10 months of 2014, the average transaction price for a condo resale in South Beach was nearly $590 per square foot, or more than 11 percent higher than the price at the peak of the last cycle. Added to this, the current average asking price for a condo resale in South Beach is rich at more than $885 per square foot as of Nov.7′

Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:17:57

‘R&B star Pharrell Williams has pulled his breathtaking downtown Miami condo off the real estate market after attempting to sell it — even at a huge loss — for nearly two years.’

‘Gossip Extra hears that the art-filled palace 40 floors above the Magic City didn’t generate much interest at the latest price, $10.9 million. That’s $1.6 million less than what he bought it for in 2007, according to Miami-Dade County records.’

‘And the latest price was $6 million less than last year, at a time when Williams’ profile skyrocketed worldwide with tunes like Happy and Hunter.’

‘The floppy-hatted 41-year-old originally bought the 10,000-square-foot, five-bedroom penthouse in 2007 for $12.5 million.’

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:42:51

‘The investment adviser who accurately predicted the crash of 2008 is once again sounding the alarm. This time around, Peter Schiff, the chief executive officer of Euro Pacific Capital who memorably predicted the collapse of the housing market in 2008 and the global financial crisis of 2010, is speaking out against the Federal Reserve, which, he claims, has inflated the prices of stocks and bonds with its ultraloose, unconventional monetary policies.’

“The recession the Fed is fighting is the cure,” Schiff said in an interview with MarketWatch. Schiff espouses the view that a good, old-fashioned recession may be exactly the catharsis the markets require, in the wake of a fleet of quantitative-easing measures that have merely buoyed stock values temporarily.’

‘Besides a brief October scare, U.S. stocks have been on a monster tear, notching new records on a regular basis. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 registered its 43rd record close for 2014, closing at 2,051, while inflation has been trending dangerously lower.’

‘That sensational and rapid run-up may alone be sufficient reason to harbor concerns about what’s fueling the market’s run. A super-low-interest-rate environment has forced investors into a stock-hungry frenzy. Where else are investors going to go for yield?’

Comment by scdave
2014-11-21 08:45:19

A super-low-interest-rate environment has forced investors into a stock-hungry frenzy. Where else are investors going to go for yield?’ ??

Yep…But when and how do you withdraw the drug…Most likely, very,very slowly…

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:19:09

Time will tell whether the Fed can take away the punchbowl without killing lots of alcoholics who have become accustomed to drinking from it every day of their lives.

 
 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 13:01:50

I wish I could have faith in Schiff. I think he might be on to something, but he has been saying the Dow will go down to 2500 and gold will go to 10k oz for nearly 10 years. Yawn.

Comment by Steadykat
2014-11-21 15:16:30

I have lately started carrying about 20 to 30 economic graph charts in a small wallet sized format around with me.

Each chart (new home sales, student loans, M3, etc.) will show a steady graph line, over a several decade long period, with occasional highs and lows until you get to the last few years. The line will then either shoot off the top like a rocket or dive off the bottom of the chart like a submarine.

I started sharing these graphs with friends and family and even the least economically interested among them notice the anomalies and then they usually ask me about the details of the charts.

Peter Schiff was mostly correct on his predictions of where the stock “market” should have ended up. Unfortunately the Central Banks messed up his plans.

The politicians and bankers that we have today don’t care about this Country or it’s people and they have no problem hastening our demise just so long as they can get richer in the process.

Unfortunately, Mr. Schiff failed to understand just how evil these socialpaths truly are.

Anybody else read about the Citi guy found in his bathtub a couple of days ago with his throat slit from ear to ear?

Comment by rms
2014-11-22 00:12:36

“Anybody else read about the Citi guy found in his bathtub a couple of days ago with his throat slit from ear to ear?”

Sounds like a suicide; back to Ferguson, MO. Hehe

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Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 16:49:38

‘he has been saying the Dow will go down’

Shiller called a housing bubble in 2002. He’s still the go to guy for the MSM on bubbles

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 17:32:19

Re: Schiff, he is definitely an Austrian economics idealist who has completely underestimated the governments ability to unhinge market fundamentals. He’s been incredulous for a more than a decade. One would think he could figure out that no one is going to let the market work itself out anytime soon.

Re:Citi guy, no!!! I’m gonna google it.

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Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 17:41:25

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-19/citigroup-s-risk-management-executive-shawn-miller-found-dead.html

If he was murdered, it looks like they are already looking the other way.

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 17:56:59

Shiller is definitely less sensational than Schiff, refraining from making any of the wild predictions that Schiff makes. Schiff has lost a lot of credibility and of course, hasn’t the Nobel award either. Shiller’s 2008 Subprime Solution book offered some interesting suggestions that have been completely ignored.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 18:14:38

Shiller also went public saying the government should “save” the housing market.

I don’t care about the history. Is what he said correct?

‘The recession the Fed is fighting is the cure’

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 20:29:31

If you are asking me if he said that, I don’t recall, although like Krugman, he subscribes to Keynesian theories, so it would not surprise me if he did. If you are asking me if I agree, no, I don’t. The government should never have bailed out the banks and we would already be out of the ditch and back on the road. Now it’s a monstrous disaster. I appreciated Shiller’s ideas on educating people on personal finance. Considering bankers and their ilk don’t give a crap about people, it’s up to us to learn about financial instruments and have personal responsibility for our obligations, or stay out of the game. But it’s a little late for that. It’s just such a royal mess.

 
Comment by rms
2014-11-22 00:21:40

“Shiller is definitely less sensational than Schiff, refraining from making any of the wild predictions that Schiff makes.”

As Dubya would say, “Either you [wid] us, or [again] us.”

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-22 02:40:50

It would be nice if the market worked. The problem with the Austrian theory is it assumes a free market. But our market is not and our government is corrupt. So nothing is working as it is supposed to In theory.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-22 07:13:15

‘If you are asking me if he said that, I don’t recall’

It’s in the post!

Anyway, I don’t think are following. If true it means that the central bank are fighting the recovery.

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-22 08:26:04

That’s because Bernanke is Keynesian. So is Yellen. So I don’t expect the central bank to let the market work itself out anytime soon. And it would not anyway because it’s corrupt.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 08:37:59

Buckle up because you’re in for the ride of your life.

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-22 08:40:08

“…There’s no modeling for massive corporate deception in free market theory. Free market theorists merely assume that consumers are rational, that companies are honest and that people have a reasonable capacity to intelligently evaluate the products and services they choose to purchase. All those assumptions, however, quickly fall apart in the real world. Consumers are irrational, companies are dishonest and the people have virtually no evaluative skills necessary for making informed purchasing decisions.”

http://www.naturalnews.com/026108_free_market_the_consumers.html#ixzz3JoQDyTcl

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 08:49:54

Thats nice but the massive global bubble is deflating.

 
Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-22 09:45:04
 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 12:12:59

I’m beginning to think that Rolling Stone is the only real press remaining in this country, at least in the sense that the founders meant in the First Amendment.

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:01:28

Either guys like Schiff are persistently ignoring central bank intervention in their predictions, or else they are correctly pointing out that central bank intervention efforts will ultimately fail, as they have in past efforts to persistently manipulate markets to the upside.

Which is it? Some clarification would seem useful for sorting out his message.

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-23 19:43:56

It must frustrate Schiff beyond any expression that the PTB have been able to kick the can down the road for soooooooo looooong. As of today, he is a failure as a prognosticator and He has cost his followers a lot of money.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-23 20:10:12

The feds “efforts” have simply resulted in collapsing demand so Schiff was and still is right on.

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-23 20:34:29

I didn’t post what he said because it was a prediction, Wittbelle, I am interested in the substance of his statement. You seem to have an unusual interest in the messenger rather than the message. Such people usually have their heads up their ass. Read, leave, I don’t care. But stop with the pointless internet comment noodling over shit no one cares about.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:46:14

‘The real estate market in the Wood River Valley failed to perform this summer as many thought it might, after several years of recession. Yet some sales of new high-end homes in Sun Valley, and a decrease in the number of distressed sales in the south valley, give those in the business reasons for hope. “The market is not very good compared to last year,” said Robin Christensen, president of the Sun Valley Board of Realtors.’

“Hailey and Bellevue have suffered the greatest declines since last year,” said Fierman. “Some of that is due to a lack of inventory, but most of that is because there are less distressed properties.”

‘Christensen said investors bought many of the distressed homes after the recession struck, and are waiting for the market to improve. “We know who we represent, whether they are first-time homebuyers, those living in their homes or second-home buyers,” she said. “We know that investors were picking up distressed properties and renting them out, maybe selling them in five years. That is a lot of what was happening in Woodside subdivision. Once the investors stopped coming into our market, we knew the market was improving.”

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:49:08

‘Unlike many of his peers, Corbin Broach doesn’t have any student debt and he landed a good job in medical device sales after graduating from Christopher Newport University in 2012. But he’s not ready to buy a house. “I don’t like the tie-down factor,” said Broach, 24, who rents an apartment in Shockoe Bottom.’

“I definitely want to buy some day,” he said. “But it’s not on my mind now. I want to make money and not have such a volatile income.”

‘Millennials, generally those 18 to 33 years old, are the largest generation in the U.S. and represent 60 percent of first-time homebuyers. But they are not buying houses as previous generations did.’

‘The share of first-time homebuyers dropped this year to its lowest level in nearly three decades, and it was down sharply from 2013, according to an annual survey released this month by the National Association of Realtors.’

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 06:50:42

Boston Metro Sale Prices Crater 11% YoY as Prices Plunge QoQ and MoM

http://www.zillow.com/ma/home-values/

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:53:41

‘The foreclosure and housing crisis that began around 2008 has dissipated in recent years, but the most recent Trumbull County property valuation still shows dropping property values. The new property values show drops of as much as 20 percent in one neighborhood in Warren, as much as 10 percent in some areas of Niles, as much as 7 percent in parts of Girard and Newton Falls and 5 percent in parts of the townships of Hubbard, Brookfield, Liberty, Fowler, Warren, Howland and Champion. The values indicate a 3 percent drop in Lordstown.’

‘Richard McGinty, an appraiser from Bazetta Township, said he thinks the reason property values continue to drop, especially in the urban areas, is that there are still a lot of foreclosures and people walking away from their homes because they are “under water” on their mortgages, meaning they owe more on the home than it is worth.’

‘McGinty said when he appraises a home that received a loan in the 2002-2008 time frame, it might be worth a lot less than the amount owed. “The house is worth $30,000 and they owe $60,000, so they’re walking away,” he said, adding that the banks are typically “stubborn” and won’t negotiate with such customers to reduce the customer’s cost.’

‘Martin agrees that the foreclosure crisis of 2008 is still playing out today’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:56:51

Singapore:

‘Vacancy rates at executive condominiums (ECs) are at their highest level in more than five years. This hybrid of public and private housing has proved very popular in recent years but experts blame a flood of new units for the spike in empty units.’

‘The demand for resale Housing Board flats has also cooled and this means upgraders to ECs are taking longer to sell their old flats. The 2,375 vacant units came mostly from newer projects, The Straits Times understands.’

‘Since the third quarter of last year, eight new ECs with nearly 4,200 units have received their temporary occupation permits (TOP) - a 40 per cent jump in EC units, said Mr Ong Teck Hui.’

‘Experts say HDB upgraders buying ECs are now taking three to five months to sell their old flats, up from one or two months. Transactions in the HDB resale market have been falling, from 25,094 in 2012 to 18,100 last year.’

‘This year’s number is expected to be about 17,000, said Mr Chris Koh, director of Chris International. He expects HDB resale prices to bottom out in the middle of next year, after two years of price correction. “An overall price correction of about 10 per cent should tempt buyers back into the market.”

‘In the meantime, vacancies are expected to keep piling up - not just in ECs, but in private condos as well. A total of 21,569 completed private residential units were vacant in the last quarter, up from 21,268 in the second quarter.’

‘HDB resale prices have dropped for the past five quarters, with recent changes to valuation rules and to purchases by permanent residents making it even harder to sell at a high profit, said PropNex chief executive officer Mohd Ismail. “Sellers including upgraders are even having to accept prices below market value. Some are also holding out for better prices while postponing their key collections,” he said.’

‘Some would-be upgraders have given up plans to upgrade because of the erosion in purchasing power, he added.’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 06:59:15

‘A severe downturn in the Chinese economy will cause ripple effects across the Asia Pacific region, with Australia to come off worst. According to S&P managing director and chief economist, Asia Pacific, Paul Gruenwlad, the weakening Chinese property sector is a significant risk for Australia if China’s government fails to adjust policy settings to keep the bottom from falling out of the market.’

‘Speaking at the Australian Securitisation 2014 annual conference in Sydney last week, Mr Gruenwald said that during a recent visit to the world’s second largest economy the local expectation was that property prices only go one way.’

“As economists and analysts we should all get very nervous when the expectation is that prices are only going to go up,” he said.’

‘The risk is the intersection of China’s shadow banking or non-bank credit boom going into the interest rate sensitive sectors like housing, Mr Gruenwald said, adding that the market has already started to turn. “We now have prices falling in 69 of the 70 cities that report in China,” he said. “Everything is softening now in China and the question is: can the government adjust the knobs and keep the thing going or are we in for something more serious?”

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 21:09:33

No real journalist seems to ever make the connection between more Chinese housing market stimulus and more empty housing units added to the 60,000,000+ empty units already over there. Common, real journalists — this isn’t rocket science!

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 21:10:33

Meant to say “Come on…”; my Freudian slip is showing again.

 
 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 06:59:22

New Rochelle(Westchester Co), NY Sale Prices Plunge 16% QoQ and 11% MoM; YoY Gain Evaporates

http://www.zillow.com/new-rochelle-ny/home-values/

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 07:41:07

One of our more notable DebtJunkies always invoke New Rochelle, NY and attached the claim that housing prices never fall there.

What happened?

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 07:02:15

b>Stratham, NH Sale Prices Nosedive 16% YoY As Defaulted Inventory Skyrockets In New England

http://www.zillow.com/stratham-nh/home-values/

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 07:07:29

Stratham, NH Sale Prices Nosedive 16% YoY As Defaulted Inventory Skyrockets In New England

http://www.zillow.com/stratham-nh/home-values/

For those with tears of joy obscuring their vision.

 
Comment by Bellinghouse
2014-11-21 12:44:18

Oct 2014 sales at $139 sq ft and Oct 2013 at $133 sq ft .. prices are UP in Stratham, so I don’t understand the bit about the 16% nosedive. Also ZHVI is up around 6% YOY and as I understand the metric it attempts to value based on repeat sales of the same home.

Why are Housing Analysts posts never in line with the data shown in the hyperlinks?

Comment by Wittbelle
2014-11-21 13:04:50

Don’t expect an answer. HA! knows so much about bubbles cause he lives in one.

 
Comment by CHE
2014-11-21 13:28:58

Median Sale Price
Oct 2013 - $308k
Oct 2014 - $256k

=16.883% - so actually closer to 17%.

He was being nice :D

Comment by Bellinghouse
2014-11-21 14:07:04

Yes but in a small community, median sales prices are very choppy from month to month. You can always cherry pick the data to say that prices are up or down by 40%. That is why most real estate economists prefer to talk about prices per square foot since that helps account for the mix of low- and high-priced homes that sell in any given month.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 14:10:24

Falling prices YoY isn’t cherrypicked my underwater friend. Besides, prices are falling by every metric. Sale price, sale price/sq ft, and across Massachussetts.

Sorry.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 15:16:54

…. and New Hampshire.

 
 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 09:31:12

Oct 2013 - $308k
Oct 2014 - $256k

And if you can’t glance at that chart and ALSO notice that the normal seasonal pattern was shifted by a couple of months this year, then your analysis skills are hopeless.

YoY is pretty meaningless if you don’t footnote it with the above.

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Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 09:34:56

Which simply means prices have much further to fall.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 13:16:32

On that at least we agree, HA! I just prefer not to infer too much from cherry-picked data.

Everything, especially RE, has been inflated by the Fed’s pumping.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 13:21:40

Nothing cherry picked. Falling prices are showing up across the country like craters on the moon.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 14:35:11

Let’s see what the next few months of numbers look like. Considering seasonal patterns may have shifted (e.g. things slowed down a month or two earlier than they typically do at end-of-summer), I think a several-month rolling average makes a lot more sense for divining the real signal—say, something more like Case-Shiller.

I note that they are not yet showing a convincing “crater”, though they do show a significant drop in rate of annual-increase almost everywhere; that is at least a step in the right direction, IMHO!

PRESS RELEASE
S&P Dow Jones Indices
Home Price Gains Fade Further According to the S&P/Case

Shiller Home Price Indices
New York,
October 28, 2014
[...]
The 10-City Composite gained 5.5% year-over-year and the 20-City 5.6%, both down from the 6.7% reported for July. The National Index gained 5.1% annually in August compared to 5.6% in July

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 15:17:53

Nope.

Prices down YoY.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-23 09:55:16

The data is the data. S&P CS data is what I quoted. Deal with it.

Now if you have other national data worth looking at, I’d love a pointer. Good solid data, I mean—not a dozen cherry-picked zip-codes and willful ignoring of changes in seasonal trends.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:06:39

It seems prudent to look forward at where prices are likely to go from here, rather than get wrapped around the axle regarding the current rapidly evolving picture. After all, a home purchase is a long-term investment. Recent anomalous price movements have little relevance for a decision with such far-reaching effects on household finances.

Home prices headed for a triple dip

Diana Olick | @diana_olick
Tuesday, 7 Oct 2014 | 8:42 AM ETCNBC.com

The headline for much of this year has been that home price gains are easing. Prices are still higher compared to last year, but not nearly as much as they had been. Now, suddenly, it looks as if home values could actually go negative on a national level.

That will be the first time collectively, as a nation, we’ve seen prices drop since the low point or the trough of the housing crisis,” said Alex Villacorta, vice president of research and analytics at data firm Clear Capital.

Villacorta points to a 1 percent quarterly home price gain from the second to the third quarter of this year. Last year that quarterly gain was 3 percent.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-23 11:24:06

Home prices headed for a triple dip

Huh?!? My recollection is that we only had a single downward trend to date, correction interruptus. Did I miss the second dip?!?

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-23 13:02:51

We’re in it. #3 begins in 2020 after a brief suspension.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-23 13:04:29

“The data is the data. S&P CS data is what I quoted. Deal with it.”

And it excludes defaulted, delinquent and foreclosed housing. 25 million of them; 4.4 million of which are in California.

Deal with it.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-23 14:04:48

And it excludes defaulted, delinquent and foreclosed housing. 25 million of them; 4.4 million of which are in California.

So you’re saying that it accurately measures the effect of the foreclosed inventory on the non-foreclosure transactions that occur in the marketplace—did I understand you correctly?

In other words, it accurately represents the market at large.

Thanks. Turns out that is the market that is most interesting anyway.

 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-23 14:25:32

No. It misrepresents the market. Worse yet, it doesn’t look at current sale prices.

Here’s an example of current market conditions and a sneak peak at tomorrows headline;

San Francisco, CA Sale Prices Plunge 15% YoY As Inventory Balloons

http://www.zillow.com/san-francisco-ca-94109/home-values/

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 14:32:45

I’ve probably asked this question a few times previously, but what is to stop the Fed (or whoever manages such matters) to keep the 4.4 million (or whatever the number is) defaulted, delinquent and foreclosed housing units indefinitely off the market?

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:02:30

‘Not to pooh-pooh the growing celebration of more and more apartment and condo towers proposed or already under construction in downtown Tampa. But — please — let’s not become so euphoric that we end up in a real estate bubble in the core of this emerging city.’

‘It’s the tower craze that begs caution. More than nine major residential towers are going up or preparing to do so with enough combined housing to add at least 10,000 new people to the downtown area. That number is practically the size of the city’s downtown residential population just a few years ago. Nor do those numbers include lesser-sized residential buildings in the works as well as those rising along Bayshore Boulevard or in the massive Encore project just outside the downtown core.’

‘The question is how many towers — the vast bulk of them expecting to charge monthly rents ranging from $1,200 to more than $3,000 based on apartment size, amenities and view — can be introduced into a modest market all at once.’

‘If there’s a depressed downtown block (and there are still too many) that best symbolized Tampa’s lack of success at urban renewal, the Kress block was it. Fourteen years ago, that block was rezoned to accommodate 401 apartments and a total of 560,000 square feet of development only to have the project die from — you guessed it —a real estate bubble.’

‘This time around, the economy in Tampa and Florida is less speculative and stronger. But nine towers? And 10,000 residents? Real estate developers are infamous for lemming-like behavior in following each other to excess. Is Tampa’s downtown entering a housing renaissance, as hoped, after years of arrested development? Or is this the first chapter of “Bubble 2016″ already being written?’

Comment by Blue Skye
2014-11-21 21:11:13

“Bubble 2016″ already being written…

Of course they do not mean bubble, they mean collapse. A collapse is called a bubble. Inside out thinking.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:05:27

‘The rate of investment property rental growth is starting to slow, a new national report on the property market has revealed. The NAB Australian Housing Market Report, prepared by RP Data CoreLogic reveals the market has experienced a “rapid and substantial’’ slowing of rental growth.’

“While home values are showing robust growth, albeit mainly focused on Sydney and Melbourne, the same cannot be said for rental rates,’’ the report states.’

‘Perth and Canberra both recorded falling rents during the past year.’

‘The report said despite first homebuyer activity remaining low at a national level it appeared that rental growth was being limited because of the substantial supply of new construction which was adding to the overall size of the rental market.”

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:08:04

‘The slowdown is affecting everyone’s growth, say industry experts. Pranab Datta, former chairman of Knight Frank India and an independent consulting advisor, said that the dip in growth reflects the impact of weak demand in the premium segment, which is affecting all financiers.’

“The real estate market has definitely slowed down, especially in the western and the northern region and mostly in the residential segment priced over Rs 75 lakh. This is leading to pile up of inventory and dip in demand for home loans and their disbursements,” said Datta.’

 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:12:24

‘If you are in the business of lending, and you want to do business in Connecticut, you should heed the warning “buyer beware.” Since the housing market crash of a few years ago, the traditional banking lenders have reduced their portfolios, particularly in the inner city, while federal regulations are boosting mortgage costs. If banks commit compliance errors in issuing a loan that goes bad, they have to buy it back at a loss from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Most lenders have responded by providing home loans only to borrowers with near perfect credit, shutting out thousands of Americans who credit may be a little on the low side, and whose loan files have become too expensive to review and complete. As a result, thousands of homes are falling into disrepair, further accelerating the decline in our communities.’

‘Private money lending has emerged and grown to fill the void. My company, RCN Capital, has originated 244 loans totaling more than $50 million in Connecticut since 2010, renovating 213 properties for eventual use by new homeowners. Unfortunately, one of the major stumbling blocks while doing business in this and some other states is the length of time it takes to process a foreclosure through the judicial system. At our recent Northeast Real Estate Investors’ Networking Forum attended by more than 200 regional realty professionals, RealtyTrac, a nationally recognized authority on housing trends, confirmed what many of us instinctively know; that the average foreclosure in Connecticut takes 682 days or nearly two years. That is 23 months where the lender is not receiving mortgage payments, very often the property is being neglected, and almost assuredly the taxes are not being paid, becoming the responsibility of the lender.’

‘We now have a loan that is more than 21/2 years in default, with only a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. The property is in an upscale community in Stamford, and almost immediately after the $600,000 loan closed, the borrowers starting bouncing checks on the loan. That was 920 days and over 145 court appearances, motions and mediations ago. We still have not regained control of the property. This raises the cost to all homeowners, devaluates the neighboring properties, and decreases lender’s propensity to lend money.’

‘More often than you would expect, these are well-to-do borrowers who have decided for one reason or another that it is to their economic advantage to disregard the creditor. These are not the down-and-out homeowners who have lost their jobs to outsourcing and are about to lose their homes. These are business savvy individuals who are borrowing to purchase, rehab and flip the property, all to maximize their profit margins. Using the judicial system to avoid paying their debts in order to increase their profit margins is wrong, and should be changed. Spending three years in Connecticut courtrooms to get your property back from a scammer is outrageous.’

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 07:18:27

“Since the housing market crash of a few years ago, the traditional banking lenders have reduced their portfolios, particularly in the inner city”

Anticipate more of this in metro areas as weakening conditions there accelerate. Massive inventory, massively inflated prices, massive speculation and massive overbuilding.

Watch this.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 21:22:36

‘Most lenders have responded by providing home loans only to borrowers with near perfect credit, shutting out thousands of Americans who credit may be a little on the low side, and whose loan files have become too expensive to review and complete. As a result, thousands of homes are falling into disrepair, further accelerating the decline in our communities.’

Why can’t lenders just charge the high-risk borrowers a higher interest rate, including a default risk premium?

Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-22 09:33:15

Why can’t lenders just charge the high-risk borrowers a higher interest rate, including a default risk premium?

Because the government has regulated sane pricing models completely out of the market.

Shocking.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-22 13:28:08

I guess with federal guarantees of principle, there is no need for lenders to bother with charging a risk premium and facing accusations of redlining.

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Comment by rms
2014-11-22 00:35:22

“…confirmed what many of us instinctively know; that the average foreclosure in Connecticut takes 682 days or nearly two years.”

FWIW, easily remedied with a higher down payment.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
2014-11-21 07:15:40

‘Some analysts say non-performing loans (NPLs) held by China’s banks are already higher than the 8.2% peak level of total lending held by Japanese lenders during the collapse of that country’s asset bubble. In Japan’s case, a series of official discount rate hikes beginning in May 1989 caused NPL assets to accumulate, leading to a banking crisis in the early 1990s. The official NPL ratio for China’s major banks stood at 1.08% at the end of June this year, up 0.04 percentage points from the end of March, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.’

‘But those numbers understate the reality. “We suspect that China’s NPL ratio could be much higher than Japan’s was at its worst, over 8% some 10 years after the property bubble burst,” David Cui, a strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (Singapore) said in a recent report. “In fact, judging from past experience in China, we could argue that ultimately, the NPL ratio could be significantly into the double digits.” Cui, in his report, which is titled “Will China Repeat Japan’s Experience?,” concludes that the financial system has worsened a great deal over the past year and half, especially in the shadow banking sector.’

‘Cui noted that the new generation of Chinese leadership is still focused on consolidating its power, rather than economic matters. “We are unlikely to see a resolution to the long overdue bad debt recognition and financial system recap until the political dust settles,” Cui said.’

Comment by Mr. Banker
2014-11-21 09:11:55

“‘Cui noted that the new generation of Chinese leadership is still focused on consolidating its power, rather than economic matters.”

Bahahahahahahaha … this statement reminds me of a statement made by some genius in another post:

“Bank employees are not more dishonest than others,” said Ernst Fehr of the University of Zurich, author of the study published Wednesday by the journal Nature. But he said when reminded of their job they become more dishonest, so something about the culture of banking “seems to make them more dishonest.”

The Chinese leadership are focused of consolidating it’s power rather than on economic matters because … because THAT’S WHO THEY ARE!

Bahahahaahahahahahaha … I love this blog.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 07:26:36

While at HDQ’s yesterday I walked through Kenmore Square(Boston) and got a first hand look at all the overbuilding, knowing how prices are falling once again I had to stop and wonder where this is all going to end. Just how far down will it all go.

 
Comment by Combotechie
2014-11-21 08:47:04

“China,’ he said. ‘China is exporting its instability, its corruption, its lack of faith in its own institutions,’ he added.”

I move that we update the words associated with Lady Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Your instability, your corruption, your lack of faith in your own institutions,
Send these, the homeless, the instable, the corrupt, the tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

 
Comment by rj chicago
2014-11-21 09:38:41

So much uplifting news today from all who have posted here!!!
Sheesh.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 10:33:08

?

Falling housing prices…. actually falling prices of anything is good news.

No comprende?

Comment by rj chicago
2014-11-21 14:13:54

Not that I own but if I did I think I would comprende there compadre!!

Now for some uplifting news to balance your weekend there folks! Via Ritholz’s site…..

Succinct Summations week ending November 21st:

Positives:

1. The Philly fed came in at 40.8, vs expectations of 20.7. This was the best reading since 1993!
2. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones both made new all-time highs, the third consecutive week both did so.
3. Headline CPI was flat m/o/m and is up 1.7% y/o/y. Core CPI rose 0.2% m/o/m and is up 1.8% y/o/y.
4. The BOJ called off next year’s tax hike after seeing lousy GDP numbers, stocks liked it.
5. Existing home sales came in at 5.26mm, better than expected and up from 5.18mm in September.
6. The purchase component of mortgage applications rose 11.7% w/o/w, the biggest rise since July.
7. China cut rates and Draghi spoke with an accommodative tone; it’s the same global story, stocks went higher.
8. The highest percentage of S&P 500 companies are beating EPS since 2010.
9. Energy prices fell 1.6% y/o/y/.
10. The NAHB home builder sentiment index rose to 58 versus 55 expected and up from 54 last month.

Negatives:

1. Japan officially enters a recession with GDP coming in at -1.6% vs expectations of 2.1%.
2. China’s HSBC manufacturing index fell to 50, a six-month low.
3. The Markit U.S. manufacturing PMI fell to a ten-month low at 54.7.
4. NY manufacturing index came in at 10.2, below the 12 expected.
5. U.S. industrial production fell 0.1% vs an expected rise of 0.2%.
6. Initial jobless claims came in at 291k, 7k more than expected.

Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-21 15:17:55

He’s good at pimping.

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Comment by Blue Skye
2014-11-21 21:21:31

Responses to Ben’s posts are at some sort of low, though they are packed with signals of a global rollover. Debt donkey despair shouldn’t kick in this early. The tsunami must be pretty big that has all the songbirds quiet before it rolls in.

Buckle up.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-21 21:28:03

Fox’s Juan Williams: Liberal News Outlets ‘Begging’ for More Ferguson Riots
by Andrew Kirell | 2:05 pm, November 17th, 2014

Fox News political analyst Juan Williams thinks certain liberal news outlets are “begging” for race riots to unfold in Ferguson, Mo.

The grand jury decision on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown could come at any moment this week, and so Williams took to his FoxNews.com column this weekend to preemptively caution his network’s rivals to handle the story with care:

Now, it is true that television networks profit from coverage of riots. So do extremist voices, often from out of town; suddenly people making threats and shouting vile things are in demand for interviews because they are elevated to the status of experts on the black experience. They certainly profit from racial chaos and violence and now they are looking to score again.

Stop it.

Those people looking to get on television and the producers looking for ratings will not be around to repair the damage once the riots tear through town.

 
 
Comment by Ben Jones
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 08:40:53

There is nothing more satisfying that falling prices. Nothing.

 
 
Comment by Housing Analyst
2014-11-22 09:31:09

What an economic recovery really looks like.

http://www.alkilu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/falling-prices1.jpg

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-22 13:15:33

“The problem, of course, is that the conflation of homeownership and consumer credit is so convenient for the powers that be. It allows lenders to cloak themselves in the American-as-apple-pie mantle of homeownership, thereby making it less likely that anyone will crack down on their practices. It allows members of Congress, many of whom depend on the financial industry for campaign contributions, to pretend that something that’s bad for us is actually a good thing for which we should be grateful.”

It also allows lenders the opportunity to collect several years worth of interest payments, followed by taking possession of the full value of the collateral, with a federal guarantee of principle to boot. How good can it get?

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:11:30

Here is a thought: Even though interest rates haven’t gone up by much at all, U.S. housing price appreciation is slowing and hints are surfacing in MSM articles that the investor horde is about to dump a large number of housing units on the market in 2015.

Suppose that housing prices resume falling against the backdrop of low interest rates, as they did in Japan from roughly 1990-2010. Would the Fed follow through on its plan to raise interest rates on schedule in that case?

Please discuss.

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:23:43

What’s a worse factor for America’s financial picture: Ebola, or record consumer debt?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:26:23

Americans, with record consumer debt of $3.2 trillion, are taking out more credit card and auto loans
The 28-29 October meeting of the Federal Reserve board of governors gave the economy a clean bill of health, but noted market concern about Ebola
Yellen
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. The Fed’s minutes, revealed today, show that consumers are taking out more credit card and auto loans
Photograph: CHARLES PLATIAU/REUTERS
Heidi Moore
Wednesday 19 November 2014 15.57 EST

Americans are borrowing more even as they have racked up enormous amounts of consumer debt, Federal Reserve data show.

The newly released minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting in October give a wider picture of the US economy. A weak housing market weighed on the US economy, while the fear of Ebola put some brief pressure on the stock markets, the Fed found.

The interesting trend, however, is the growing indebtedness of US consumers now that banks have loosened the spigots on lending.

The Federal Reserve customarily releases the minutes of its meetings, where the board of governors and staff discuss the major forces at work in the US economy, including employment, housing, borrowing and inflation.

The Fed took a positive view of overall economic progress, noting a low unemployment rate, low inflation and, generally, “a continued improvement in labor market conditions”.

While the minutes provide a big-picture view of the economy, there are some specific – and strange – worries that make it into the Fed’s discussions. “Worries about a possible spread of Ebola also appeared to weigh on market sentiment somewhat at times,” the Fed said. The Fed’s meeting was shortly after the first American Ebola patients were being admitted to hospitals.

Elsewhere in the economy, the Fed acknowledged that the housing market had slowed. After new home prices hit record highs in 2013, prices have been drifting downward as homeowners still struggle to get mortgages.

“Housing market conditions seemed to be improving only slowly,” the central bank said, noting that new home sales were flat in September after moving up in August, and sales of existing single-family homes had not showed much progress and “moved essentially sideways” over the past several months.

Banks also loosened the reins and started extending more credit to consumers, particularly through credit cards and auto loans, which some have suggested may be a bubble.

“Auto loans continued to be widely available,” the Fed wrote, suggesting that demand had increased in the third quarter along with credit cards, because “a few large banks reported having eased lending policies on such loans”.

To some, that may be a warning sign. Consumer debt – including auto loans, credit card debt and student loans – is now at an all-time high of $3.2tn, according to Federal Reserve data. Such debt tends to be risky in part because credit card debt and auto loans usually go towards buying things that only depreciate in value. Unlike with houses or college educations, it’s hard for borrowers to build equity in cars or things bought on credit.

Earlier this year, Fed research suggested that Americans had the highest net worth in history, although that was largely based on paper measures like stock holdings and house values, and disproportionately favored those who were already affluent.

 
 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2014-11-23 11:28:44

Would the Fed follow through on its plan to raise interest rates on schedule in that case?

Real question: would doing so help or hurt the banks, and the 0.1%ers?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:36:42

I’d think it would help the banks, as higher interest rates would increase bank profit margins.

Suppose rates were raised, and mass defaults on recently purchased homes resulted. Banks could reclaim the collateral, collect their federal guarantees of principle, and repackage the homes to sell at discount to another wave of investors. Since the principle is federally guaranteed, where is the downside?

 
 
 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 11:33:23

The Obama Administration Wants another Housing Bubble…
Daniel J. Mitchell | Nov 04, 2014

More than 100 years ago, George Santayana famously warned that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

At the time, he may have been gazing in a crystal ball and looking at what the Obama Administration is doing today.That’s because the White House wants to reinstate the types of housing subsidies that played a huge role in the financial crisis.

I’m not joking. Even though we just suffered through a housing bubble/collapse thanks to misguided government intervention (with all sorts of accompanying damage, such as corrupt bailouts for big financial firms), Obama’s people are pursuing the same policies today.

Including a bigger role for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two deeply corrupt government-created entities that played such a big role in the last crisis!

Here’s some of what the Wall Street Journal recently wrote about this crazy approach.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt has one heck of a sense of humor. How else to explain his choice of a Las Vegas casino as the venue for his Monday announcement that he’s revving up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to enable more risky mortgage loans? History says the joke will be on taxpayers when this federal gamble ends the same way previous ones did. …unlike most of the players around a Mandalay Bay poker table, Mr. Watt is playing with other people’s money. He’s talking about mortgages that will be guaranteed by the same taxpayers who already had to stage a 2008 rescue of Fannie and Freddie that eventually added up to $188 billion. Less than a year into the job and a mere six years since Fan and Fred’s meltdown, has he already forgotten that housing prices that rise can also fall? …We almost can’t believe we have to return to Mortgage 101 lessons so soon after the crisis. …Come the next crisis, count on regulators to blame everyone outside of government.

These common-sense observations were echoed by Professor Jeffrey Dorfman of the University of Georgia, writing for Real Clear Markets.

The housing market meltdown that began in 2007 and helped trigger the recent recession was completely avoidable. The conditions that created the slow-growth rush into housing did not arise by accident or even neglect; rather, they were a direct result of the incentives in the industry and the involvement of the government. Proving that nothing was learned by housing market participants from the market meltdown, both lenders and government regulators appear intent on repeating their mistakes. …we have more or less completed a full regulatory circle and returned to the same lax standards and skewed incentives that produced the real estate bubble and meltdown. Apparently, nobody learned anything from the last time and we should prepare for a repeat of the same disaster we are still cleaning up. Research has shown that low or negative equity in a home is the best predictor of a loan default. When down payments were 20 percent, nobody wanted to walk away from the house and lose all that equity. With no equity, many people voluntarily went into foreclosure because their only real loss was the damage to their credit score. …The best way to a stable and healthy real estate market is buyers and lenders with skin in the game. Unfortunately, those in charge of these markets have reversed all the changes… The end result will be another big bill for taxpayers to clean up the mess. Failing to learn from one’s mistakes can be very expensive.

Though I should add that failure to learn is expensive for taxpayers.

The regulators, bureaucrats, agencies, and big banks doubtlessly will be protected from the fallout.

And I’ll also point out that this process has been underway for a while. It’s just that more and more folks are starting to notice.

 
Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 18:09:11

Is the music grinding to a halt with hardly anyone even noticing?

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 18:11:50

REALTYTRAC: U.S. Home Flipping in Q3 2014 at Lowest Level Since Q2 2009 While Average Gross Profits Climb to New Record High
Friday, November 21, 2014 - 16:46 By David M. Kinchen Huntingtonnews dot net Real Estate Writer

Irvine, CA-based RealtyTrac® (www dot realtytrac dot com), the nation’s leading source for comprehensive housing data, has released its Q3 2014 U.S. Home Flipping Report, which shows that 26,947 single family homes were flipped nationwide in the third quarter of 2014 — where a home is purchased and subsequently sold again within 12 months — representing 4.0 percent of all U.S. single family home sales, down from 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2014 and down from 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2009.

Investors averaged a gross profit of $75,990 per flip on homes flipped in the third quarter of 2014, a 36 percent gross return on the initial investment — not including rehab costs and other expenses. The average gross return was up from 35 percent in the second quarter but down from 37 percent a year ago.

Flipping returned to its historic norm of 4 percent in the third quarter as home price appreciation cooled in many of the hot flipping markets across the country,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Meanwhile, the record-high average profits per flip in the quarter demonstrate that flippers are still filling an important niche in an aging housing market with historically low levels of new homes being built. The most successful flippers are buying older, outdated homes in established neighborhoods and rehabbing them extensively to appeal to modern tastes.

“The markets with an increase in flipping tend to be those with older, distressed, inventory still available that flippers can often buy at a discount and add value to,” Blomquist continued. “Those discounted distressed properties have become harder to find, but a recent jump in scheduled foreclosure auctions could provide more fodder for flippers in the next three to six months.”

Comment by Whac-A-Bubble™
2014-11-23 18:39:38

“…down from 5.6 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to the lowest level since the second quarter of 2009.”

I’m sure this is pure coincidence, but didn’t Quantitative Easing begin in March 2009?

 
Comment by rms
2014-11-24 01:55:59

“The most successful flippers are buying older, outdated homes in established neighborhoods and rehabbing them extensively to appeal to modern tastes.”

My understanding of “flipping” is that it didn’t involve spending one cent beyond obtaining control of a property and then finding an immediate buyer at a higher price.

 
 
 
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