It’s Once Again Easier To Qualify For A Mortgage
A report from the International Business Times. “The U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to pull a crucial economic lever for the first time in nine years Wednesday, boosting its benchmark short-term interest rate by a quarter of a point and edging it up gradually after that. As the Fed embarked on the era of rock-bottom interest rates, the most commonly raised fear was that uncontrollable inflation would soon take off. Those concerns grew more strident when the Fed doubled down on its stimulative efforts with an expanded asset-buying program known as quantitative easing in November 2010. More insidious than inflation was the risk that the Fed’s easy money policies would touch off another asset bubble.”
“Could there be a Fed-driven bubble hiding somewhere in the market today? It’s hard to say. Part of the challenge in forestalling asset market bubbles is simply detecting them. ‘I don’t see any obvious major mispricings. Nothing that looks like the housing bubble before the crisis, for example,’ former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in October — before adding, ‘But you shouldn’t trust me.’”
10 News in California. “It’s not a surprise to many that housing prices are out of control in San Diego, but there are new indications of a bubble that could burst in the immediate future. Amy Simon sensed it was time to cash in on her Carmel Valley home. Her hunch paid off. She and her husband Eric bought the five-bedroom home in 2000 for about $567,000. The Simons sold the home last month for about $1.1 million. ‘We decided to do it now because the market is super hot,’ Simon said.”
“Simon and many others don’t know how long that heat will last. A new study from Zillow ranked San Diego County as the nation’s fourth most at risk for a housing bubble, which could lead to a crash. The last time the bubble burst, thousands of San Diegans defaulted on their loans and a recession began. Adding to the fears of a bubble burst is San Diegans’ ability to pay for homes. Home prices are growing twice as fast as incomes. Simon said there are many new homes being built in Carmel Valley. ‘I thought if I wait and they keep building, then I’m competing against all these new builds,’ Simon said.”
The Portland Tribune in Oregon. “The Portland area economy is booming but incomes are not keeping pace, contributing to the growing affordability problem in the region. Those findings are included in the 2015 Check-Up on the Portland Region’s Economic Health. One result of the disparity is a growing affordability problem, especially given the recent dramatic increases in housing costs. ‘Couple income stagnation with rapidly rising housing prices and increases in the cost of living and we have some fundamentally profound changes emerging in the Portland-metro area around who can afford to live here,’ reads the report.”
The News and Tribune in Indiana. “t’s no secret to anyone looking that the United States is in the midst of a real estate boom — and Southern Indiana is enjoying particularly low housing costs. But while many are rejoicing in the plummeting price tag figures, Jeffersonville Real Estate Agent Lincoln Crum said it’s not such a happy picture for low-income residents. Stagnant wages in Southern Indiana mean people with low incomes still struggle to find affordable housing, despite the real estate boom. ‘What I have found is we are still in a very affordable housing market in the fact that we have a lot of inventory that’s $150,000 or less,’ Crum said. ‘… But somebody that makes 13 dollars an hour and has two kids to raise, it doesn’t matter how cheap the house is, they’re not going to have access to financing.’”
“Many of the cheaper homes that people with low income otherwise would be able to purchase are being scooped up by investors during this real estate boom who either rehabilitate the home and put it back on the market or lease it. ‘You could get a $40,000 house and your total payment will be 100 bucks [a month], but if you rented that same equivalent property, you’re going to pay $650, $675 a month,’ Crum said.”
WFLA in Florida. “The Clearwater Cay Club was supposed to be something special. It was special alright, part of a $300 million dollar condo flipping scam that stretched from Clearwater to the Keys to Vegas. The sales pitch claimed the Cay Club was going to turn apartments into a 5-star luxury hotel resort. Part of the pitch to out-of-staters focused on an elaborate water park, which was supposed to be built nearby, adjacent to upscale retail projects. That sounded great, but the problem is no one got permission from the city of Clearwater.”
“‘I just can’t believe that something like this could happen,’ investor Laurie McNulty said. Laurie bought a condo at the Clearwater Cay Club in 2005. ‘They were selling snake oil in the form of condominium hotel units. That’s what it boiled to,’ Laurie’s attorney Bruce Barnes stated. It also boiled down to Clearwater Cay Club operators flipping the condos to themselves at artificially inflated prices. The scheme also involved bank loan officer Roger Windey, fraudulently pushing through loan applications that contained false information. According to Bruce Barnes, Clearwater Cay Club also had an appraiser working with it. He provided artificially high appraisals.”
“The minute Laurie McNulty purchased her condo for $697,000, she was hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole. According to Barnes, Clearwater Cay Club closed on Laurie’s condo hours before it sold the property to her. Clearwater Cay Club paid what was closer to the true value, $251,000. ‘It’s been bad. I’ve probably cried every night about it,’ Laurie said, her voice cracking.”
“Two other former sales people, Barry Graham and Ricky Stokes, entered into plea agreements with the feds in Miami and are serving 5-year terms in federal prison for bank fraud. There are more charges coming against more involved parties. Barnes has waited for this day for 7 years, but it is bittersweet. ‘I don’t know of anybody who’s been made whole. The vast majority of the investor victims saw nothing,’ he said.”
National Public Radio. “The Federal Reserve is expected to start raising interest rates later this week, and anyone who’s ever bought a house — or thought about it — knows that if mortgage rates rise by much that will make it tougher to afford a home. De Desharnais, a homebuilder in Nashua, N.H., says she’s one of the lucky ones — her company survived the crash. But it didn’t come without pain. ‘We had 32 employees on our payroll at normal times; we have 6 on our payroll right now,’ she says. ‘We have big subdivisions that we’ve been carrying through that recession. I think there is a big concern if the interest rates go up, that everything’s going to come to a screeching halt.’”
“John Burns, who runs a national real estate consulting firm, says mortgage rates are expected to rise about 1 percentage point over the next several years. That would mean the same-priced house will cost you 12 percent more in monthly payments. And Burns says it’s once again become easier than many people think to qualify for a mortgage, despite caution on home loans by some of the biggest banks.”
“‘There’s a lot of non-banks, like Quicken Loans and loanDepot, that are taking a lot of market share from the banks,’ he says. ‘As long as you can provide the income, and you’re not, say, below a 660 FICO score — which is about a bottom 30 percent of the country — they can get you a mortgage relatively affordably.’”
Laurie bought a condo at the Clearwater Cay Club in 2005……
A decade! 10-years and counting to clean up the Housing bubble mess! I remember reading in Business Week in 2007 that it would take until 2015 for the market to normalize. It seemed so far away, but it turns out it will be even longer!
“Normalization” hasn’t even begun Jingle_Fraud.
Remember….. A ‘housing recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels, by definition.
‘A decade!’
Yeah, it’s taking this long to convict for fraud. But you’ll be the first to say there isn’t any fraud now. Oh, and be sure to mention how tough it is to get a loan these days.
I am sure there is some fraud, but not like Long Beach, Ownit, & Countrywide perpetrated in 2005, 6 & 7. And getting a loan is not nearly as easy as it was back then…ssk someone who recently completed one.
The countrywide guys are all back in business.
I wonder how much volume they are originating? It is a tough business these days. I doubt they have any meaningful impact on the market.
Given the number of massively inflated transactions, which each one requires an extensive amount of deceit, deception and hush money to make it happen, does it really matter who originates the phony paperwork?
yes, it is much harder to get a loan today. been there, done that.
You’ll need to get your FICO score above 500 before you’re approved. Give it time.
‘I wonder how much volume they are originating?’
Probably not much. The government is hogging the subprime market now.
I remember hearing 2015 would be the year things would settle back, however that was assuming they let the market fall sooner. This prop up has made it go slow mo, or not at all
“They” don’t have much control over it. Not without driving demand to multi-decade lows anyways.
That’s amusing that a planned water park was used as part of the sales pitch. You’re five miles away from one of the best beaches in Florida. The condos themselves had the kind of commoditized, vaguely Mediterranean-ish appearance that looks like the architectural equivalent of fast food, but then again, in 2005 few people really planned to live in them.
but then again, in 2005 few people really planned to live in them.
That’s what it all boils down to.
So the media belaboring the point that “investors have bought up the houses” is BS?
Where did they go then?
Very few properties in Pinellas county are worth 700k, especially condos. She should have realized this prior to buying.
Interestingly Clearwater FL is Scientology central as well, there just MIGHT be a high ratio of gullible people in the area to attract sleazy RE developers;-)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3015144/Inside-town-Scientology-built-Clearwater-Florida-Tom-Cruise-John-Travolta-Kirstie-Alley-rule-palatial-estates-Sea-Org-members-live-six-room-pay-100-000-learn-super-human-powers.html
That article has some hyperbole. If you’re in an office tower in downtown Clearwater, sure, you clearly can see the various Scientology facilities, including the Fort Harrison Hotel and the new “super power” building with the large Scientology cross on top. But I never got the sense that anyone relocates here for that. Mostly you see young people wearing long-sleeve blue button-down shirts. They don’t mix with anyone else, and the city doesn’t mix with them.
The “Going Clear” book, which I’ve read, speculates that Clearwater was selected for these facilities because of its name.
Seattle, WA Housing Craters; Prices Plummet 6% YoY As Housing Bust Ramps Up
http://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa-98199/home-values/
Cherry-picking micro-zones again I see . . .
Inventory is at record low levels right now which is keeping prices very high.
Stick with podunk towns in Eastern Oregon if you want to make your point.
Are you sure?
Seattle, WA Real Estate and Homes for Sale-7,436
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Seattle_WA/radius-20?pos=47.05759,-122.862868,48.067388,-121.788359
Seattle, WA Price Reduced Homes for Sale-2,426
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-search/Seattle_WA/radius-20/show-price-reduced?pos=47.05759,-122.862868,48.067388,-121.788359
33% of all sellers in Seattle reduced their price at least once
Funny how that works - when you want to show prices falling, you pick one city block.
But then when you want to show how high inventory is, you pick a 20-mile radius around Seattle?
Hilarious, fracking hilarious, HA!
Inventory here in the Seattle area is at record lows, even for this time of year - active listings in both King and Snohomish counties is lower than it has ever been for the past 15 years:
http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2015/12/07/nwmls-inventory-hits-new-time-low/
http://seattlebubble.com/blog/2015/12/01/november-stats-preview-listings-go/
Data my friend, data. Twenty miles away is NOT Seattle!
Reading your posts is always good for a laugh no matter what kind of day it’s been.
Nobody is interested in your realtor funded blog. That’s why everyone comes here to the Housing Bubble Blog for solid analysis and discussion.
Go get a stock in trade and earn some honest money my friend.
Hey RJ, I watched this interview last night:
http://www.upstream-ideas.com/ideas/atc-dan-proft-bethany-mclean/
It got me to thinking about a bunch of things that are wrong or misunderstood about housing in general. I respect McLean, but she’s got her head in the soup on some stuff. They dance around the idea of lower house prices like it’s black death. One thing stood out; the 30 year mortgage - it’s gotta go. If nobody but the government would do it, why the heck do it? Before we had 30 year mortgages it only took 15 years to pay for a house. Hello!
Hi Ben:
Glad you watched the vid. I have been thinking on it as well.
I agree with McLean on the issue of her view of the overall implications on the US Economy re housing. It is a dangerous place we have got ourselves to in that regard.
And I agree with you the 30 year has to go - it is nothing but long term indentured servitude to the monied interests who are looking to extract increasing amounts of money from the populace at large. If this causes house prices to drop then so be it - the folks have to have some place to lay their head at night as is noted in the interview. This is becomming (has become) an increasingly difficult proposition for the folks younger than me.
As an aside…..Dan Proft here in Chicago (a talkie radio guy) has a number of one on one discussions on that web link - all are interesting - I agree with some of the comments in each of the interviews - all are reasoned discussions that Proft somehow keeps on topic. Since I live in ILLANNOY at the moment and Proft broadcasts from Chicago - he has made it a career to sound the clarion call on how corrupt, inept and just plain stooopid the politicos, corporatists etc. are with attending results. This place is just suffering and those with means are leaving the state at a fairly steady rate.
Before we had 30 year mortgages it only took 15 years to pay for a house ??
When was that ??
1980
1980
Ronald Reagan liberalized credit during his first administration. Prior to that mortgage lending was difficult to obtain particularly for the self-employed and racial minorities. The U.S. moved its position from a creditor to a debtor nation.
However the average Joe’s standard of living really started slipping after Richard Nixon neutered the Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange because France was dumping its dollar reserves for gold. The Vietnam war also left the U.S. deeply in debt that would be easier to service with printed dollars.
Before we had 30 year mortgages it only took 15 years to pay for a house ??
When was that ??
I know my parents had a 30 year back in the early 60’s.
I know my parents had a 30 year back in the early 60’s ??
Which makes HA’s statement utter BULL$iiT….Just like all his other posts…With a little mix of outright lies…
It’s a fact my friend. 30 year mortgages were atypical until 1980.
As other posters stated, complete and absolute horse-hockey. My parents owned several rental homes from the 1960s-2000s and they had 30-year loans on them before they were paid off (as did our neighbors on their houses) even back in the 1970s.
Atypical my friend. Atypical.
And just how great were their losses?
‘complete and absolute horse-hockey’
Really? My parents bought a house in 1963 with a 15 year loan, paid it off in 10. It was around $25,000. Zillow would tell you $163,000 now. This is just a small city in Texas and the house is now close to 100 years old.
Recently I found a report that said the GSE share of loans went from 26% to close to 50% between 1986 and 1989. Watch the interview. Why doesn’t anyone want to make loans of 30 years? Why does she say a major price fall would occur if 30 year loans were taken away? It’s clear to me that the only reason we have 30 year loans is because we’ve got a 30 or 40 year old bubble that would go poof. So we all have to pay huge amounts, with interest, for the rest of our lives because the PTB let this happen? I say BS.
And note if you watch the video; the GSE executives were worse than mafia scum for many, many years before it blew up. They dangled congressmen around like bought toys. This whole thing is a scam of epic proportions.
My parents had a 30-year mortgage in 1965. I remember a black and white TV show where a retired couple were burning their mortgage because the finally paid it off after 30 years! HA, HA, HA, you’re a laugh every time you post.
Alisa Roth: Most mortgages in the U.S. used to be short-term. But when the housing market fell apart in the Great Depression, the government stepped in and 30 years became standard.
HA, you should google before you post and gargle before you speak! HA!
Wrong-O Jingle_Fraud.
Only 3% of mortgage paper were 30 year notes until 1980. 30 year mortgages were not the standard and were discouraged for the same reason they’re radioactive today.
You can’t keep your own stories straight, please don’t attempt to re-write history.
And let’s accurately call out what these 30 year death sentences were know as before 1980; “The Immoral Mortgage”
Thank you for pointing out just how long this long con really is. The housing/credit/finance bubble, in all its iterations and temporary ups and downs, goes back to the Great Depression. Sounds about right. Although truthfully, I’d date it back a little further, to 1913, the creation of the Federal Reserve.
The 30 year note came into existence post WW2 by Gov. No bank was (or is) crazy enough to back such radioactive paper.
and gargle before you speak! HA! ??
What can you possibly gargle with that cures pure horse-chit….
The facts are the facts and the data is the data Dave. There’s no reason to lose sleep over it.
they’ll go 40 yrs before going to 15 yr only.
cars have 7 yr loans, yikes!
monthly nut is all sheeple care about. dont fight the fed
Very unlikely considering the higher default rates associated with longer term mortgages.
“I know my parents had a 30 year back in the early 60’s.”
My parents bought a custom built San Jose, CA house in 1954 with a 15-yr mortgage, and they paid it off in less than 10-yrs with one income.
We purchased our first home circa 1984 and 30 year mortgages were in then. IIRC, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation started in approx. 1968-1970, which expanded mortgage availability. The history of the mortgage dates back to Sears wanted to finance their Kit Homes for buyers 1908-1940, and post WWII they blossomed due to family formation.
1980’s started the Volcker ARMS. That expanded the market to trap more howmuchamonthclub-ers.
From the Portland, OR piece: “The real question is, how do we create middle income jobs that allow people to live in the region? How do we sustain the ones we have and create more?” says Sandra McDonough, President and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance, which helped fund the assessment.
Before the federal reserve became the croupier the invisible hand dealt the economic cards. Sandra McDonough is asking for a command economy.
job=$ + labor
gov can’t create a net job- never has, never will
see eu for results
“‘We have big subdivisions that we’ve been carrying through that recession.”
So you hung onto those rotting depreciating shacks and worthless dirt and you’ve still got them with housing demand collapsing to 20 year lows and prices falling without any hope of an exit.
I’d fire your dumb ass on the spot before you ever had a chance to bleed my company into bankruptcy.
“Lexington Realtor Charged With Stealing Jewelry”
http://www.wlky.com/news/Lexington-Realtor-charged-with-stealing-jewelry/36891726
And the best part is he stole the jewelry from a friend of his. This is the moral level of your average realtor.
Realtors have no morals, those would make their parasitical ways difficult what with the built in conflicts of interest they have with their marks, er I mean clients.
No morals will also serve them well during their apocalyptic struggle for survival with the cockroaches once all higher forms of life have passed from this earth.
I went to an open house the other day, not sure why, I am determined not to buy…our north of Boston town has little/no inventory and little/nothing to rent (we are thankfully in a rental), so the crap that comes on sells (unless it is over a million, those are sitting)
So this open house, it was on a good street for the town (walk to shops and the water) An old couple lived there for the last 30 years which equals yankee frugal at it’s worst, they NEVER fixed, updated or repaired anything. It smelled like moth balls, old socks and wet wood inside. All of the plaster was leaking, horrible everything. Wood rot outside, broken windows, every.single.thing needed to be torn out and redone. It sold that day for 500k.
In our town, anything under 700 sells, anything over sits. So the big money has dried up.
Post a link.
Why? You can’t post one to show 20M empty homes?
We’ve done that over and over my friend. You just don’t like the data.
Lying again. Post a link. I don’t like made-up numbers that vary from 4M to 55M depending upon how much you’ve had to drink.
All the data is there my friend. 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses with another 35 million just starting to empty.
In our town, anything under 700 sells, anything over sits. So the big money has dried up
In my book, 600K is “big money”
Yeah, I’ve seen 50’s shit-shacks on Rt 2 in Belmont and Arlington sell at or above ask at the 1st OH. We’re talking, $600K, maybe $700K, crappy oil-heat places with no updates. It’s f$%&ing insane, and I can’t imagine how it’s going to work out for the buyers. On the other hand, there’s a handful of shitty places in Newton, Wellesley, Needham, etc., that just won’t sell. Even sub-$600K. I, too, am renting for now, in East Arlington, on one of those streets where retards are buying one of those ubiquitous duplex unit for $800K. No thanks, I’ll deploy my $300K down payment only if it makes any sense to do so. and it sure as shit doesn’t make sense right now.
wellesy / newton were nirvana when I went to Babason
Why didn’t you continue?
“…(walk to shops and the water)…”
I lived near the Ocean for several years; never again. Even our books on the shelf got moldy along the edge of the pages. The closets had an odor that was impossible to kill… always came back. Our cars rusted too starting along the trim.
‘U.S. housing starts surge, permits hit five-month high’
‘November marked the eighth straight month that starts remained above 1 million units, the longest stretch since 2007. Economists expect housing starts to average around 1.1 million units for 2015, which would be the highest since 2007 and up from 1.0 million units in 2014.’
And multi-family construction is at a 30 year high, but “Oh they aren’t building enough houses!” “We’re all going to freeze in the dark!”
‘Multi-family building permits soared 26.9 percent.’
‘Houston’s multifamily construction will slow down in 2016, but single-family home construction will ramp up, according to a national construction research firm.’
‘Houston is expected to end the year with $1 billion worth of new apartment projects breaking ground in 2015. This level of construction starts might come as a surprise to many, Carrick said. “Most people think that oil prices dropped so much that it would have a devastating impact on Houston,” Carrick said. “But when you look at Houston’s numbers, they’re not so bad.”
‘However, CMD Group predicts fewer apartment construction starts next year amid the oil slump. Houston is expected to break ground on $909 million worth of new projects in 2016, a decrease of about 9 percent year over year, according to CMD Group.’
‘CMD Group has been expecting a slowdown in Houston’s apartment market for some time now. Experts say dozens of planned apartment projects have been stalled as capital funding for new projects has dried up.’
“If I were in that market, I would be cautious over the next year,” Carrick said. “We’re seeing a huge increase in supply of multifamily.”
Almost a billion bucks of new apartments is a slowdown? I think Mel Watts is going to be writing lots of checks.
If they were building enough you wouldn’t see the kind of rent growth we are seeing. No matter how you try to spin the logic, low interest rates do not lead to rent inflation. Demand exceeding supply leads to rent inflation.
With 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses out there, 4.4 million of which are in CA, there is no need to build more houses.
that is why prices are going up and anything under $400k has multiple bids in the good cities. uuurrrgggg!
Are you sure?
Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yX5B5Hn95bQ/VYC3Wr6ihBI/AAAAAAAAj7I/alOslZa-cK8/s1600/MBAJune172015.PNG
Thank you RW for posting logical, reasonable information. We need to build more housing (in areas where people want to live).
Apparently it’s not in the US given all the excess empty and defaulted housing inventory.
” low interest rates do not lead to rent inflation”
Perhaps not logically, but this is a mania fueled by easy money and this is how it unfolds. Cheap dumb manic money has been pushing the price of houses up. At the same time, more people have decided to rent rather than buy as they fall out of the mania. When SFH prices crash, rents will crash too.
The other day we had an article posted here about a couple who lost $150K to avoid a $200/mo rent increase. There are others who would gladly pay an extra $200/mo to avoid such inevitable losses.
Newton, MA Housing Craters; Prices Plunge 16% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/newton-ma/market-trends/
“Could there be a Fed-driven bubble hiding somewhere in the market today? It’s hard to say. Part of the challenge in forestalling asset market bubbles is simply detecting them. ‘I don’t see any obvious major mispricings. Nothing that looks like the housing bubble before the crisis, for example,’ former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in October — before adding, ‘But you shouldn’t trust me.’”
There could be a bubble hiding in plain view!
CNN Money
San Francisco, L.A., Boston Top Experts’ List of Potential Bubble Markets
PR Newswire
San Francisco’s housing market has grown so unaffordable that some experts say the market is already in a bubble - and it’s not the only market they’re concerned about.
December 09, 2015: 08:00 AM ET
SEATTLE, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — A third of the experts surveyed in the latest Zillow® Home Price Expectations Survey said the San Francisco housing market is in a bubble, and another 20 percent believe the market is at-risk for bubble conditions within the next year.
The survey, sponsored quarterly by Zillow and conducted by Pulsenomics LLCi, asked more than 100 panelists about their expectations for the housing market. Of those, 66 answered a question about bubble conditions in 20 local housing markets.
The survey responses revealed that some housing experts are concerned about over-valuation in some of the nation’s hottest housing markets – and that there is significant disagreement among experts about whether the rapid home-value growth in those markets puts consumers at risk.
“A handful of markets – especially the Bay Area – are very hot right now, and it’s possible home values may actually begin to fall somewhat in these places as more residents are priced out amidst rising affordability concerns, especially when interest rates rise,” said Zillow Chief Economist Dr. Svenja Gudell. “Whether those local conditions constitute a ‘bubble’ is up for debate, even among economists. Without 20/20 hindsight, it’s difficult to identify bubbles as they’re happening, but it is very clear that nationally we are not seeing a return of the conditions that caused the last national bubble. Tighter lending restrictions today mean we aren’t seeing buyers get loans they realistically can’t pay back, like we did in years past. It’s significant that some experts are starting to worry about bubble conditions, but in my opinion, there’s no real danger of a severe crash like the one we all remember from the last decade.”
Some experts said they think bubble conditions are already present in Miami, Los Angeles, Houston, San Diego, and Seattle. A quarter of respondents said they think there is significant risk of a housing bubble in the next three years in Boston. (The same number of panelists said there is no risk of a bubble in Boston in the next five years).
…
Economists are historians. It’s a bubble after it explodes.
These MSM-quoted housing experts bring to mind the image of a meteorologist staring at his radar screen and other fancy forecasting technology while somehow failing to see the tornado that is clearly visible out his office window.
Economists are mostly paid shills who won’t bite the hand that feeds them. They’re mostly employed by the government or government-connected and funded entities.
What a wonderful sense of humor Bernanke has. Manipulated and artificially-low interest rates haven’t caused any obvious major mis-pricings, but you shouldn’t trust me, heh heh heh, I’m on a PIMCO advisory board now. And he didn’t even see the housing bubble before the crisis!
Plain view is right. It’s incredible how the financial media buy this self-serving claim that asset bubbles are hard to detect, almost perfectly camouflaged like a viper in fallen leaves. They’re right in front of your face, everywhere.
‘I don’t see any obvious major mispricings. Nothing that looks like the housing bubble before the crisis, for example,’ former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in October — before adding, ‘But you shouldn’t trust me.’
The fed’s blue book says the bourgeois can easily afford half million dollar spec homes and two late model cars in the driveway, but you shouldn’t trust me.
Irving, TX Housing Craters; Prices Tailspin 12% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/irving-tx/market-trends/
‘Free money is coming to an end. But the damage has already been done for many retirees - and a small rate hike will do little to help.’
‘Retirees now need to save $1 million if they want to get half of their income from relatively low-risk Treasury investments, according to new research from Michael Thompson and his co-authors at S&P Capital IQ. That’s up from the $200,000 to $300,000 they needed to save to reach the same financial goal between 1990 and 1997 in inflation-adjusted dollars, Thompson says.’
‘The reason retirees need so much more now? Rock-bottom interest rates on safe investments like Treasuries are to blame. “It’s startling to think like this,” says Thompson. “Rates are so low, in order for you to not take exceptional risk to try to have a reasonable retirement portfolio, you need a million dollars in assets.”
3to 5 times as much in savings to retire. And we all know wages aren’t up 3 to 5 times as much. So instead of keeping us all out of a depression, it looks like the central bank just dumped a generation or more into gruel eating, old age poverty. Lovely! Free money’s not so free.
not gov workers- they’re the new retiree elites
75% of pay at age 55 in my hood
75% of pay at age 55 in my hood ??
87% here….And they go back the next day in contract work…I know a former police chief that must be making around $400k per year between the retirement and new job that he got…
Then it should be no mystery to anyone why CA is the poorest state in the US.
The Fed has screwed retirees coming and going. During the decades of inflation, a little nest egg would generate enough to guarantee the groceries. However, with food prices doubling every so often, the fixed income retirees were soon in trouble. The Fed was stealing the principle.
Then a decade of the Fed stealing the interest.
Anyone with a strategy of eating the nest egg itself in retirement and preparing for that to work is now sitting pretty with prices falling. The Fed would like to blow this up too no doubt.
Not only did the Fed steal the interest, but it transferred that money to a certain group of financial institutions which Holder and the DOJ repeatedly refused to prosecute. All the American people got out of it was the opportunity to buy some revisionist memoirs.
The Fed has screwed retirees coming and going.
This is why its going to be hard to kill SS. It’s going to be the only thing the majority will have.
For recent retirees QE was advantageous IF you had the option to cash out your pension, I opted to do that in 2012 when I retired early and the cashout figure was waaay more than it would have been had interest rates been normal. I rolled the cash into an IRA and it has done well so far but I fully realize that could change real quick once the financial house of cards QE built collapses…
for u gov lovers
just after peak here comes even FREEer money form smelly Mel , hud etc………..
“‘There’s a lot of non-banks, like Quicken Loans and loanDepot, that are taking a lot of market share from the banks,’ he says. ‘As long as you can provide the income, and you’re not, say, below a 660 FICO score — which is about a bottom 30 percent of the country — they can get you a mortgage relatively affordably.’”
That’s the supply side of subprime, which prices loans to poor-risk borrowers at prices that prudent lenders won’t touch.
On the demand side is a bevy of poorly qualified borrowers who are overpaying for housing now, and setting themselves up to become the next generation of underwater victims in a future housing crisis.
Anyone with half a brain and stable finances is advised to stay on the sidelines until the current wave of mania subsides.
Napa, CA Housing Craters; Prices Plunge 7% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/napa-ca/market-trends/
“Anyone who’s ever bought a house — or thought about it — knows that if mortgage rates rise by much that will make it tougher to afford a home.”
Unless buyers don’t overpay and offset higher rates with lower prices paid.
San Diego, CA Housing Craters; Prices Dive 5% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/north-park-san-diego-ca/home-values/
Looks like median sales prices peaked at an all-time high of $510K in February 2015 (higher than the housing bubble peak, mind-you!).
Zestimates zuck.
’s no secret to anyone looking that the United States is in the midst of a real estate boom??? Don’t believe that folks, even the sellers will tell you they took a big hit on the sale of there home and many houses never sold and were removed from the MLS.
Look at a mirage in the desert, that is the housing market in America?
Look at a mirage in the desert, that is the housing market in
America?the worldFixed it.
Thanks for the fix, Canada especially, China has so many empty developments it is like a Hollywood backlot nothing but fake buildings.
Stay safe
Are you looking at California City, by any chance?
“Are you looking at California City, by any chance?”
No trees, sidewalks, etc., just miles of blow sand in every direction.
Ventura, CA Housing Craters; Prices Collapse 22% YoY As Delinquencies Balloon
http://www.movoto.com/ventura-ca/market-trends/
funny headline
“Cheap money is going away, so buy a home now: Barbara Corcoran”
What will the Fed rate hike do to the subprime rate?
ft dot com
3:04pm WORLD
Banks raise prime rates after Fed move
Rising mortgage rates expected to hurt first time home buyers
What happened to all the posters who insisted there was no possible way the Fed would tighten today?
Pulte still building junk. They’ll never learn.
http://pulte-homes.pissedconsumer.com/
Grass Valley, CA Housing Craters; Prices Plummet 6% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/grass-valley-ca/market-trends/