Inflation by any other name – Rising rents have pushed up the CPI to highest monthly change in three years. Shifting the Fed bailouts onto the working class and poor.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) attempts to measure the change in price for a basket of American goods and services. I say attempts because measures like the “owner’s equivalent of rent” are simply an estimation as to what a home owner’s place would rent for. In the early 2000s with home prices surging, it missed [...]
Las Vegas real estate and the dynamics of a lower priced housing market – With median home prices around $100,000 they now reflect the reality of a lower paying service sector economy. Foreclosures and short-sales make up over 70 percent of all sales activity.
Las Vegas is a case study in the limits of the housing bubble but also the reflection of a new economy driven by a demand for lower price real estate. Wedged in the story of a collapsing real estate market is a new reality that many families are craving lower priced properties. Few places in [...]
Living paycheck to paycheck with the housing albatross – Survey finds one in three Americans unable to make their mortgage or rent payment beyond one month if they lost their job. 61 percent unable to make payments beyond five months.
One of the unnerving revelations brought about by the current recession is how many Americans are living precariously close to the economic edge. The Band-Aid of credit cards, home equity loans, and other vehicles of debt masked the problem for many years. Debt was rolled over on a continuous basis and as long as the [...]
The banking gears of housing – Bank of America sells mortgage servicing rights on large loan pool to Fannie Mae. 400,000 loans shifted to Fannie Mae with $73 billion in unpaid principal.
Things just seem to get more perplexing with the housing market. Back in August the Wall Street Journal discussed a deal between Fannie Mae and Bank of America. The deal is odd even for the current banking system we have in place. It was reported that Fannie Mae purchased the servicing rights to 400,000 loans [...]
A banking system built on lies and deception – Hiding commercial real estate losses by laundering bad loans through the Federal Reserve. Trillions of dollars in bailouts were made while banks told the public all was well.
Part of the massive challenges facing our brittle financial system is the opaque and secretive nature of the Federal Reserve. It is difficult enough to confront a challenge with all information present but make it purposely convoluted and dark and we have a crisis of historical proportions. The recent market volatility is simply a dire [...]
The 20 year financial depression in American real estate. Why housing will remain a poor investment well into 2020.
The American housing market is floundering like a fish out of water. The economy is puttering along as middle class Americans confront a quality of life that is declining. Household incomes have fallen for well over a decade yet the dialogue from Wall Street and their political partners seems to focus on home prices rising. [...]
The desert heat melts Arizona home prices – Phoenix home prices now back to late 1990s levels while state tax collection drop to 1998 levels. The second lost decade in the desert.
The real estate crash is much deeper than the media is making it out to be. Entire life savings are being wiped out in markets that are tanking like the Titanic. What is troubling is that some markets are having depression like symptoms with home prices falling 50, 60, and even 70 percent in a [...]
Stealing from Americans via strip malls and raw land – Commercial real estate reaches a new post-bubble low. A lost decade in commercial real estate values.
The commercial real estate (CRE) bubble is popping with dire consequences. It is not uncommon for people to be in the complete dark when it comes to CRE. Just ask a friend or family member what they know about the CRE market. The mainstream media has absolutely failed to report on this $3 trillion market [...]
Day of reckoning for commercial real estate in 2012 – largest amount of loans maturing next year as $150 billion in CRE debt comes due. Federal Reserve running out of options in hiding financially disastrous real estate loans.
The Federal Reserve has tried its best to hide the secrets of past banking blunders deep in its balance sheet. Commercial real estate (CRE) loans made in haste during the real estate bubble are part of this national disgrace in banking folly. As the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury digitally print the dollar into oblivion [...]
The financial bubble that is still popping – Home prices enter a deep double dip because household incomes are still in a rut. Housing bubbles in Los Angeles and San Francisco persist while Miami and Phoenix metro areas face double digit annual price declines.
Some people are stunned that home prices continue to sink as if a lead weight was placed on the value of housing. The mainstream press never sliced and diced the minor jump in prices we had last year because much of the increase occurred around tax credit gimmicks and the Federal Reserve using artificially low [...]
