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 [...]
Scorching the desert housing markets – Arizona and Nevada real estate blossomed with cheap fuel and easy access to debt. For last two years 40 percent of buyers came from all cash purchases. What happens when the well runs dry in the financial desert?
The Arizona housing market is a perfect example of what happens when the housing religion spirals out of control and implodes in dramatic fashion pushing up against environmental limits. I remember driving in the blistering summer heat through Arizona before all the housing mania launched out of control in the late 1990s and thinking that [...]
Phoenix real estate breaks a record with 50 percent of all home sales coming from all cash investors. Locals barely can buy with FHA insured loans. Can a desert market dependent on cheap oil and survive in the $100+ a barrel world?
The Phoenix real estate market is a fascinating case examination of an area guided by FHA loans for first time buyers and all cash investors purchasing 50 percent of properties. In January of 2011, the latest month of stunning data, 1 out of every 2 homes sold went to an all cash buyer. We are [...]
The road least pillaged – S&P 500 up 90 percent from bottom but housing values down 30 percent nationwide. Wealthy store most of their wealth in stocks while most Americans have their net worth in housing. 2010 record year in foreclosures and the upcoming lost decade in housing.
There are few investments in the US that are so heavily subsidized like housing. Residential and commercial real estate included benefit from favorable government policies to increase demand. Some of these policies may have merit but a large part of the housing market has been injected with so many perks that the true value of [...]
Will the U.S. face a generation of underperforming housing values? It happened from 1915 to 1945 and the current trend is not looking favorable. Current U.S. housing values over priced by 30 percent.
It is hard to imagine a time in U.S. history when housing was actually perceived as cheap for an entire generation. Yet this is the exact experience that occurred from 1915 to 1945. Home values were cheap in relative inflation adjusted terms. Even after 1945, homes were still affordable and this is where the seeds [...]
Bank of America has $2.3 trillion in assets but $956 billion of that is made up in loans. Think those loans are valued at current market levels? The FDIC would have a challenge even breaking up one too big to fail bank.
The FDIC has a herculean challenge in confronting the too big to fail banks. There is little doubt that having institutions that are too big is part of the reason for the current systemic crisis. Yet through the last few years the solution has been to make these banks even bigger allowing their web to [...]
The housing documents mess – Why banks are carelessly rushing foreclosures in Florida and not in California. Mortgage foreclosure deficiency judgments.
In the last few weeks the issue has come to the table that in some states, in particular Florida, banks are rushing through the foreclosure process so quickly that they have mismanaged the paperwork process. Apparently the same forged paperwork that got people with very little income into highly leveraged properties is now working in [...]
U.S. home prices will resume price decline after year of banking and government intermission. Multiple signs point to another year of slow home price growth and U.S. home values over priced by 20 percent.
Home sales follow very seasonal patterns. Yet much of this natural mechanism was stunted by banks delaying foreclosures and the government artificially stimulating home sales. Now that much of the stimulus has been exhausted, it is clear that home prices are correcting once again. It is hard for many to imagine that home prices can [...]
Submarine housing markets – Negative equity map and the 7 metro areas where mortgage balances outweigh the entire stock of housing. Examining underwater housing across the U.S.
Negative equity at such a large scale is a rather unique phenomenon from this housing bubble. Even just a decade ago, a person got into a negative equity position due to a really significant shift in a localized market. For example, a city lost a major manufacturing company that supported most jobs and home values [...]
Current state of the American housing market. What foreclosures and distressed borrowers tell us in hidden data. 2010 on path to having 4 million foreclosure filings. HAMP call center data at record levels while loan modifications dwindle.
Trying to get honest data from the banking industry regarding the current state of housing is a monumental task. We are left using multiple data sources to get an accurate picture of the current state of the American housing market. Even then, we are left trying to piece together data that is largely incomplete. For [...]
