But given the remorseless rise in unemployment, which, if anything, is destined to accelerate in the months ahead, the simple fact that so many people are too strapped to afford to buy a home, is, we believe, the most formidable barrier to even a tep
That pushed the median price paid to $224,000 last month, a 10 percent decline from $249,000 in December and a 41.5 drop from $383,000 in January 2008.
Assume that this couple are late 20s/early 30s, and are making decent — but not 6 figure — salaries. Can they afford that starter house? If not, then the entire real estate chain is frozen.
One minute video. Report and analysis by Peter Cook of Bloomberg News (Morning Call)
Construction of new homes and applications for future projects both plunged to record lows in January as all parts of the country showed big declines in building activity.
Preliminary same-home resale data from Arizona State University show the Valley's median home price fell to $130,000 in January, equivalent to the median price in January 2001.
If implemented, it would, for those families who have some reasonable income, halt in its tracks the current wave of foreclosures.
The White House said President Barack Obama on Wednesday will outline his much-anticipated plan to spend at least $50 billion to prevent foreclosures in a speech in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis.
On Sunday, hundreds of angry homeowners ... protested outside Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack’s multi-million-dollar mansion to tell the wealthy finance czar how they really feel.
RealtyTrac, the foreclosure research firm, recently found that 70% of the bank-owned homes it reviewed in Florida, California, Wisconsin and Maryland were not listed for sale on the multiple listing service.
[as long as bottom means another third drop in value] U.S. housing markets from Florida to California have suffered price drops of 50% or more from their peak, but now, at long last, a bottom is within sight, likely in the fourth quarter nationally,
We would tend to treat 1995 as a 'lower bound' which might be more valid for those areas which had appreciated the parabolic increases from the bubble period.
Stay Put Produce the note window.google_render_ad(); Follow the law Wall Street and its co-conspirators on Main Street had a great plan. Step 1: Ram predatory loans down the market with fraud and deceptive marketing.
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The Commerce Department said sales tumbled to a 331,000 annual pace, the lowest since it started keeping records in 1963.
Phoenix analyst Jim Belfiore of Belfiore Real Estate Consulting said home builders were expected to pull only 6,000 to 10,000 building permits in the coming year, a far cry from the 55,000 permits issued in 2005.
There were a record 423,962 NODs filed in 2008, breaking the old record of 254,824 NODs in 2007.
There is probably even more excess housing inventory gumming up the market than current statistics indicate, thanks to a wave of foreclosures that has yet to hit the market.
For a picture of the US real estate crisis, imagine New Orleans wrecked by Hurricane Katrina, and before the waters even begin to recede, a second Katrina hits. The 1,120,000 lost US retail jobs in 2008 are a signal that the second stage of the real
Squatting is not illegal if entry is not forced and no criminal damage is caused to the premises.
The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence dropped to 8, lower than forecast, from 9 in December, the Washington-based association said today. A reading below 50 means most respondents view conditions as poor.
Crowe said he expects prices to fall another 29 percent this year and new home sales to decline 14 percent.
Taylor and the NCRC are proposing a new government program, using TARP money, whereby the government would “use its power of eminent domain to take troubled properties/loans from mortgage servicers and lenders, so large numbers of loans...
What is not clear, however, is whether rates are attractive enough to lure a significant number of home buyers back into the ailing housing market. Interest rates on conforming mortgages dropped to an average of 5.01 percent for the week ending Jan.
The startling turnaround reflects the changed political and economic realities of the nation's deepening recession. Citigroup abandoned its long-standing opposition to let bankruptcy judges modify the terms of mortgages
Just came across this site and its really solid flow chart on the roots of the financial and economic crisis. This is pretty spot-on.
The median home price in the L.A.-Long Beach-Glendale metro area is projected to fall nearly 25% in 2009 - the biggest drop in the country.
...and the credibility of the nation’s major institutions
The housing market hasn't bottomed out yet. For the third quarter, the closely-watched S&P Case-Shiller national home-price index fell 16.6%, and experts are predicting further declines. Of the top 100 markets, here are 10 with the worst forecast
Vernon L. Smith, a Nobel laureate and economics professor at George Mason University, has said the tax law change was responsible for “fueling the mother of all housing bubbles.”
Single-family starts were at 441 thousand in November; the lowest level ever recorded (since 1959). Single-family permits were at 412 thousand in November, suggesting single family starts may fall even further next month.
