Categories

How To Cripple the Real Estate Market in Five Easy Steps

Charles Hugh Smith had a good read recently concerning the current state of the crippled housing market. A few snippets about how we got there:

“… millions of properties are being held off the market. This “shadow inventory” is well-known (tens of thousands of people are living rent and mortgage-free in homes that the [...]

Foreclosure Scout Shares The ‘Dirty Tricks And Blatantly Illegal Practices’ Of His Job

Business Insider had a fascinating article last week where a “Foreclosure Scout” revealed many of his “secrets” to finding and securing the best deal at public foreclosure auctions. Much of what he says is, well, ranges from border-line unethical to flat out criminal but it is an interesting read anyway. A sample of the less controversial [...]

Uncle Sam’s REO Fire Sale. Minimum Investment: $1 Billion

The Daily Reckoning had an interesting article yesterday about how ordinary investors can get in on bulk purchases of portfolios of REO Bank Owned properties sold at fire sale price.

Hint: They can’t.

As repored:

“… the federal government is about to dump millions of the foreclosed homes at fire-sale prices to hedge funds and private-equity [...]

NAR Revises 2007-2011 Sales Data Lower – Housing Bust to Look Worse With Sales Revised

The Wall Street Journal is reporting in 2 separate articles recently that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revised their last 5 years of sales data downward to reflect, apparently, reality.

Imagine that.

The net effect is that the housing bust we have experienced so far is much worse than the NAR had originally reported:

“A [...]

The Great $26 Billion Real Estate Tax Credit Swindle?

The Wall Street Journal had an article  on Tuesday worth considering. It revisits the subject of the tax credits to home purchasers offered by the Government back in 2009 and 2010 and analyzes how that all worked out.

Apparently, for many, not too well:

“Zillow.com, the real estate information company, says the average price [...]

Baltimore-Area ‘Shadow Inventory’ Reported At 50,000 Homes

An article in the Baltimore Sun reported that, according to John Burns Real Estate Consulting, Baltimore’s “Shadow Inventory” of homes may be in the 50,000 range:

“Thousands of homes are on the market in the Baltimore region. But as the commercials say, wait — there’s more.

Tens of thousands of Baltimore-area homeowners are [...]

Housing Time Bomb Goes Tick Tock Tick Tock

An interesting and very detailed analysis was posted yesterday on the Wall Street Examiner Web Site regarding the state of the U.S. housing market. A few snippets:

“The actual, not seasonally adjusted, data suggests that the momentum of declining sales has leveled off. However, in order for the oversupply in distressed markets to be [...]

Banks Artificially Reducing Inventory To Bolster Prices

Imagine that.  The banks are alleged to be manipulating the system thru a strategy of reducing the number of filed foreclosures — thereby reducing the amount of available sales inventory and artificially bolstering prices.

Who would have guessed?

The New York Times is reporting:

“Millions of homeowners in distress are getting some unexpected breathing room — [...]

Strategic Defaults Could Get Very Ugly: With Home Prices

There has been much written in the last couple of weeks about the latest National quarterly home value numbers. None of it good.  Many people are coming to realize that we may very well see even lower prices in the future.

But what does this mean for “strategic defaults”?

An excellent article addressing this question appeared recently [...]

Short Sale vs. Foreclosure Credit Score Damage? FICO Debunks Some Myths

The Baltimore Sun had an interesting article on Monday on the subject of the relative impact of foreclosures and short sales on credit scores:

“Homeowners who are falling behind on a mortgage often worry just how much they might be damaging their credit score.

How much will a score be dinged if a [...]