Sippn

0% Financing Doesn't Mean It's Free

Just because its cheap doesn't mean it has to be lent to everyone.

How Much Further Will Housing Fall?

Affordability index has little to do with $500K+ sales right now. Lending for anybody under 720 scores is non-existent. Like raising the driving age to 35, we would need far fewer cars.

The effect is, the left over homes will fall like rocks. Duh!

GDP and the Decline of National Statistics

Its a fishy number because they (administration) have now figured out how to tweek it - just add a little tax rebate. That measurement is now no good. I'm insulted they think we won't notice.

Most of us out there have lost our a**es. whatever's left is going to fuel.

Home Prices Have Stopped Falling: The Statistics Are Skewed

Data wonks, if you physically drove out there and looked at the homes that made up the stats, you would likely agree more with the author.

Investors paid dearly for anything they could get their hands on. Lenders threw money at tract homes using computer models to establish values, no matter whether there was a golf course or crack house next door - the computer valuation services couldn't distinguish.

Now the crap is getting flushed while lenders are almost completely refusing to lend above $417K, killing sales on the high end. RE is not a liquid asset that can be traded like the stock market, but if you get in a hurry, you have to discount.

Case Shiller relies heavily on income ratios to make their charts work - beware. There is talk that their charts are heavily skewed towards volatile markets - hmmm. Manipulation? Follow the money.

Are Short Sales Shorting the Real Estate Market?

Short sales are pseudo inventory - future REO inventory, as such a very small % of short sales actually result in closes. In the mean time, Joe homeowner who paid $1.2 mil for his big tract home, watches his neighbors blow out of there with $600K priced short sales - the question is... why be left behind while the lender that financed your home and apparently made a mistake appraising it, gets your monthly ransom. To make matters worst, word on the street is FNMAE, etc are working on products and ways to "forgive" those short sellers and foreclosees sooner so that they can be new customers/borrowers sooner..... lenders digging their own graves.