vreporter

Government Thinking Hard About 4.5% Mortgage Plan. Good!

Who benefits from lower mortgages for new home purchases?
Why do we want to bail out the homebuilders? (By the way, they're not lowering prices to "market" because of this anticipated charity. There's nothing wrong with values of new construction falling!

Barron's: Laing's Mortgage Relief Plan Could Actually Work

The downward pressure on prices is not adequately addressed by any of these schemes. Prices need to come down ON THE BOOKS OF THE BUILDERS! They are holding out for the handout. Time to index the viability of the assessed value with marketable rents.

Only then, are prices in line. Lower rates only delay the inevitable - and that's HOW WE GOT HERE!

No thanks!

Housing Solution: Crashing Home Prices or Cheaper Mortgages?

AFFORDABILITY is misinterpreted and quoted out of context.
Affordability is an "immediate" status calculation with little regard for what may happen with the level PAST purchase date.
This assumption is based on funding (mortgage) rates being fixed after closing - acceptable.
This assumption then implies that the stable funding protects the valuation of the property in question - absolutely unacceptable.

Looking at it another way, AFFORDABILITY is what got us into the problem.

While current and future mortgage application requirements have/will increase, there is little protection for prices until prices adjust with inventory.

That balance is still grossly tipped in favor of falling prices.

Housing Bubble and Real Estate Market Tracker

newenglin you have no clue!

PIMCO has been warning about this situation for over a year and has been criticizing the agencies that should be doing the same! They are just coming out of the woodwork now and Gross is merely ensuring transparency about their ethical obligations.